Air conditioning tips on how to save money this summer

Programmable thermostats turn your AC on and off for you.

Running the air conditioning can make an electric bill skyrocket, but the alternative isn’t pretty, either. Fortunately, there are a few ways that you can help your air conditioner run better and save you money this summer.

Quit trying to cool off the entire neighborhood: Air conditioning troubleshooting

If your home isn’t brand new, the cold air inside could be seeping out into the neighborhood through worn door and window seals, a poorly insulated attic and other little cracks.

To see how well your home is sealing in the cold, sign up for a home energy audit with your utility provider or Airman Heating & Cooling.

A certified home energy rater or auditor will check your home for leaks and recommend the best way to make your home more energy efficient.

You can do your own simple audit by standing outside your home and running your hand along windows and doors. Can you feel the cold air escaping?

If you do, caulk around leaky windows and add insulation around doors.

Make an upgrade without too much money:

If you haven’t upgraded to a smart thermostat, it might be a good time to make a change. Smart thermostats can regulate heating and cooling when you’re not home to save money.

Plus, with many of today’s smart stats, you can adjust the settings remotely using an app on your phone. Some even work with Amazon Alexa, Samsung SmartThings, Apple HomeKit,
Google Home and other smart home platforms. Here are some the best smart thermostats of 2017 to help you make the best decision for your home.

Make sure your thermostat is on the right wall:

Thermostat placement will play a big part in how well your air conditioner works. Air conditioning problems…

If you put it on a wall right next to a hot window, for instance, your air conditioner will run much more often than it needs to, because it senses that the room is hotter than it actually is.

Here’s how to choose the best wall for your thermostat to be mounted on.

Close the blinds…

A window letting in the hot sun won’t just heat up your thermostat, it’ll heat you up too. During the warmest part of the day, close your window blinds and keep out the sun.

It can also help a lot to insulate your windows, which stops the cold air from escaping.

Use a fan… A fan can help save on cooling costs.

Sometimes you don’t need to jack up the thermostat to feel cooler. According to the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC), using a ceiling fan can make a room feel 10 degrees cooler and uses 10 percent of the energy of a central air conditioner. (Your air conditioning compressor uses several times the power to operate as does a ceiling fan.)

If you want to get high-tech, you can install smart ceiling fans that connect to an app. You can schedule the times when these fans turn on and off, and you can control their speed without climbing a ladder to control them.

Raise the temperature… Some people don’t appreciate me saying to raise the thermostat temperature of your central air conditioning, but it will obviously save you money when it’s not running.

Many people think that leaving the air conditioner at the same temperature all day when you leave the house saves money, because the AC won’t need to work as hard to re-cool the home.

This isn’t the true. NRDC senior energy policy advocate Lauren Urbanek says, “that the most inexpensive way to use your air conditioner is to turn the thermostat up when you leave the house.”

Air conditioning systems operate most efficiently at full speed during longer periods of time. So setting it on a lower temperature when you get home will save you more money than the AC cycling on and off while you’re away.

A programmable thermostat is the easiest way to keep your AC system at just the right temperature. You can program the system to work at higher temperatures while you’re at work and cool down right before you get home.

Setting low is NOT the way to save money either….

Always set your thermostat to the highest temperature you can stand, to save the most money. Even a small change in the temperature upwards can save you big money.

You can save 10 percent a year on your cooling bills by setting your thermostat just 10 to 15 degrees higher for eight hours each day, according to the Nebraska Energy Office.

The US Department of Energy recommends aiming for an indoor temperature of 78 degrees F when you’re at home.

Many people are use to the lower temperatures when they work in an office building, since they usually keep the temperature lower for better productivity, but when you go home, you don’t need to set your temperature as low. That is, if you want to save money.

And these are the best air conditioning tips on how to save money this summer I can provide.

Hope you have control of your heating and air conditioning and save lots of money this cooling season.