Spring is here and with the warm weather back you are going to want to make sure your air-conditioner is operating at maximum efficiency and not unnecessarily adding onto your energy bill.
Ideally, we all want to keep our homes cool and comfortable, but without wasting energy and spending a small fortune on cooling costs.
To help out we have put together a few tips for making it through the hot weather for less money.
- Block the heat before it enters through windows. Use lined curtains and shades to lower your home’s temperature dramatically so your air-con unit does not have to work as hard. Even if you don’t have light-blocking shades, blinds, or curtains, keeping unlined curtains drawn during the daytime will help.
- Be sure to close off any areas of your home that you don’t use often, so your air-con unit has a smaller space to cool.
- It’s something that is often overlooked, but refrigerators and other appliances put out lots of heat. If possible, you want your air-con unit located away from any heat-generating appliances. This will keep temperature readings accurate and keep your air conditioner from working harder than necessary.
- Does your air conditioner have a timer? If it does make sure so to turn off when you’ll be away from home. If you can sleep comfortably without running it at night, set the timer to power off when you go to sleep.
- Resist the temptation to adjust the unit’s temperature to its lowest setting. You might think this will cool your home faster but selecting a temperature of 24 to 27°C will cool you down just as quickly as setting it to 17°.
Proper Maintenance
One of the most important things you can do for economical air conditioning is to properly maintain your unit. This will not only extend its life, which saves you money, but also reduce energy waste and expense.
Although you need a professional for major maintenance and repair jobs, anyone can wash and change a filter. It’s simple, easy, and makes an immediate improvement in air output and overall efficiency. You can also remove dust and dirt from the unit’s external air intake vents.
Check out this video that demonstrates how to clean your air-con’s filter.
Heating and cooling bills can make up over half of your total utility expenses.
That makes using air conditioning part of the largest energy expense for a household.
With really warm weather just around the corner, now is the time to get the most from your system while controlling your expenses.
