Sustainable Saturday - Top 5 Ways To Save On Energy Costs

This is a guest post from Interstate Air Conditioning & Heating.  As the summer temperatures have heated up around the country, Interstate Air Conditioning & Heating offers 5 Ways to Save on Energy Costs.

In this day and age, it seems every time we turn around there’s a new bill or fee that we have to pay. It can get pretty overwhelming, to say the least. So when there’s a way to save a little cash, why not seize the opportunity? Interstate Air Conditioning & Heating who specializes in air conditioning maintenance in NYC has come up with 5 ways to save on energy costs this summer. 

1.  Buy a High-Efficiency Unit

We all have material objects that we get attached to – an old baby blanket, a first car, a piece of jewelry. No matter what happens, we hold onto these items through thick and thin…because they mean something to us. I’m sure in the list you just made in your head of things you would never want to replace – your air conditioning unit was not one of them; because your unit is simply a machine that cools your home and costs you x amount of dollars to do so. When “x” becomes astronomical, however, it’s time to move on to greener pastures – literally. Go Green with your AC and buy a high-efficiency unit. Your new unit can reduce energy costs by 20 to 50 percent! If you have a central air unit, look for a SEER rating of at least 14; if you have a window unit, look for an EER rating of at least 10.7.  
2.  Use Ductless Air Conditioners

Very rarely do two people agree on what a comfortable temperature is. There is almost always an angry party or a compromise that has to be made in regards to how high or low the AC is turned up. Those arguments and compromises can be a thing of the past, though, with ductless air conditioners (or split systems). These units allow you to independently control the temperature of each room in your house or apartment. Now you can have your living room set to 65 degrees and a bedroom set to 72. No more need to freeze or melt!  

3. Purchase A Programmable Thermostat

When you make a decision to start saving money, every penny counts. Programmable thermostats can reduce energy costs by $180 a year! How do they work? Simple! All you do is use the 4 pre-programmed settings to control your home’s temperature for particular times of the day or night. For example, you don’t want your AC pumping when you’re not even home, right? What a waste of energy and money! Set it so that it’ll start cooling a half hour or so before you get in. Or set it lower while everyone is asleep. Goodbye wasteful air conditioning, hello $180!  

4.  Mount a Whole House Fan

A whole house fan is exactly what it sounds like. You install it in the ceiling that connects to your attic, and it cools your house by pulling the cool air from outside through open windows into your home, and ejects warmer air up and out through a ventilated attic space. This clever process of taking in cool air from outside and getting rid of hot air from the inside allows you to turn your AC up a few degrees or even leave it off completely. 

5.  Invest In a Properly Sized Unit

You wouldn’t go out and buy jeans that you can’t zip up, so why try it with your AC unit? If an air conditioning unit isn’t the correct size, it isn’t going to work properly. A small unit won’t be able to cover the square footage, and a large unit will be too much. If it isn’t sized properly, it’s going to run inefficiently, waste energy, not dehumidify well, and can cost you thousands in repairs and/or energy costs. If you invest in a properly-sized unit, though, you’ll feel a significant difference in cooling, and energy costs! As an air conditioning repair company in NYC, the goal of Interstate Air Conditioning & Heating's blog is to help educate our customers and the public on air conditioning and heating related issues.      

Note:  Some of the links referenced in this post are my referral links.  You can read Saving Family Green's Material Connection Disclosure Policy here. Tweet