Summer temperatures have hit some record highs in recent years, and homeowners know to prepare themselves: those warm spring and summer days can bring even faster-rising energy bills.
Air conditioners and ceiling fans running continuously might seem like the only relief from harsh, triple-digit temperatures, but there are plenty of ways to cut costs on utilities without suffering, if you know where to start making improvements and changes in your home.
If you’re lucky, your home will be at least partially shaded by adjacent trees or tall plants. Not everyone has access to such a natural luxury, so you’ll have to keep your home shaded throughout the day with eaves, blinds, louvers, or automatic shade screens. It’s better to shade your windows from the outside, as it prevents against both direct and ambient heat transfer. Rensen offers a variety of external shading options for residential and commercial applications. If installing external overhandgs isn’t for you, keeping the curtains drawn on the south and west sides of your home can make a difference.
You’d be surprised how much heat energy your washer and dryer dump into your house when in use. Even something like keeping your TV on all day can have a detrimental effect on the energy consumption in your household. Your home’s internal heat accumulation means your AC will have to work even harder to overcome the heat from coming from appliances like your washer, dryer, or dishwasher.
For this reason, it’s best to wait until the sun goes down to run your appliances. You could also try these energy efficient washer/dryer units from GE to minimize the heat gain from doing your laundry
If you’d like to make long-lasting changes, but if and you’re in the market for re-siding your home, take a look at your home’s exterior. What you put on the outside of your home has a big impact on its overall energy efficiency, and there are some great options available. You might consider a rainscreen system, which is a kind of double-wall construction with an inner layer that offers insulation and prevents excessive air leakage.
And you’ll want to carefully consider the kind of siding material you choose. These durable steel siding panels from Rollex provide an energy-tight barrier that will help keep the inside temperature in, the outside temperature out, and your energy bills low.
To go along with your beautiful new steel siding, you might want to consider other areas of your home that might be leaking air. Windows, doors, and exterior vents for fans and appliances are the usual suspects for air leakage. If your home isn’t sealed up as tight as the underside of a boat, you’re bound to lose leak interior air as a result. Using closed cell spray foam insulation or a silicone caulk around leaking areas is a fast, inexpensive way to start cutting down on your energy use.
What better way to reduce your energy consumption than producing your own with solar energy? Summer is the best time to consider a long-term investment like solar energy production. Solar panel systems, like these from Grape Solar, have never been more affordable, and can end up paying for themselves in a few years Plus, installing solar panels can even increase the value of your home. Most professionals will give you a free assessment and bid for the work, so you’ll know exactly what you’re getting into before signing any contracts.
The National Department of Energy has suggested keeping your summer thermostat set at 78 degrees Fahrenheit. This might be tough for those who prefer the cold comfort of an igloo, but it will ensure a habitable amount of interior comfort without hurting your energy bill. These smart thermostats from Honeywell take the guesswork out of streamlining your indoor temperature control, so you can “set it and forget it.” A smart thermostat is programmable so that you’re not cooling your home while you’re away at work all day, but you can still set it to bring your home’s temperature to a comfortable level by the time you finish your evening commute and walk in the door.
If you’re looking to lessen the months where your AC is buzzing, you can invest in an inexpensive whole house ventilation system that will keep your home cool and won’t break the bank. A whole house fan, like this one from QuietCool, is positioned in the attic on the top floor of your home, and pulls air out through your roof - also known as stack ventilation. By opening windows on the lower floor in the evening, your home will cool itself and improve interior air quality while you are sleeping.
If you have operable skylights in your home, open them at night and hot air will be naturally vented through them, passively cooling your home without the need for electricity.
Over the course of a year, the filters in your air conditioner develop a thick membrane of money-costing gunk and grime. At the onset of every summer, be sure to replace your filters to ensure your AC won’t be working overtime just to push air through last year’s grimey build-up. New filters will also go a long way into improving indoor air quality, and leave your freshly chilled air free of allergens, toxins, and unpleasant smells. Finding the right replacement filters for almost all AC systems is an easy and inexpensive.
There’s no need to spend your summers miserable, hot, and paying sky-high energy bills. With the right plan of attack and by incorporating some key energy-saving tactics this summer, you’ll be able to keep your home staying cool until fall rolls around again.
