Paying high bills on your AC usage? You need to trim down usage naturally. You could work on your surroundings to reduce its use and still keep cool. Here’s how!
1. Keep down your curtains and drapes
Keeping down your curtains will prevent loss of cool air to the outside and entry of hot summer air from the outside. So your AC wouldn’t have much work to do to achieve cooling. No extra bills for cooling the outside air; thus reduction in your power bills.
2. Plant shady trees if you could
Shady trees help in the summer. They could help cool your surrounding by providing shade. Trees are sun-lovers, you know what I mean? They use sunlight to produce their food. Plant them strategically in areas of high sun intensity and you have reduced your AC use to a great extent!
3. Setting the temperature a little higher is a good idea
Set the AC temperature at 70-800 F. This could give you 10% savings on your power bills. Do this especially when you’re leaving your house. It’s very simple! Save money while you’re away. Turn down the temperature while you are at home.
4. Fans would be helpful
Fans consume less power and still provide comfortable service. They are also less expensive and affordable. You could keep the AC temperature as low as 40C and then use ceiling fans to circulate the cool air in your apartment.
5. Reduce your AC workload by turning off lights and other appliances
Make sure to switch off the lights in unoccupied rooms. Lights produce heat in your home. This increases the workload of your AC. Use your electric cookers when the weather is coolest. Also when doing laundry, do it when the weather isn’t hottest, preferably in the morning or late at night. All these will reduce your AC’s workload.
6. Avoid too much traffic in your house
Too much opening and closing of doors is a source of hot air into your house. Avoid that! It adds extra work to the AC as it takes more time to achieve cooling. You could avoid activities that would necessitate frequent opening and closing of doors with good planning and scheduling.
7. Turn down the AC while sleeping (at night)
When you turn down your AC, you turn down its work and keep low your bills. Surely, you don’t need the same level of cooling while you’re sleeping.
8. Cool just the area in use
You can do this with portable units. These cool just the area you need; saves your AC the load of cooling the entire apartment and saves you from higher power bills. You could save half your energy bills with this simple practice!
9. Check for and close all vents
Vents could release cool air from your home and trap in hotter air. Check for vents in your basement and close them off. Do this and achieve a faster cooling of your home.
10. Increase circulation from AC ducts!
Position your furniture away from the vent of your AC ducts. If your furniture is in their way, all the cooling will go to your furniture. This is surely not your aim for using the AC; so position them well. This could be just for the hot season, anyway!
