While many homeowners throughout the country are breathing a sigh of relief as temperatures cool and they use their cooling systems less and less, we aren’t so fortunate. Not only do we have the heat to contend with, but the humidity as well, and it’s not going away any time soon.
We don’t say this to be depressing, but rather to highlight the fact that you are still going to be using your air conditioner for some time, and we want to help you use it as efficiently as possible. After all, if you can save money on your energy costs, wouldn’t you?
Well we have some good news—there is an easy way to do so, and it has to do with your thermostat! Read on to learn more about this, and a few other ways you can improve air conditioner efficiency to save energy and money.
Watch Your Thermostat Temperature
The thermostat is essentially the brain of your air conditioner. You tell it what temperature you want your home, and it tells your air conditioner to do the work to get there. The problem arises when you set the thermostat too low. Not a lot of people know this, but an air conditioner actually struggles to cool any more than 20°F of the temperature outside.
So, this means that if it’s 95° outside, and you set the thermostat to 70°, it may not ever be able to actually achieve that temperature, and therefore the compressor will continue to run in order to try to reach your desired settings.
This wastes unnecessary energy, as does setting your thermostat this low when you aren’t home, or are sleeping and not actually moving around your home.
Other Energy Saving Tips
Using your thermostat the right way is certainly important, but not the only way to save energy in your home when it comes to your HVAC system. Here are a few more tips to help you out:
- Use Your Ceiling Fans: You may have at some point heard someone say that ceiling fans cannot lower the temperature of a room. This is true, they cannot independently lower the actual temperature of the room they are in. But they do distribute air more evenly. Therefore, when you use them in combination with your air conditioner, you will feel cooler, and then will be able to set the thermostat up a few degrees, saving energy (see above point!)
- Change or Clean Your Air Filter as Needed: Many homeowners think that the air filter is there to protect the indoor air quality of their home. This is not the case—this component is actually in place to protect the inside components of your air conditioner from dust, dirt, and other debris that can do it harm. Your air filter should actually be changed every 1-3 months during periods of use. Please see your system’s owner manual to get more specific recommendations.
- Keep Your System Clean: The outdoor coil of your air conditioning system is one area where excessive dirt and buildup can create a number of issues for the system’s operation. This coil is meant to enable the exchange of heat from the inside air to the outdoors, but dirt and debris can interfere.