Air Conditioning Economy

When you think about air conditioning economy, it's not really a concept that jumps out at you, since something that is so well known for having a high energy usage can hardly be considered economical!

However, there are some ways to reduce the energy usage and thereby reduce the costs to you, the consumer. Some of the methods will seem very obvious and make a lot of good, common sense, while others may not seem such a big deal, but when combined can add up to a worthwhile saving.

The idea behind this site is to bring you those methods and help you to reduce the monetary drain on your household (or business) budget by helping you save a little energy here, a little there and watch it make a difference to your utility bill when it arrives!

Save Money on Air Conditioning Costs

There are several good reasons to ensure your AC is running at peak efficiency all the time.

Arguably the most important of them is that an efficient AC system costs less to run than an inefficient one!

When it comes to saving money over the long haul, it pays to have your own air conditioner serviced regularly by a qualified professional HVAC engineer.

That's the surest way to have the peace of mind that it will keep running properly and use the least amount of energy to get the job (of keeping you cool) done.

The other major reason is of course to use energy wisely and not waste it, because there is still a massive impact on the environment to produce energy and the less we can use of it the better for all.

The Thermostat Police

One way you can lower your household (or business) air conditioning energy usage is to make sure you set the thermostat to a sensible temperature. Too many people labor under the misconception that just because it may be searingly hot outside, the AC must be set to refrigerate the house inside!

This is of course flawed logic, because when you set he thermostat too low, you end up with a freezing cold house which is not comfortable at all and often means you need to wrap yourself up in a sweater to keep from feeling too cold! This is crazy, because you wouldn't have the house so cold in winter, would you?

Not only is making the house too cold crazily uncomfortable, it also uses way too much energy to achieve that level of coldness. That's wasteful and can work out very costly, as you'll discover when your next electricity bill arrives!

Someone in the household needs to police the thermostat and make sure it's always set to a comfortable level. For most people, that would be in the region of between 72-75°F and at that level, not only will it feel comfortable indoors, you'll be saving a huge amount of money by not wasting a huge amount of energy unnecessarily!

Shading and Painting

There is another way of helping to reduce the load on the air conditioning system and that is by preventing the building from heating up too much in the first place. This can be done by creating shade to keep the sun off the walls where possible and perhaps even the roof, which is exposed to direct sunlight all day long.

Shade trees are by far the most effective and aesthetically pleasing way of creating shade for your home. If you have them, then count yourself very lucky indeed, because you probably already benefit from their shading to keep your AC costs down.

Another way is to fit awnings and blinds on windows and walls that get direct exposure to the sun. A roof overhang also helps by casting a shadow from above, which covered verandahs or porches also provide additional shade.

On walls where it is not possible to create shade, another clever way to reduce heating up by the sun is to paint them white. White reflects more of the heat from the sun than do darker colored walls, which absorb more heat and filter that heat to the interior.

So grab that paintbrush and get painting if you have dark walls and make them white!

Below is a handy reference on this very subject of air conditioning economy that adds some more insights into solving this problem:

Air Conditioning Economy

Windows and Doors

Another way to reduce energy wastage is to make sure all your windows and doors are a good fit in their frames (no gaps) and there are no big cracks or holes in the frames themselves that would allow hot air from outside to get inside. When that happens, the AC has to work harder to compensate for the extra heat getting in and keep the interior as cool as you need it to be.

If any wooden frames have become old and rotten in places, it pays to have them replaced ot at least patched up to keep the heat out and the cool in.

In closing, I'm sure you'll have gained some helpful information on combining good old fashioned common sense with a little solid logic to make sure your only use the least amount of energy necessary to keep you comfortable indoors during the hot weather without any costly wastage. You really can save money with an air conditioning economy drive when you know how!