There are plenty of ways you can help keep your home cooler this summer while keeping your wallet full. With a few simple upgrades, additions and a little bit of work, you can keep cool all summer long.
One of the absolute best and cheapest ways to keep your home cool this summer without exhausting your A/C unit is ceiling fans. Ceiling fans are relatively inexpensive and easy to install. Even if the temperature in your home is set a bit higher, feeling the air move around you with a fan can help you feel a lot cooler. If you have a window air conditioner, you can even use a portable fan to help blow the air through the room. You will be surprised at how comfortable your home feels with your thermostat set at 26 or 27 degrees with ceiling fans running. Your wallet will thank you as well because ceiling fans are a lot cheaper to run than an air conditioner.
Another way to help save money on cooling your house is to pay closer attention to your actual unit on the outside of your home. There is no question that an air conditioning unit in the shade runs less than one that sits in the sun. One way to help shade your unit is to plant trees or shrubs around it. When doing this, you need to be very careful not to block any of the airflow into the unit. Make sure you keep your unit running efficiently by changing the air filters every month. Also consider installing a programmable thermostat in your home. A programmable thermostat is a great way to avoid running your A/C when no one is home.
One area of the home where you lose a lot of air is through your windows. You don't necessarily have to replace all the windows in your home to save money, there are other ways. First, put up blinds or shades in your windows to help reflect the light and insulate the windows, keeping the cool air in and the hot air out. Also consider insulated window treatments. These heavy curtains can provide some serious insulation for your windows. Not only can they help keep your rooms cooler in the summer, they can help keep them warmer in the winter. Make sure that your windows are well sealed too. Proper weather stripping and caulking can go a long way in ensuring you aren't cooling the outdoors.
When cooling your home this summer, you want to be sure you aren't making your home unnecessarily hot. Appliances are huge generators of heat so make sure that you turn everything off when you aren't using it. Keep the lights off as often as you can - light bulbs may seem small but they can put out a surprising amount of heat which in turn causes your air conditioning to run more than it needs to. By putting the effort in to your home, these inexpensive tricks can help save you hundreds on your cooling costs this summer.
Source: ezinearticles.com
