Looking to Save Money This Summer? Reduce the Need for A/C With These Tips

If you’re like most central Floridians, your first stop for cooling off during the hot summer months is the air conditioner. And while you’ll never catch me telling you to go without an air conditioner, you can reduce the need for A/C in your home by taking a whole-house approach to summer cooling. 

Use these six tips to give your A/C a smaller temperature gap to close:

1. Insulate your home and seal air leaks. This keeps the outdoors heat outdoors. Insulation prevents the heat itself from soaking through the roof and walls, and air sealing makes sure that hot air doesn’t come inside. It’s the same principle as using an insulated cooler to keep drinks and ice cool.
2. Switch to efficient appliances. Inefficiency means that energy is being lost and not going toward the function of an appliance – and the most common form of energy loss is heat. Incandescent light bulbs, for example, shed much more heat than compact florescents.
3. Cool your home’s exterior. Light paint jobs and light or reflective roof tiles all help to divert the heat that comes in from outside. You can cut down on solar heat gain and reduce the need for A/C to compensate for it!
4. Shade windows or improve them in other ways. Natural light is all well and good, but the heat that comes can be unwelcome. Reflective coatings, blinds that diffuse light, awnings, and shades can all help cut down on the heat that comes in.
5. Use ceiling fans. We don’t think about wind chill in summer, but the wind chill effect is what makes ceiling fans cool you off. Use them when you’re in the room to enhance air conditioning, but be sure to turn them off when you leave the room.
6. Install attic ventilation. Hot air rises, and if it’s trapped in the attic space, it can radiate heat back down into living areas, as well as causing other problems. Get the hot air out with an attic fan.

To learn more about how to reduce the need for A/C this summer, call us at Scott’s Heating & Air Conditioning!

Image via Shutterstock.com

Scott’s Heating & Air Conditioning is a full-service heating and air conditioning company and a Bryant® Factory Authorized Dealer in Central Florida. Whether you need repair, maintenance, or installation of a new heating or cooling system, we provide efficient, cost-effective, and professional service. When it’s hot, call Scott!

Categorised in: Air Conditioning