With Americans spending $22 billion dollars a year on cooling their homes, it’s one of the biggest expenses homeowners pay for beyond their actual dwelling costs. With climate change giving us a desperate need for greater efficiency, thankfully there are better home cooling options offered every year. You can not only save money but help save the planet with a more efficient system.
With temperatures rising across the planet, we’ll need to have more efficient systems if only because energy will be more scarce. With cities like Los Angeles experimenting with painting their pavement white, urban engineers are trying out all kinds of strategies to save the planet. The least we can do is to lower our own home’s impact.
If you want to upgrade your HVAC system to be more efficient, try these 3 home cooling options for new ways to stay cool and save money.
1. A Programmable Thermostat
If you’re still using an old thermostat knob, you could be wasting money on energy costs every year. A digital programmable thermostat can turn off your system when you don’t need it.
It can also help by lowering your need during the day, raising it when you’re home after work, and lowering the need again while you’re asleep.
New programmable systems are now becoming networked so that they can be paired with your phone. With a few taps on an app, you can monitor your system, turn it off, or schedule it to turn on as you head back from the office.
2. Try Lowering Your Load
One of the best ways to increase your efficiency is to lower your need entirely.
If you’ve got a black roof, you could try adding a light or white sealant to reflect sunlight during warmer months. You could also check your windows for drafts. Air that’s coming in or out will work against your efforts to keep your home cool during the summer.
A good set of curtains is also useful in maintaining a cooler home. A dense set of curtains can keep hot sunlight out while you try to stay cool on those hottest days of summer.
Solar panels are another great option for balancing your usage.
3. Do More Maintenance
Simply by having a maintenance person come by once a year, you can keep your system running smoothly. A poorly oiled fan system, or one that’s weighed down by dirt and dust, will work harder than a clean set of fans. If your filters are thick with dust, you’ll have a harder time forcing air through your ducts.
These Home Cooling Options Will Save Money
Listen to your system when it kicks on or when the fans are running. If you hear sounds of a system struggling, it could be working twice as hard to give you half of the output. You’ll be running your system constantly just to maintain a livable balance.
If you’re interested in more ways that you can improve your HVAC system, contact us for tips.