![\"woman-looking-comfortable-in-home-leaning-back-on-couch-with-eyes-closed\"](\"https:\/\/www.daltonphc.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Home-Efficiency-Boosting-Tips-300x169.jpg\")
Summer is chugging right along, and the hottest temperatures are still ahead of us. That means as much as we’re running our home cooling systems right now, we’ll be doing it even more in the coming weeks. of course, this also means hefty energy bills. Air conditioners aren’t cheap after all–actually your HVAC use typically accounts for half of all your home energy use!<\/p>\n
This doesn’t mean it needs to break the bank, though. You can take some steps that will help improve the efficiency of your air conditioner and help you out a bit on the financial end.<\/p>\n
First, we have to mention maintenance–scheduling routine annual maintenance (or biannual, if you have a heat pump) is key to ensuring efficient AC operation. In addition to staying on top of your cooling system tune-ups, you can:<\/p>\n
“Wait, what?” you may be wondering. Why would we want you to turn up the heat?!<\/p>\n
Don’t worry, that’s not what we’re getting at. The fact of the matter is, however, that many homeowners out there set their thermostats to about 72\u00b0F in an attempt to cool their homes down\u00a0faster\u00a0<\/em>when most people are comfortable at 78\u00b0F, and setting it lower than this doesn’t cause the home to cool faster at all. All it\u00a0does is force your air conditioner’s compressor to run longer and waste more energy.<\/p>\n Even if you’re not cool with 78\u00b0, raising the thermostat just a couple of degrees above what you’re used to can make a world of difference to your wallet.<\/p>\n Ceiling fans cannot cool down your home on their own. Yes, they help you\u00a0feel\u00a0<\/em>cooler, which we’ll get to in a moment, but they don’t lower the temperature. So why are we saying to use them?<\/p>\n Because when you use them in\u00a0combination\u00a0<\/em>with your air conditioner, you’ll feel cooler and be able to raise the temperature on the thermostat a bit. Remember the point we made above? It applies here too!<\/p>\n A side note here: in the wintertime, you can reverse the direction of the fan blades to have a similar effect with your heater–it will push the hot air from your furnace or heat pump down to help you feel warmer and let you adjust the thermostat to a more economically friendly level.<\/p>\n Part of the yearly professional maintenance you have done on your air conditioner involves our technicians thoroughly cleaning your air conditioner inside and out. But, that’s not all the cleaning that should be done!<\/p>\n You should make sure that the area surrounding your outdoor unit is clear of any obstructions–leaves, lawn mulch, and other debris can impact airflow and end up causing operational and efficiency problems. Check your indoor vents too! Are they blocked by furniture? Make sure they’re unobstructed as well.<\/p>\n Lastly, change the air filter! This should be done every 1-3 months to protect your HVAC system and to help airflow and system efficiency.<\/p>\n At Dalton Plumbing, Heating, Cooling, Electric and Fireplaces, Inc., your comfort is our promise! To set up AC repair in Waterloo, IA<\/a>, give us a call at the number above, email customerservice@daltonphc.com<\/a> or schedule an appointment online<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" These tips will help your home perform more efficiently–this means you’ll be paying less for your home comfort and energy usage! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[252,324,78],"tags":[39,138],"class_list":["post-2532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ac-repair","category-cedar-falls","category-home-improvement","tag-ac-repair","tag-waterloo"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daltonphc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daltonphc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daltonphc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daltonphc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daltonphc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2532"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.daltonphc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2537,"href":"https:\/\/www.daltonphc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2532\/revisions\/2537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daltonphc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daltonphc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daltonphc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Use Your Ceiling Fans<\/h2>\n
Keep Your Air Conditioner Clean<\/h2>\n