Saving Energy: Tips for Summer | Lozier

Saving Energy: Tips for Summer

July 21, 2016

Beating the summer heat in Des Moines often means spending a lot of money on air conditioning. At the same time, many homeowners are looking at ways to save money on their energy bills - and cooling often accounts for over half of monthly energy costs. This summer, don't choose between energy savings and comfort. Try some of these energy saving tips instead.
  • Open your windows when it gets cool at night, and shut them again in the morning. When the temperature drops, you can give your A/C a rest and bring in some fresh air at the same time.
  • Only have the A/C running (or running on high) when you're at home and awake. When you're off at work or sleeping, turn up the thermostat - with an eight-hour workday and eight hours of sleep, that's two thirds of the day you might be wasting cooling dollars. If changing the temperature every day sounds like a hassle, invest in a programmable thermostat to manage your home temperature for you.
  • Make use of shade. Curtains, drapes, awnings, trellises with green growth, or leafy trees can keep sunlight from hitting your walls or coming in through your windows, which can lower the passive solar heat gain in your home.
  • Check on your attic insulation. Direct sunlight beating down on your roof can heat attic spaces, and that heat typically radiates down into your home. Insulation can help reduce this heat transfer.
  • Change your air conditioner's furnace filter. Old filters become clogged with all the particulate matter they've strained out of your air, which makes it more difficult to circulate air through your home. When that happens, your A/C's fan draws more power - and your home still doesn't cool off as well.
If you want to know more energy-saving tips to help you stay cool and frugal this summer, call us at Lozier Heating & Cooling! Our goal is to help educate our customers in the greater Des Moines, Iowa area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Credit/Copyright Attribution: "Ondrej Supitar/StockSnap"