Our team is often asked if there is anything that a homeowner can do to help relieve the pressure of utility bills in their home. We believe homeowners must consider this when it comes to their AC system in the house, as it is one of the most costly appliances that you will have in your home. While we would love to be the team to increase the efficiency of your system, we love to see people take charge and do it themselves as well. Below we will list and explain some relatively simple ways to make your system run more efficiently and save your bank account from getting hit!
Manage Sunlight
1. Close your blinds or get blackout curtains. Everybody enjoys natural light in their home, but not everybody has triple-pane argon gas windows. Averages show that you could have heat transference of 25%-35% coming through your windows, which not only means heat coming in, but also heat going out when you want to keep it! Click Here to read about heat transference through windows.
Outdoor Unit Care
2. Trim the hedges around your outside unit, and make sure no high grass reaches the unit. Every manufacturer of air conditioning systems will tell you that you need to keep the immediate space around your outside unit clear. Why? The reason is that when the refrigerant is being compressed and pushed through the outside coil, you need to have air moving through the fins and tubing in order to assist in the change-of-state happening in the coil, but also to cool off the compressor. Click HERE to read an in-depth article discussing this process.
Duct and Plenum Sealing
3. Have your duct and plenums Sealed. Air penetration is not only a significant waste of energy, averaging around 20% nationally, but it also can be a cause of agitated asthma and allergies! Click HERE to read about the impact of leaking ductwork on your home’s air quality and energy bills.
Thermostat Placement
4. Check the placement of your thermostat. Think of the thermostat as your AC unit’s boss. It tells the unit what to do and when to do it. However, it receives information from your home to find out what needs to be done. If it is receiving bad information, then it will tell your AC unit to take the wrong course of action. Ensure that the thermostat is not installed on an exterior wall, or getting directly hit with air coming OUT of the AC system. The optimal location for a thermostat is an interior wall with high traffic and in a spot where it will not be directly hit with conditioned air.
Ventilation Units Usage
5. Use the ventilation units in your restroom and laundry rooms. Lastly, we have the often misunderstood portions of the house. Most people think that the ventilation fan in the restroom is there to vent out the bad air when you use the restroom. This is nice, of course, but it is also there to actually get rid of the heat and humidity you produce from showers!
