Florida’s summers are known for being warm, humid, and requiring you to run your air conditioner what seems like endlessly. That means you’re likely going to consume a ton of energy, and that means a lot of money out of your pocket when your utility bill arrives each month. However, keeping your home cool doesn’t have to cost a fortune—there are several things you can do that actually help improve the efficiency of your air conditioner, thus helping you save energy and save money.
Here are just a few of the most common ways you can improve your energy consumption and start spending less on air conditioning your home.
Stop the Air Leaks
Air leaks are one of, if not the single biggest cause of wasted money on heating and cooling every year. Do you know how sealed your home is? Odds are, there are probably air leaks in several spots that you aren’t even aware of. The first place you should check is the weather stripping around your doors and windows: after a few years, it may have grown old and rigid, and that means it’s probably cracked, creating air gaps that can lead to valuable heat loss. If it always seems drafty around your windows and doors, odds are you probably have an air leak.
You should also check around your attic, around the foundation of your home, and where anything protrudes from the walls or ceiling. These are typically spots where insufficient seals can cause air leaks, resulting in valuable cooled air being lost to the great outdoors, where it is replaced by hot, sticky air that you’re trying to keep out.
Invest in a Smart Thermostat
Smart thermostat technology is one of the most cost-effective improvements you can make to your home’s air conditioning. Smart thermostats have the ability to turn themselves on and off to keep your home comfortable, as well as make decisions regarding when to do so that can help keep your energy costs down. Most smart thermostats keep careful track of how long your system runs, how much energy it uses, and even your own personal climate habits in order to make these decisions using precisely-tuned algorithms and cutting-edge programming.
Smart thermostats are available for as low as $300 or less, and the amount they could save you on your utility bills mean they would pay for themselves in just a few months or less.
Invest In Your Attic
Most people don’t even think twice about their attic because to them it’s nothing more than a space to store their junk that they hardly ever use or need. However, while your attic may not be the most important spot in your home, it’s one of the most influential when it comes to your home’s ability to remain cool and comfortable. First, air gaps between your attic and the home below can lead to unwanted heat transfer and difficulty keeping your home cool. Investing in high-quality insulation, such as a good spray-foam, can do wonders for keeping your energy bills down.
Second, the ventilation in your attic is also vital for keeping the rest of your home cool, and that means you’ll need to make sure you can get a good flow of air through it. An air conditioning expert will be able to help you gauge the airflow and develop a solution if you need to improve it.
Get an Energy-Efficient System
If you have an air conditioner that’s more than 10 years old, is showing signs of aging, or simply has a SEER rating of 10 or less, then you could be wasting a substantial amount of money on an inefficient, older air conditioner system. Investing in a new, high-quality, energy-efficient system can dramatically lower your energy consumption, thus putting more money back in your pocket. Not to mention these new systems typically come with features that increase their energy efficiency even further, thus helping you save even more!
For more information on an air conditioner repair or replacement service, call Del-Air Heating and Air Conditioning today at 888-831-2665!
