It’s that time of year again – time to begin the debate of “do we turn on the air conditioning yet or do we wait it out?” It’s only April but it’s already HOT in many parts of the country, including the Midwest where I live. So in case you were wondering, I gave in and turned on the air conditioning. I’m sorry, but 90 degrees is air conditioning weather regardless of the time of the year.
That being said, air conditioning is expensive so we don’t want to run it more than we have to. And when we do run it, we want it to work as efficiently as possible. Fortunately there are things we can do to improve our air conditioner’s efficiency and possibly reduce our bill a little bit in the process.
- Close curtains on windows receiving full sun. My house faces the east so it’s helpful if I keep the curtains on the front closed in the morning. The back of the house faces the west, so in late afternoon, it’s really helpful to close those curtains. I hate having my curtains closed, but when it’s really hot, I’ll do it.
- Be sure all the windows are shut and locked. If they’re only shut, a little bit of hot air could still come in. And sometimes you discover windows that aren’t shut at all! If it’s not too much trouble, it’s also helpful to close storm windows if you have them.
- Don’t use the oven during the hottest part of the day. If you need to use the oven, try to use it in the morning when it’s cooler.
- Use cooking appliances other than the oven whenever possible. Summer is a great time to use the crock pot, the microwave, the George Foreman or grill outside!
- Make sure the condenser unit outside is clean. The coils should be free of leaves, grass or tree seeds. If the unit is dirty, hose it off.
- Be sure the filter on the furnace has been changed recently.
- If your a/c doesn’t seem to be working very well, have it serviced. Sometimes it just needs a tweak.
- As much as possible, be sure the vents are unobstructed.
What other strategies do you have for making the most of your air conditioner?
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Here in the Northeast we use window units, although central air conditioning is the new big “must do” improvement. It is really not hot enough for long enough to bother with the expense. Most homes here have hydronic heating via hot water (baseboard heaters or radiators) which is much more comfortable heating in the winter (and is usually almost silent). Since we don’t have ductwork, air conditioning is very expensive and disruptive to retrofit. When I was a kid (and energy prices were very high) most people did not air condition at all or would only cool one room.
At any rate, a long term investment which can make your home much more comfortable in the hot weather is to have awnings made and installed. They are particularly effective on west facing windows which get the hot sun during the hottest part of the day. The canvas kind look great and give the house a nice, cool, shaded look in the summer, and are very psychologically helpful in dealing with the heat. Ceiling fans also help to make the house feel a lot more comfortable in the heat.
Frequently it cools off reasonably here at night, so growing up in a home without AC we would open the house up and run fans overnight while sleeping, and early in the morning close the house up, close the blinds, draw drapes, and spend the day in the darkened house. In the old victorians around here the first floor will stay quite tolerable even on very hot days following this process.
I run my window units to alleviate the thick humidity we get. I can deal with heat but humidity makes me irritable if I cannot find a reprieve. We cool our home with one large and two smal ACs.
I had no idea there were any areas in the US that didn’t have a/c. We couldn’t survive without it. When we bought this house 9 years ago it didn’t have a/c so we put it in ASAP. It gets hot and humid here in the Midwest and I don’t like the heat. Plus we have a second floor that gets really hot. We turned the a/c on sooner than we would have because of that floor.
Thanks for sharing. It was interesting information.