Use These Tips for Summer Energy Savings

If you’re like a lot of homeowners, you probably dread that day each month in the summer when the electric bill arrives. Air conditioning a home these days doesn’t come cheap. The good news is that a variety of tried-and-true strategies are available to save energy during the summer. Try some of these energy saving tips in your Middletown area home:

Use ceiling fans and the resulting wind-chill effect to make rooms feel cooler than the temperature setting on the thermostat. Then raise that setting a corresponding amount. You won’t lose any comfort but will save energy. Shut down fans in empty rooms since they only create the effect of cooling, and if nobody’s in the room, there’s nobody to enjoy that effect.

Use a programmable thermostat to schedule energy-saving temperature setbacks for periods when you’re away from home, both in your usual routine and when you’re on vacation. You can program the temperature to return to your comfort level shortly before you expect to get home.

Take steps to keep warm outside air from infiltrating your home, and forcing the A/C to work harder to keep up. Seal air leaks in the home’s perimeter with weatherstripping, caulk or spray foam, and add insulation in the attic to keep heat from transferring downstairs into your living spaces. Schedule an energy audit to find out how and where warm air and heat is entering the house.

Take advantage of natural cooling by opening windows at night when it’s not too hot or humid. Leave them open in the morning until the outside temperatures start heating up. The residual cool night-time air will postpone the moment when the A/C kicks on.

Schedule professional maintenance for your cooling system, so you can be confident it’s operating efficiently and effectively until next fall. Check the A/C’s air filter at least monthly during the high-use season, changing it when it looks dirty. A dirty air filter will cause your cooling system to waste energy.

For more information on energy saving tips for your Middletown area home, please contact us at C.R. Wolfe Heating & Air Conditioning.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Middletown, New York about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about summer energy savings and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide or call us at 845-367-4482.

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