If your household’s air conditioning accounts for over a quarter of your electricity bill, you’re not alone. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 27% of Florida’s energy consumption is spent on cooling costs.
But there are many ways to be under the state average without reducing your comfort. Today, we share 5 clever ways to reduce cooling costs. And you can start doing three of them right now!
1. Shut Off the Lights
When your house is well lit, it’s also adding heat to the air. So choose what lights stay on wisely, and when you aren’t using them, leave the lights off.
Only 2% of an incandescent lightbulb’s wattage is spent on the light it emits. The rest is pure heat. That’s because the filament inside reaches a whopping 4000 degrees Fahrenheit to turn white!
If you have ever been unfortunate enough to touch a lightbulb, you’ll know that they are scorching hot. A single second of contact with one can cause 3rd-degree burns.
A 100-watt bulb’s outside glass surface reaches well over 200 degrees. Fluorescent lighting is only half that temperature, but all bulbs are coolest when they’re switched off.
If you have trouble remember to turn off lights or use them for safety reasons, use dimmers and timers, or consider integrating smart lighting options.
2. Replace Light Bulbs
You can’t sit in the dark all day and night just to stay cool. When you do need to brighten a room, replace those incandescent bulbs with energy-efficient ones.
LED and compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFL) are good alternatives. They not only burn cooler but use less energy to do so.
It’s a win-win situation with results you’ll notice on your energy bill.
3. Turn on the Fan
When used in conjunction with an energy-efficient AC, using your ceiling fans can greatly reduce your energy bill when used correctly.
There is a switch on ceiling fans that changes the rotation of the blades. That’s because the fans are designed to either pull up or push down air depending on the direction that the blades spin.
When they spin counterclockwise, they push air down and create a wind chill that reduces the feeling of the room by 4 degrees. That means even though your thermostat won’t say it’s cooler, you’ll feel an overall improvement in the temperature.
But don’t leave them on all the time. Remember, fans improve the comfort level in a room by making the temperature feel cooler to our bodies. If no one is present to feel the wind chill, the fans are using up energy.
So turn fans on in occupied rooms and shut them off before you leave.
4. The Ductless Mini Split System
If you own a small home or you live alone, a ductless mini split system may be a more affordable AC solution for you.
These air conditioning systems do not cool an entire house uniformly like a traditional HVAC system. Instead, they only cool a single area.
When you have Action Air Conditioning install a ductless mini-split system in your home, you will choose what room receives AC. If you install more than one ductless mini-split system, you can control each room’s temperature independently.
Multiple units can offer peace of mind and safety on hot days for seniors and people with health conditions. Should one system need repair or replacement, another installed in a separate area of the home would secure a backup cool oasis of comfort.
When you only supply cooling relief to the rooms you use the most, you benefit from a considerably lower cooling cost overall. Cooling rooms independently gives you the freedom to choose where and when your electricity is being used.
5. Call the Cooling Experts
The best way to reduce your cooling costs is to have a heating and cooling system contractor that you can trust. Action Air Conditioning provides the Hillsborough and Pinellas county areas with superior service.
Our highly trained technicians can help you to determine what you can do to reduce your cooling costs and run a more energy-efficient cooling system. Whether you need maintenance, repair, or new unit installation, we can find a solution within your budget and walk you through the process.
If you’re ready to get started, contact us today.