[Cheyenne‏]

I am moving into a new home soon, one which has central air. This is a new luxury to me. I was brought up with swamp coolers and window ACs and opening the windows at night and “closing up the house” during the day.

What are some things I can do to help keep electric down?

Open windows at night and only turn AC on a few hours in the afternoon?

[Beth]

We have central air but very expensive. We put in a swamp cooler and a couple of window ac units so we don’t need to run it much

[Tamara]

Cool house off earlier than the heat, keep south and west side windows covered during day thermo black out drapes work best.

Keep doors closed as much as possible. See if you need to insulate doors or windows.

Make sure your AC unit is clean!!! Easy to Google how. $10 foaming cleaner 5 minutes and a hose to gently rinse.

Keeping the ground around your outside AC unit damp/wet helps your system to work less hard on the hottest day, it intakes that moisture cooling air quickly and more efficiently.

Shade your ac if in full sun, do NOT block airflow!
Make sure all your filters are clean! Including the one in your furnace unit!!

Change batteries in your thermostat if it has them.
If it cools off at night outside lower then your indoor temperature, pause your unit, and open windows!

fresh air is good! And money saving.
Close windows before sunrise, before its getting warm though!
Use fans to disperse air flow!

Use exhaust fans in house to remove hot air on short intervals.

Do not leave them on 24/7.
Have your ac and furnace serviced regularly once a year.

The gas company (if applicable) will come inspect your equipment for efficiency and problems, once a year, for free.
Hope this helps.

good luck!

[Jamie]

A big factor is humidity and, related, how much the temp drops after dark. I live somewhere 20-35 degrees after dinner is normal, so leaving ac running all the time isn’t actually helpful.

At night I open a few windows and run the central air on ‘fan only’ so the actual compressor is t also running, which uses way less electricity.

It gets the house super cool in the am. Then I flip it back to whatever I’m going to leave it on for the day around 9am- 75ish usually.

Normally takes it several hours to even kick in because it is so cooled off in the morning

[Altholz]

consider setting the temperature slightly higher, using timers or smart thermostats, and ensuring your home is well-insulated.

Regular filter maintenance and using fans to circulate air can also improve efficiency.

[Roostie]

Hope the house has proper insulation
Most important!

78
Ceiling fans and I have insulated curtains

[Rachel]

The biggest cost savings will come from getting your central ac serviced so it doesn’t hace to work as hard as the condensor coil and compressor assembly live outside and get gunked up over time.

Also go over all the HVAC ducting throughout your home to see if there are any leaks that need taping up with special metal tape.

If you know someone with a thermal camera you can also run the central air to see if there are any mystery vents that deadend in walls instead of coming into any room and address those.

As for opening the windows at night…if it’s humid your central air will just have to work twice as hard to eliminate the humidity you introduced overnight.

If the weather is cool enough to keep the windows open 24/7 then do it.

Once it gets hot enough for central air it’s all about making sure it’s working efficiently ie much less daily futzing around by adjusting temps a lot or opening windows etc.

and a good dose of initial sluthing on the HVAC ducting plus a regular professional service annually.

[Sue]

I don’t even use my A/C I bought a few tower fans (oscillator) with remotes and only use it when I am in the room, then when I go to another room I turn it off and turn on the remote in the other room.

I don’t need to cool off a room that I am not in.

[Jan]

I’m in TN so often hot and humid, although it’s been good so far. We set ours on auto and our a/c temp is set at 76, heat at 69.

Those temps are tolerable for us. I live in a metro area and am not comfortable opening windows at night.

Too many crazy people.

[Mel]

I leave it at 21° during summer, close the blinds etc during the day. Right now it’s getting down to around 15° at night here, so I’ll open the windows at night.

I turn it off if I’m leaving overnight, but I leave it on otherwise, because it takes more energy to cool off a hot apartment than it does to just keep it cool.

[William]

Window fans blowing in at night. If you have an area like a hallway with rooms on each end, blow one in and have the opposite pulling out.

Close windows and shades during the day

[Cindy]

Where I live in SC it’s and Humid! Our electric company has what is called Peak hours. In summer it’s between 3 &6 pm. The rate is insane during this time!

So, I have a programmable thermostat to turn the AC to a higher temp during those hours.

It’s too hot to turn it off! Also, I try not to cook during those hours and run ceiling fans and the blinds closed. Hope this helps.

[Author]

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