Improve Home Energy Efficiency This Summer With These Simple Tips

With the cooling season upon us in southeast Ohio, there’s no better time than now to consider how you can improve energy efficiency in your home while reducing energy bills. A variety of energy-saving tactics are available to homeowners, and most of them are quite simple.

The great thing about improving residential energy efficiency is that it helps save energy and money year round, not just in the summer or winter.

Ways to Reduce Energy Use in Your Home

• A spring tune-up of your central air conditioning system. Before the cooling season kicks into high gear, schedule a preventative maintenance visit from your trusted local HVAC contractor. This visit will include checks on all essential systems and components, cleaning, calibration, lubrication and other system maintenance. A well-maintained central AC will not only save energy; it will improve household comfort. Checking the AC’s refrigerant level will be on the list as well. If you don’t get around to scheduling professional maintenance in the spring, make sure you have it done as soon as possible. And finally, take care to choose your HVAC service from among the best AC companies in Cincinnati.

• Install a programmable thermostat. Using a thermostat that can be programmed to change temperature settings to fit your family’s schedule and lifestyle will save ample energy. A common warm-weather program for programmable thermostats reduces the temperature at night when the household is asleep, then raises it before everyone wakes up in the morning. (Many people prefer cooler sleeping temperatures.) Another common warm-weather tactic is programming the thermostat with a higher temperature during the day when family members are at work or school, then returning to a comfortable level around when everyone is expected to arrive home. There’s no reason to cool a house to a comfortable level when there’s nobody at home to enjoy it.

• Fix defective ductwork. Most homeowners have no idea how much energy is lost through leaky or poorly designed ducts. If conditioned air is lost before it arrives at its intended destination in your home, the AC will have to work all the harder to make up for it. This is especially a problem if the air is leaking into unconditioned areas such as crawlspaces, attics or wall voids. For visible leaks in ductwork, you can apply the fix yourself, with mastic sealant and/or metal-backed tape (NOT duct tape). For a comprehensive duct inspection with associated repairs, contact a trusted HVAC contractor.

• Use ceiling fans to add a cooling effect to occupied rooms in your home. The moving air makes the room feel cooler, even if it’s not affecting the temperature. This will allow you to raise the temperature a few degrees on the thermostat without any loss of comfort. Just don’t forget to turn off ceiling fans in empty rooms. If nobody can feel the cooling effect, then it doesn’t exist.

• Look for gaps and cracks in the exterior envelope of your home, where warm air from outside may be infiltrating into the house. Once you find them, seal the leaks with caulking, spray foam or weather-stripping (doors and windows). A tight house is much easier to cool (and heat) than one with lots of places where air can leak or enter. Common spots for air leaks include windows and doors, places where utility lines or pipes penetrate the home, and areas where different building materials meet (such as foundation and drywall). The added benefit of sealing air leaks is that this also blocks the intrusion of insects and other unwanted critters.

• On sunny days, close curtains, shades and other wall coverings to block the sunlight so solar heat can’t raise the temperature in rooms.

• When the outside weather allows it (not too cold, not too humid), open windows at night. This allows free “air conditioning” from the outside and airs out the house. Leave the windows open until morning when outside temps become higher than inside, then close the windows. This strategy may allow you to delay turning on the AC till an hour or two later than otherwise.