The summer heat is here and with it often comes higher electricity bills when residents crank up their air conditioning units. Thankfully, there are ways to reduce the electricity bill cost while still keeping cool.
The city of College Station offers energy rebates if residents put in a Wi-Fi-programmable thermostat, says Ed Wren, president of Climate Doctors of B/CS.
“The reason they do that is so people can keep their temperatures in the summer a little more warm,” Wren says. “Don’t go too warm because if you turn your system off during the day, come back home, and turn it down to 72 degrees, it’s going to run all night to catch back up. Turning it up too much is just as harmful as not doing anything.”
Using a programmable thermostat allows residents to stop guessing what times they should run the A/C, Wren says.
“Don’t think to yourself, ‘I get home at 5 o’clock, so I’ll have the thermostat come on at 3 o’clock,’” Wren says. “Just set the times that you want it to be off, and the thermostat will do the rest for you.”
Leaving ceiling fans on is not a bad idea, but it’s important to be sure they are turning in the correct direction, says Richard Benavides, service manager at Climate Doctors of B/CS.
“Typically, you want the blades in the ceiling fan to go counterclockwise in the summer and clockwise in the winter,” Benavides says. “When the blades are going to the right, the air drops straight down in the middle of the room so we feel air in the summertime. When it’s cold outside we don’t want the air since it makes us too cold, so the blades take the air, suck it up in the middle of the room, and redirect it to blow on the walls.”
Filters should not be too dense or heavy because it will restrict the air, and people should instead get decent, pleated filters, says Wren. People should also make sure to service their units to preserve the longevity of the system, says Benavides.
“Also make sure you are changing the filter out,” says Benavides.
The type of A/C system used can cause unnecessary spending if the unit is too large for the house, Benavides says. Single-stage equipment is often too large for houses in Bryan College Station. Instead, it is suggested that homeowners get two-speed equipment or fully variable speed equipment.
“Two-speed equipment runs at full capacity when needed and then drops off to about 28 percent capacity,” says Benavides. “Fully variable speed equipment controls the climate of a home with the humidity and outdoor temperature. This gives homes a much more even cool at an efficient cost.”
A major factor while adjusting the temperature is humidity, says Benavides. People do not realize that in oversized units, the humidity stays too high. In order to compensate, people turn the thermostat colder when they only need to get the humidity down.
“From time to time, it’ll be 72 degrees on the thermostat, but it’ll feel like it’s 80 degrees since the humidity is so high,” Wren says. “If you keep the humidity level down, it’s going to feel a whole lot cooler.”
For more information, visit www.climatedoctorsofbcs.com.
