6 Tricks For Saving Money On Your Air Conditioning

By Author: Stevan Gerrand
Total Articles: 53
Comment this article

Air conditioning tends to be a large chunk of your electric bill during the summer, but there are some things you can do to minimize how much you spend on it. Regular maintenance on your system will keep it running smoothly and also cut your air conditioning costs. Here are six things every homeowner should be doing:
1. Watch where you set your thermostat. Of course this first one on the list seems rather self-explanatory, but few homeowners truly understand how much a few degrees can lower their electric bill. Let’s use 25 degrees Celsius as a benchmark. Every degree below that could change the cost of your electric bill by up to 5 percent. That may not seem like a lot, but it adds up, especially when you are talking about several degrees in temperature.

2. Keep the air conditioning coils clean. Cleaning the coils is one of the easiest things homeowners can do to keep their system operating at peak efficiency, and yet it is also one of the most-overlooked tasks in terms of home maintenance. These coils tend to collect a lot of dust, and the thicker the layer of dust, the harder the system has to work ...
... in order to cool your home. If the system is working harder than it needs to, then your cooling costs will go up.

3. Have a service contractor check the fluid levels regularly. Every year in the spring you should have an air conditioning specialist in to make sure that all of the fluid levels are correct. The refrigerant is one of the fluids that can cause big problems it if it’s not just right. The system can’t work correctly if there is too much or too little refrigerant in it. If you find yourself in a situation where refrigerant needs to be added, then it’s time to start looking for a leak in the system. You almost never need to add more refrigerant.

4. Don’t run your dehumidifier while you are cooling your home. Running a dehumidifier does more than just take moisture out of your home; it also makes your air conditioner think that your home is larger than it is because of the extra air flow. This results in the system working harder to cool your home, thus raising your electric bill.

5. Keep sources of heat away from your thermostat. The location of the thermostat inside your home makes a big difference in how much your air conditioner will run. If you’ve got a lamp or other heat source right underneath it, the system will think the room is hotter than it really is, so it will run longer in order to try to achieve the temperature you have set. This same principle is true of single room units as well, although in a different way. Make sure that the heat exchanger that’s located on the outside of the room is shaded by a tall tree or shrubs. This will increase efficiency of the unit. Just make sure that there is adequate clearance between the unit and the tree so that air can flow freely.

6. Avoid turning the air conditioner completely off. If you’re going to be gone for a day or two, you might be tempted to turn the system completely off, but that’s often quite counterproductive. Instead of turning it completely off, just raise the temperature by about five degrees. This should prevent the system from actually running most of the time, but it will also keep your home at a temperature that will be easy to recover from when you return and want the house to be cooler again.

Spring Home is one of the most trusted Toronto air conditioning service providers. They offer total HVAC services in Toronto.