When it comes to the hot summer weather, many of us rely on our home cooling system to keep ourselves and our families comfortable. However, as the cost of electricity continues to increase, running your cooling system can be costly. Fortunately, there are some other great things you can do to help stay cool throughout the worst of the summertime heat.
1. Turn On Your Ceiling Fans
Ceiling fans make the perfect addition to your home for all months of the year. As the weather heats up, be sure to switch your fans to spin in a counterclockwise direction. This will force the air to be pushed down onto you.
2. Cook Outside
When it comes to unintentionally warming up your home during the summer, cooking inside is one way to do it. Using your stovetop or oven can bring an excessive amount of heat into your home that your air conditioner is going to have to combat. You can avoid this by cooking outside on a grill, planning for cold-style meals, eating out, or simply using the microwave instead.
3. Use Exhaust Fans
Exhaust fans should be installed in your kitchen and bathrooms. These fans are responsible for removing steam from your home. Be sure to run your exhaust fans instead whenever you use the stove or take a shower.
4. Hang Dry Laundry
Just as your stove can bring excess heat into your home so can your dryer. A great alternative to running your dryer is to opt for hang-drying your clothes outside.
5. Close the Blinds
Sunlight has been shown to heat up a room by 10 degrees. Fortunately, you can simply keep out the direct sunlight by using blinds or even curtains.
6. Install Reflective Window Tint
If you’re not interested in closing off your windows with blinds or curtains, reflective window tint is another option. This will help to prevent the sun from heating up the rooms in your home, which means you don’t have to worry about overrunning your air conditioning system to keep up with them.
7. Eliminate Air Leaks
Over time, air leaks can develop around the doors and windows of your home. You should run your hand around the frame and see if you feel any warm air. If so, you’ll want to use caulking or weatherstripping to close the air gap.
8. Beef Up Your Insulation
Insulation is the barrier between the inside of your home and the outside. The thicker this barrier is, the less likely warm air from outside will seep into your home. It’s a good idea to check the current level of insulation that you have to see if it meets the minimum standard for your area. If not, consider upgrading to enhance the overall efficiency of your home’s cooling system.
9. Replace Incandescent Lighting
If you’ve ever touched an incandescent light bulb, you know just how hot it can be. Letting that unnecessary heat seep into your home is just another thing that your cooling system is going to have to combat throughout the day. Instead, opt for upgrading those old incandescent bulbs with new LED ones. LED bulbs don’t produce heat, so they won’t affect your home’s interior temperature at all.
10. Unplug Appliances
In this day and age, it can seem like we have countless appliances in our homes. Unfortunately, just because we’re not currently using them doesn’t mean that they’re not running. When your appliances are still running, even in standby mode, they can produce unnecessary heat. A simple way to eliminate this problem is to shut off or unplug appliances that you’re not currently using.
11. Keep Your AC Filter Clean
One of the biggest efficiency killers when it comes to your air conditioning unit is a dirty filter. Your air conditioning system will have to work overtime to get your home to your desired temperature. Do yourself a favor and regularly check your AC filter at least every two weeks.
12. Invest in a Whole-Home Dehumidifier
If you live in an area of the country that regularly experiences overly humid temperatures, then you should highly consider installing a whole-home dehumidifier. While it’s true that your existing air conditioning system is removing moisture from the air as it operates, it can’t handle overly humid environments. A whole-home dehumidifier will work alongside your existing cooling system to remove that excess moisture from the air.
13. Get Your Ducting Cleaned
If you have a cooling system that uses ducting to deliver air to the rooms throughout your home, then you’ll want to get that ducting cleaned regularly. It’s very common for unwanted airborne particles and debris, such as dust and pet dander, to get sucked into your ducting. When this happens, it restricts the movement of air inside your ductwork and makes your air conditioning system work much harder to deliver cold air to your home.
Top-Quality AC Service
Queen City Heating & Cooling offers top-quality cooling services for the entire Nixa, MO region. Our technicians can also assist with all of your heating, ductless mini-split, indoor air quality, and water heater needs.
Contact our office today to schedule your next service appointment or AC maintenance.
