The Truth about Your AC can Help You Save $

You’d be surprised to find out how many air conditioning myths are floating around. Misinformation about home cooling can cost homeowners in energy, money efficiency and comfort (the same goes for heating myths).

Read on for the straight dope about home cooling.

Separate the facts from fiction

Myth: Ceiling fans lower the temperature in interior spaces.

Fact: A ceiling fan can be operating at full-go all day but it’s not going to change the temperature in a room by even one degree. Instead, ceiling fans create a cooling effect (aka wind-chill effect) that makes the air seem cooler for anybody who’s in the path of the moving air.

This allows you to raise the temperature setting on the thermostat by three or four degrees without sacrificing comfort. You’ll save on energy when the AC isn’t working so hard (or during mild weather, isn’t running at all).

Another myth involving ceiling fans is that they serve a useful purpose when left on in an empty room. Unless the fan is moving air from one area or room to another, creating circulation, the only thing it’s accomplishing by being left on is wasting energy.

A fan’s cooling effects are instantaneous, rather than cumulative. Treat ceiling fans like lights; turn them off when you’re the last one leaving the room.

Myth: For better cooling, get a bigger air conditioner.

Fact: Over-sizing an AC system can be just as bad as under-sizing it. For the most efficient and effective home cooling, an air conditioner should be sized to match the cooling load of your home. One that’s too big will

• short-cycle (run in frequent bursts), which wastes energy (the most energy is expended when the blower kicks on),
• deliver uneven cooling and
• stresses the equipment.

Meanwhile, an undersized air conditioner will struggle to adequately cool your home.

A competent and qualified HVAC company in Cincinnati (or wherever you happen to live) will conduct a cooling-load calculation before they recommend a new AC for your home.

Myth: You can obtain quicker cooling in a hot house by setting the thermostat much lower than you really need.

Fact: Your AC isn’t going to arrive at the desired temperature any quicker this way, and setting an unnaturally low thermostat temperature could damage your equipment, especially if you forget you set it that low.

This is particularly hazardous during excessively warm weather. Most AC systems aren’t designed to bridge the difference between 95 and 62 degrees for an extended period, and you’ll end up with a broken AC system if you allow that to happen.

Setting straight more AC myths

Myth: Your air conditioner’s only function is home cooling.

Fact: In addition to cooling, a properly operating air conditioner should remove moisture from interior air, making the home feel more comfortable. If the AC isn’t reducing humidity, you should get it checked by a reputable HVAC contractor.

Myth: Leaving the AC running all day in an empty house will save more energy than turning it off in the morning and then turning it back on when you get home.

Fact: Unless you have a reason for maintaining a moderately cool home when you’re away all day (such as pets), turn off the AC on mildly warm days – or on hotter days, leave it on, but with the temperature setting turned up several degrees – before you leave and then adjust the setting when you get home.

A programmable thermostat will allow you to set temperature changes ahead of time, so the house is comfortably cool when you’re expected to return.