Summer is coming! And arriving along with the hot days are the higher utility bills. Here are a few ideas that may make them a little less painful.
If you still have halogen or incandescent bulbs in use, indoors or outdoors, you’re wasting a lot of electricity. Change to LED bulbs. They use at least 80% less electricity and last 10 times longer, or more.
Change the filters on your air conditioner, unless you are one of the very few people that regularly change their filters.
On the AC condenser outside, there is a copper tube that goes indoors. It should be insulated fully. If not, go to the hardware store and get some new insulation. It only takes 5 – 10 minutes to replace.
Have you closed the air vents in rooms you are not using? If yes, them go and open them. By closing a vent you are creating pressure in the ducts which makes the AC system work harder.
Close you blinds to keep the heat out of the house.
Use your ceiling fans. They can keep a room up to 4 degrees cooler. Have them spinning counter clockwise to draw cool air up from the floor.
Is you thermostat an older unit? Newer design use timers to automatically set the temperature for daytime and nighttime usage, and you can override them if needed. The also cycle the AC on and off more frequently. This keeps the house temperature more even and is more efficient.
You can shop and purchase your electricity from a supplier other than the electric company. They will deliver the electric, but you can possibly purchase the electric for less.
For those hot nights, you will probably want the AC to be on. But do you need to cool the entire house? We have a window air conditioner in our bedroom that we use on those nights.