If you’re anything like me, you hate the heat. Because of that, I’ve considered and rejected the possibility of living with warmer temperatures inside the house during the summer months. I need the house to be 10, 20, sometimes even 30+ degrees colder than the outside world if I want to be remain productive. By showing a little love for my air conditioning unit, I’ve gone a long way towards decreasing my energy bill. Here’s how you can do the same. [Also See Do You Really Need the A/C?]
Air Conditioner
photo credit: Jamiecat *
Maintain Your Air Conditioner
Most folks need a professional technician to maintain their air conditioning unit. Whether you hire assistance or do it yourself, there are a few different ways that good maintenance will help you save energy with your air conditioner:
- Keep the drain clear. You can check this yourself: inspect the outside component of your air conditioning system to make sure that fluid can drain out of it easily. Clogged drains pose a particular risk on humid days, when the unit will have to deal with lots of moisture.
- Keep the filters clean. Air passing through an air conditioner contains small amounts of dirt, which build up on a filter. If there’s too much dirt on the filter, some can get through and obstruct the central machinery. The filter should be replaced every 4-8 weeks during periods of heavy use.
- Make sure the system has good internal insulation. You already know that insulating your house is crucial to keeping the cold air inside. But it’s just as important to make sure that the air conditioner itself is well-insulated so that heat can be exchanged properly. If your air conditioner is taking longer to adjust to hotter temperatures, this may be a sign that the unit’s insulation is leaking somewhere.
Even if it seems like nothing is wrong, it’s a good idea to have a professional look at your air conditioner every year or so. A little bit of upkeep can go a long way towards trimming your energy costs and fending off disaster!
Upgrade Your System
There are lots of practical household tips available for cutting down on your monthly a/c air conditioner bill. One major and effective way to reduce those costs is to look at your system as a whole. If your air conditioner is more than twelve years old, you stand to reduce your energy consumption (and cost!) by 30% by upgrading to a new unit. Newer air conditioners are more efficient than older models. You can check the efficiency of a unit by looking for its seasonal energy efficiency rating (SEER). This figure reflects the amount of cooling the air conditioner can perform per unit of energy; a higher SEER means a more efficient unit. If you live in a hot climate and need cold air, you might save hundreds of dollars a year with a newer system.
It doesn’t take long to get familiar with the terminology associated with energy efficiency in the air conditioning world, and your greater awareness will be rewarded financially! Remember: knowledge is power. (Or perhaps in this case, knowledge is power-saving.)
Another bonus of buying an efficient new air conditioner is that the government will reduce the amount that you are required to pay in taxes. The Department of Energy issues an Energy Star rating to efficient central air conditioners with SEER ratings of greater than 16. If you buy one of these units, you can claim a credit that reduces your tax burden by $300. (However, you can’t get money back from the government if you currently pay no taxes.)
When you’re shopping for a new unit, keep your eye out for a variable speed feature: this allows the air conditioner to change its energy use so it doesn’t have to run at full speed on mild days. You’ll also want to carefully inspect the warranty for each system—a good warranty will pay for the maintenance you need.
Putting a little energy into your technology now will improve your everyday efficiency without demanding unnecessary worry from you. In our house, it means the bill we receive each month for operating our well-tuned air conditioning system prevents me from heating up just from looking at it.
George Rollins is a writer for FurnaceCompare.com, a website that helps people find the most appropriate boiler, central air conditioner, heat pump or furnace. The site allows you to compare costs, efficiency ratings and consumer reviews.
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Great advice. I don’t like government handouts, but as long as they’re offered, we might as well grab them.
Ever been to Texas.?..we got 3 seasons on the gulf coast; Summer, July & August
I live near Vancouver BC. My only concern up here is to keep the house warm as we run our furnaces 10 months a year. In one way I’m glad that we’ve never owned, never needed nor ever will need air conditioning up here. But, try buying a car without ac…..
Thirty degrees cooler than outside temperature is just silly-Man up.
If you really want to feel cool but not have to lower the thermostat so far, using a lot ceiling fans is a very effective way of achieving both goals.
These are great tips on maintenance for your air conditioner and how to decrease your energy bill. Nowadays, we all need to cut every corner possible to save and stick as closely to our personal budgets as possible.
We keep our air conditioner at 81 when noone’s home. Sometimes 84 if we are going to gone for an extended amount of time. We live in Central Florida and if the a/c was set to 30 degrees cooler than outside…we’d have to take out a home equity loan for our electric bill. It already gets up to $300 in the summer set on 77 at night.
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