Electricity is an integral part of our everyday lives, one we are incredibly dependent on. Just imagine living in a world where there would be no electricity with today’s standards and needs and you’ll realize its importance. But it doesn’t come free, nor cheap for that matter. Everyone has or still is facing with very high electricity bills. There are many ways to lower the amount of money that you pay for electricity but most of them will require you to make drastic changes to how you lead your life at home. But what if there would be a way to lower your bills without spending money on green power gadgets or sacrificing some of the activities that you need electricity for?
With a few simple Tips To Reduce Your Electricity Bill With Smart Air Conditioning Usage, you could cut down your energy costs.
Air Conditioning
Mostly used during hot summer days but also for those mildly cold days, the air conditioning unit is an invaluable appliance that racks up a lot of working hours in its lifetime. But it requires quite a lot of electricity and could be one of the reasons that your electricity bill is sky high.
If you want to have central air conditioning and heating, the first thing that you need to do is look for more energy efficient models that will make better use of the electricity therefore using less of it.
But if you already have one in your home, the first you should do is check all of the vents in your home. Some might be closed even though you’d never expect any vent would be close. If you find some closed, then it could be the reason that the air conditioning is struggling to keep your home cool and keeps running more than it needs to after it reaches the target temperature.
Most vents also have air filters to keep dirt and dust away from blowing throughout your home. But these filters can easily get filled up and prevent airflow. To avoid this, you should change them at least once every two or three months, but don’t worry, they’re not expensive at all, in fact a bulk pack might cost about $1-$2 per filter.
Another important thing to keep in mind is that if you trap the right temperature in your home, then your air conditioning unit will reach the desired target temperature much faster, but it will also need to work less in order to keep it up.
To make that easier, your home needs to have good airflow which is very difficult to promote if it wasn’t taken into account during the initial planning and design of the home.
Unless you live in a very small space, your air conditioning unit will have a hard time keeping each room at a steady, enjoyable temperature.
You need to keep in mind of the very basic rule of thermodynamics – hot air rises upwards. You can use this to your advantage in your home by helping it out faster by pushing the air upwards when you want to keep a low temperature as well as pushing it back down when you want to keep the warm air inside.
The best and cheapest way to do this is to use a standing fan, something you’d probably have in your home, since it uses far less power than an air conditioning or heating system. Remember, fans don’t cool nor heat the air. All they do is move it around. And that is the key to good air circulation. If it is done properly, it gets easier to maintain the temperature that you want.
Just by positioning the fans properly to move the air in the desired direction you can drive out the hot air or alternatively, trap it inside.
If your home has a ceiling fan, you’re in luck. It can help you do the above mentioned correct air circulation even easier because you can choose the direction in which it spins. When it is hot, a counter-clockwise spinning direction is the right choice which will suck the hot air up and send it out while a clockwise spin is good when you want to return the hot air back down.
Quick tips
- Close the exterior doors and windows when the AC is on.
- Change/clean AC filters regularly.
- Block the sun from overheating your home.
- Open interior doors so that cooled air flows freely throughout your home.
- Insulate your walls.
- Use ceiling fans.
- Repair leaky ducts and make sure air isn’t escaping through any openings.
