It’s hot. Parts of your body are sticking to other parts of your body, and it’s horrible. Lucky for you, you’ve got air conditioning. Unlucky for you, A/C is a real punisher on the power bill.
Here are a few tips for maximizing your cool without crippling your bank account.
Be Cool (not Cold) Man
1.) You’ve been sweating your face off outside, and nothing feels better than coming in to a nice, cold room. Your impulse will be to set your A/C to 66 degrees and let it get nice and nippy. Don’t. Keep it set to 78 degrees. You don’t need to be cold, you just need to be comfortable. For every degree below 78, you are increasing your energy usage by approximately 8%. No bueno. You don’t need to be indoors in a sweatshirt. If you have a window unit with Low, Med, and Hi as your only options, keep it as low as you can handle.
A Mighty Wind
2.) Ceiling fans use waaaay less power than an A/C unit, consuming about the same amount of energy as a 100w light bulb, which isn’t too bad, comparatively. Make sure the fan is going in the correct direction so that it is pushing air downward toward you (the higher edge of the fan-blade should be the leading edge in its rotation). Ceiling fans don’t actually make the room cooler, but they make you feel cooler when they’re blowing on you (think wind-chill). As with an A/C unit, if you’re not in that room, turn your fan off.
Clean Up your Act…errr filter and coil
3.)Your A/C unit has a filter. Replace it or if you want, clean it! Pull it out, stick it in the shower, and give it a good once-over with a sponge. Let it dry then put it back in—and be thankful you aren’t breathing that gunk anymore. This will increase the unit’s output and lower the temp. The other half of this is keeping the coil clean. Just use a garden hose to blast some water into the unit through the grates at the top and the sides.
Life’s a Beach! Especially without an umbrella
4.)This one’s a twofer. Keeping your air conditioning unit in the shade can make it up to 10% more efficient. That’s pretty major. If you have means to build a shade for it (that’s not too close so there’s no vent 
blockage), by all means, do it. A simple beach umbrella would do the trick.
The other half of this is shading your nest. When it’s hot and sunny lower your blinds, yes, obviously, but if you really want to see a difference get yourself some honeycomb blinds (also called cellular shades). They are fantastic insulators. They will help keep the cooled air in during the summer and they’re great for the winter when you want to keep the cold air out (and they can darken a room for a more cinematic movie viewing experience). They will reduce your bill and start paying for themselves very quickly.
There are many other things you can do to stretch your A/C, but these are the quickest, easiest, and cheapest. If you have more tips, leave ‘em in the comments.
For more information on how you can save on your bill contact a Stanberry Green Team member today. 512.327.9310
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is make it clean and fresh!
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