Cooling Your Home Doesn’t Have to Break the Bank

Spring is an ideal time to discuss ways to save energy (and money and the environment) during the long cooling season in southwest Ohio.

It’s important to realize that saving energy has other benefits beside paying lower monthly utility bills:

• If you’re renting your residence where the landlord pays for utilities, he/she might delay a rent increase if they see you’re using less energy and utility bills are declining. They might decide to invest those savings into improving your rental house or apartment. (And again, they might not.)

• The environment benefits when less energy and air conditioning are being used. Emissions from the refrigerant used in air-conditioning systems add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, which increases pressures on climate change. Plus the electrical power needed to run ACs has an adverse environmental effect if it’s coming from coal-fired power plants.

Homeowners (or renters) can do themselves and the environment a favor by taking several steps once the air conditioner kicks on every spring.

Set the Thermostat for Savings

• Learn how to use the fancy programmable thermostat your Cincinnati HVAC contractor installed for you. If your home doesn’t have a programmable thermostat, consider having one installed. With this device, you can program energy-saving temperature setbacks that match your daily schedule. In the summer, programmed setbacks should raise the desired setting to several degrees above the usual comfort setting during times when the house is vacant. This might be all day while you’re at work or school, or perhaps on a weekend when you take a road trip. You can program the thermostat to return to the comfort setting shortly before you plan to arrive home. This will avoid walking into a hot house. On mild days, the thermostat may never switch on the cooling when it’s set this way. But avoid programming setbacks if you’re planning to be gone for less than half a day. The simple function of turning off and kicking on again uses more energy than just running at a steady pace, unless it’s for several hours.

• If you don’t have a programmable thermostat, get in the habit of manually adjusting it to save energy. Before leaving for work, adjust the setting several degrees higher, and then return it to your comfort level upon arriving home. There’s no reason in the world why an empty house needs to be fully cooled (or heated). Don’t be taken in by the common HVAC myth that changing the temperature setting will consume more energy than just leaving a constant temperature all the time. As mentioned in the previous bullet point, this only true if you’re changing the setting for less than several hours. Also, if you’re using a heat pump to heat and cool your home, certain guidelines should be followed when programming temperature changes.

• Try adjusting your comfort temperature a few degrees higher than it’s currently set. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you acclimate to the higher temperature. Nobody needs a house at a frigid 68 degrees when it’s 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Plus, setting an unrealistically low temperature when it’s extremely hot outside will strain and may eventually leave you with a broken AC unit.

Go Natural for Warm-Weather Energy Savings

Take advantage of natural ventilation. On relatively mild and dry days in the spring, summer and fall, open the windows and doors (with screens), to let natural breezes and ventilation cool the interior of your home. You can save an abundant amount of energy by opening windows on cool nights, letting the house cool down on its own. Then, in the morning, as soon as the temperature outside rises above the temperature inside your house, close all the windows and doors. The residual cool air from the night before should delay the point at which the energy-gobbling AC kicks on. To a certain extent you can do this with a programmable thermostat, though watch it closely.

When it’s excessively humid outside, however, it’s usually better to keep the house closed up, since moist air feels warmer than dry air, can feel clammy and uncomfortable, and may not be good for household furnishings, fixtures and belongings.

Block Those Solar Rays

You can save significant energy by properly managing your home or apartment’s window coverings during the cooling season. In rooms that are exposed to the sun, make sure you close drapes, curtains, shades, shutters and other window coverings during the times when the sun is shining on that room. The solar heating effect can add several degrees to the temperature in an un-shaded room.

Another unintended consequence: If the home’s thermostat is located in that room, the solar heat will kick on the AC more often than otherwise. While this might be fine for the room in which the sun is shining, it will make the rest of the house chilly. (In the winter, reverse this tip and help your heating system by opening curtains and shades during sunny times of the day on the sunny side of the house.)

Circle Round for Spring and Summer Savings

If your home has ceiling fans, use them during the cooling season to complement your air conditioning. While a ceiling fan set in its default blade rotation (counter-clockwise) won’t actually lower the temperature in a room, it will make the room seem cooler, which is almost just as good. This phenomenon is similar to the wind-chill effect that occurs during cold weather. The breeze makes the air feel cooler.

How does this save money and energy? When a room feels cooler due to an operating ceiling fan, you can turn up the thermostat by four or five degrees without sacrificing comfort (provided it doesn’t make other rooms affected by the thermostat feel uncomfortable to occupants). The room or rooms with fans will still feel like they did before you turned on the fans and hiked the thermostat setting. This means the AC will operate less, saving energy and placing less stress on the equipment.

One thing to remember about ceiling fans, however – their cooling effect is only beneficial if someone’s actually in the room to feel it. Unless it’s somehow circulating air to other rooms, a ceiling fan operating in an empty room is doing just one thing: Wasting energy for no good reason. In most cases, treat ceiling fans like lights; turn them off in unused rooms.

You can also use ceiling fans during the winter to recirculate air that rises to the top of rooms. Just switch the blade rotation from counter-clockwise to clockwise, so the fan is blowing air upwards. This will push that warm air toward the walls and down into the room where occupants can feel it. Just don’t forget to readjust the blade rotation before the cooling season returns. The switch is typically located on the fan housing.

Don’t Forget Seasonal Maintenance

As we mentioned before, everyone has an interest in saving money and energy as well as protecting the environment. When it comes to heating and cooling, the best way to do this is to practice responsible conservation and operate a well-maintained cooling and heating system. Schedule annual preventative maintenance for each system (both cooling and heating) with a trusted Cincinnati HVAC company, and don’t forget to check the HVAC air filter once a month, changing it when it becomes dirty. One move you can make to ensure regular professional maintenance is to join a maintenance club. In addition to saving energy and enduring smooth operation, club membership will ensure that the manufacturer’s maintenance requirements are satisfied. This way your comfort system will remain in warranty.