Energy-Saving Strategies for HVAC in Peak Summer Heat

When the summer weather gets to its hottest, you may find that your family relies heavily on your cooling system to stay comfortable. Unfortunately, this high usage can lead to expensive energy bills. Instead of wasting your money this summer, follow these practices to stay comfortable while running your HVAC system less often. USE CEILING FANS Ceiling fans can make a huge difference in how you feel. When you have your ceiling fan spinning in a counterclockwise direction, it will force air down and create a wind chill effect on your body. This will wick away sweat and significantly decrease your body temperature. The best part is that you get direct cooling for a fraction of the cost that it would take to get that same cooling effect from your air conditioning system alone. Opt for installing ceiling fans in your bedrooms, living room, office, kitchen, and other high-traffic rooms. KEEP DIRECT SUNLIGHT OUT While the warmth of the sun can be great on a cold winter day, it can be your nemesis on scorching hot summer afternoons. If you let direct sunlight come in through your doors and windows, it can significantly raise the temperature inside your home. Block that direct sunlight with curtains, blinds, or UV-resistant window film. You may even want to consider planting some shading shrubbery outside the windows that receive the most direct sunlight throughout the day. USE A SMART THERMOSTAT A smart thermostat can be a great investment to help optimize your energy usage throughout the hot summer months. This type of thermostat is easily programmable, so you can set higher temperatures for times when you’re away from home and lower temperatures when you’re at home. Furthermore, smart thermostats will get to know your energy usage and provide you with suggested settings to help reduce it. INSTALL A WHOLE-HOME DEHUMIDIFIER With North Carolina being an extremely humid climate, the inside of your home can feel much hotter when that humidity gets trapped inside. This is because the air is less capable of absorbing sweat from your body, so your body overheats. By installing a whole-home dehumidifier, you can set a desirable relative humidity level inside your home. The more humidity you can remove from your indoor air, the more comfortable it’s going to be. AVOID CREATING HEAT INDOORS One of the worst things you can do in summer is create more heat inside your home. You should avoid using your stove or oven. Instead, eat no-cook meals or use an outdoor grill. When it comes to your laundry, hang it outdoors to dry instead of running your dryer. USE EXHAUST FANS When you put excess moisture into the air, it’s going to make it feel much hotter than it actually is. For this reason, you want to use exhaust fans. You should have a range hood over your stove area to help divert steam from your stovetop to the outdoors. Furthermore, all of your bathrooms should have an exhaust fan that forces all the hot steam from your shower outside. SEAL UP AIR LEAKS If you’ve ever felt a dramatic difference in air temperature when you touched around your window frame or your door frame, then you’ve discovered an air leak in your home. Everywhere that there is a leak, unwanted hot air from the outdoors can seep into your residence. You should take some time to go around and identify where leaks are in your home and seal them off with caulking or weather stripping. KEEP UP WITH FILTER CHANGES Your cooling system has an air filter to cleanse the air inside your home. As your filter reaches the end of its lifespan, it will be clogged full of airborne debris, which makes it harder for your cooling system to move air through it. If you leave a filter in that’s dirty, your system is going to have to run much longer to adequately cool your home down to your desired temperature. Instead, you want to make regular air filter changes every two to three months. KEEP YOUR OUTDOOR UNIT CLEAR An imperative part of your overall air conditioning system is your outdoor condenser unit. This unit is responsible for dispersing heat from inside your home to the outdoors. Whenever there is debris like leaves or twigs pushed up against the side of the unit, its airflow will be dramatically restricted. This will make it much harder for your condenser unit to disperse hot air, causing your system to run much longer. Make it a habit to check your outdoor condenser unit for debris after every major storm. VENTILATE YOUR ATTIC One commonly overlooked culprit that increases the temperature inside your home is a hot attic. When your attic isn’t properly ventilated, it will retain excess heat that will eventually make its way down into the rooms of your house. You want to aim for having cross ventilation with at least two vents in your attic to allow for adequate airflow to remove that excess heat. GET SPRING MAINTENANCE SERVICE One of the keys to having your air conditioning system run less is to have it running at peak operating efficiency. To get it operating at that level, have a professional HVAC technician perform maintenance on it annually. You should schedule this maintenance for the spring months so that your system is prepared for the hot summer season. ENSURE YOUR VENTS ARE OPEN AND CLEAR If you have a ducted cooling system, then you’re going to have vents in all the different rooms of your home. In order for your cooling system to work properly, all these vents need to be opened so that there is adequate pressure in your system. You want to ensure that none of your vents are blocked by obstructions like furniture or plants. INCREASE YOUR INSULATION Insulation provides a barrier between the air outside and the air inside your home. The higher the R-value a piece of insulation is given, the more resistant it’s going to be to temperature changes. To help prevent warm air from penetrating your home, you should install insulation that meets or exceeds the recommended R-value for your area. UPGRADE YOUR AC SYSTEM If your existing cooling system is over 15 years old, then it’s probably not running as efficiently as it was when you first bought it. Modern cooling systems are available with very high efficiency ratings that can allow you to take advantage of energy savings throughout the summer months. You may want to consider investing in one of these newer energy-efficient systems for your home. FINEST AC SERVICE Roland Black Heating, Cooling, Plumbing & Generators offers the finest AC service in the Gastonia, NC community. Our expert technicians can also assist with all of your heating, smart thermostat, duct cleaning, and indoor air quality needs. Simply call our friendly staff today to schedule your next service consultation.