Summer is just around the corner, and we all know what that means. Soon enough, it will be blazing hot in our area, and homeowners will want to make sure they’re well equipped with an effective and efficient air conditioner in their homes.
The best way to ensure this is the case is by scheduling professional air conditioning maintenance. Maintenance allows our professionals to comprehensively clean, adjust, and inspect the components of your system to make sure everything is operating as it should. If we notice that anything needs repairs, we’ll alert you to the problem right away so you have a chance to get ahead of it and avoid a breakdown.
Maintenance or not, there are some additional actions you can take, which we’ll uncover below, that will help boost the efficiency of your air conditioner and therefore lower your energy costs. Keep reading as we go through some tips on how to boost your cooling system efficiency.
Raise the Temperature
Okay, we get it—this sounds like strange advice. We certainly don’t want you to make your home warmer than it needs to be. The fact of the matter is, however, that many homeowners actually make it colder in their homes than it actually needs to be. To maintain comfort, most people are perfectly comfortable with their thermostats being set to about 78°F, but homeowners are often found setting theirs as low as 71°F, thinking it will help cool their home down faster (this is not the case—it just forces the air conditioner to run longer, and inefficiently so).
Save energy and money by raising the temperature to a more reasonable level. It also helps to raise the temperature when you’re not at home or when your household is sleeping.
Use Your Ceiling Fans
Ceiling fans are not capable of lowering the temperature of a room or keeping you cool on their own—after all, all a fan does is move air. This doesn’t mean they’re not incredibly helpful, though! Fans help you feel cooler because they help sweat evaporate off of your body when you’re too warm. When you feel cooler, you can turn your thermostat up a couple of degrees which reduces the amount of energy the AC needs to use.
When you use your air conditioner in combination with your ceiling fans, the ceiling fans push cool air down and help to distribute the air more evenly, all while keeping warm air rising. This is far more effective and efficient air conditioner use, simply by turning on a fan or two—plus ceiling fans use a lot less electricity than most folks realize.
Change Your Air Filter
There’s a common misconception about HVAC air filters that many homeowners still believe. They think that this air filter is in place to protect their indoor air quality. While it doesn’t hurt your indoor air quality, its actual purpose is to protect the HVAC components from dust, dirt, and other debris that can come in through the air intake.
When this air filter gets too clogged, airflow going into the air conditioner is restricted, which limits how efficiently your air conditioner can operate. Changing your air filter every 1-3 months will help your air conditioner work more powerfully and more efficiently for the years to come.
Contact Ace Hardware Home Services for reliable Statesville, NC HVAC service.