Your air conditioning unit has to work pretty hard during the summer. It’s also where a good portion, if not most, of your electric bill is going to come from. To keep your air conditioning running at peak performance, efficiency, and trouble-free, follow these tips to stay cool and save money.
Tips For Your Home Air Conditioner to Use This Summer
1.) Have Your Air Conditioner Serviced
Without servicing, your air conditioner will lose about 5% of it’s efficiency every year. Your 12 SEER unit could be functioning at the efficiency of a 9 SEER unit in just a few years. That’s a huge difference! Regular maintenance is the backbone of any strategy for keeping your equipment running for a long time and at the lowest costs possible. Things like coil cleanings, refrigerant checks, voltage and amp draw measuring, and fan checks will have your air conditioner keeping not only the temps low but your bills, too.
2.) Check and Replace Filters
A dirty, clogged, filter can have pretty severe effects on your air conditioning unit. If the flow is blocked enough it can cause your evaporator coil to ice over, which is no good. That starts a downward spiral of all sorts of bad effects like decreased cooling, shut off, and possibly malfunctioning. So replace your filters on schedule.
3.) Set your Thermostat
During the summer you’re going to want to set your thermostat with regards to the season. That means trying to keep it at 78* or above. Remember, for every degree below 78* that you set the thermostat you’re losing about 8% efficiency. So if your cooling bill is $200, that’s $16 a month for every degree. You’ll also want to make sure that your thermostat is out of direct light and any sources of heat such as lights, are kept away from it.
Also, set up your thermostat on a schedule if you have a programmable one. That way when you leave for work, you don’t have to worry about raising the dial. You’ll save a lot of energy by raising the temperature while no one is home and lowering it an hour or so before you get home. Your AC unit is more efficient when it’s running at ‘full blast’ for that hour before you get home than it does by running for short intervals throughout the day.
4.) Shade
If you have a split system, where the condenser coil is on the ground outside, try and keep that in the shade as much as possible. Consider planting some trees or shrubs nearby to keep the sunlight off it. The condenser coil is where all the heat generated has to be dissipated, so keeping that cool makes it have to work much less hard, saving you money.
By following just a few simple steps you can keep your summertime bills low and your home comfortable. Be sure to follow the Hader Heating and Air Conditioning blog for more money-saving and maintenance tips and give us a call for service if you haven’t already!
