Best Ways to Save Energy and Cut Air Conditioning Costs During the Summer

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The heating and air conditioning system you use at home account for about 40% of your montly utility bill. This isn’t a number we made up – it’s the fact according to the U.S Department of Energy. While this is the average, it certainly will increase during the summer months when you need more comfort and cool to beat the heat of the sun. These are the months you need to use your air conditioning more than usual.

But reducing the cooling costs in summer and eventually saving money right after is possible. You just to know those ways of doing it efficiently.

According to Bankrate.com, in this article called “9 Ways to Cool Down Air-Conditioning Costs,” one of the most effective ways of keeping the home cool without the need to increase the use of the AC system is to improve plantings around the house:

“Most heat that accumulates inside a house comes directly from the sun shining onto the roof or through windows, and heating the house directly,” says John Krigger, owner of Saturn Resource Management, which offers energy conservation training in Helena, Mont.

Planting leafy trees around the building’s exterior will stop the sun from reaching inside your home. “Even for the cost of going to the nursery and buying a 15- to 20-foot-tall tree, trees are still the best value,” Krigger says.

If the trees or shrubs shade your air conditioner, you could boost your AC’s efficiency by up to 10 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

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Trees and plants serve as shade against the direct light from the sun entering your home or property. Aside from keeping the sun from warming up your place, they also are great in giving your home a much better and fresher look in the process.

According to FamilyHandyman.com meanwhile, it makes perfect sense if you purchase a new and more efficient AC system, replacing your old and inefficient one. Take this tip from “How to Save Energy and Cut Cooling Costs.”

Replacing a 10-year-old window or central AC unit with an Energy Star model can cut your cooling costs by 30 to 50 percent and save you enough over the new unit’s lifetime to offset its purchase price. This is especially true if you live in a hot, humid climate. Central AC units are rated for efficiency according to their Seasonal Energy- Efficiency Ratio (SEER). Window units are rated according to their Energy-Efficiency Ratio (EER). The SEER/EER rating is listed on the Energy Guide label (below). The higher the number, the more efficient the unit. If you double your SEER (or EER), you can cut your AC operating costs in half. New units are required by law to have a SEER of at least 13 and an EER of 8. Central AC units manufactured from 1992 through 2005 have a SEER of about a 10, and older models are at 6 or 7.

COST: Window units range from $250 for 6,000 BTUs to $750 for 24,000 BTUs. Replacing an old central-air system typically costs about $3,000, but it can run as high as $10,000.

PAYBACK: The older your system and the more you use it, the larger your energy savings will be with a new unit. For example, replacing an ancient SEER 7 unit with a SEER 14.5 unit that costs $3,000 will save you about $700 a year and pay for itself in five years. Calculate your payback with the AC savings calculator at energystar.gov.

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Finally, U.S. News has this three very basic yet important reminders for reducing energy costs this summer:

Close those shades. Anything that keeps the sun from coming in and creating a greenhouse effect will make it easier for your air conditioning unit to maintain cooler temperatures. For the longer term, consider planting leafy trees or bushes to give your home more coverage in areas that get a lot of sun.

Keep the filters clean. It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it. In fact, Geoff Godwin, vice president of marketing at Emerson Climate Technologies, the country’s largest provider of heating and cooling systems, says it’s important to clean out air conditioning filters once a month, which usually involves running water through them and letting them air-dry.

Program the thermostat. If your cat is home alone all day, he probably won’t mind if things heat up a bit before you get home. Programmable thermostats, which allow the temperature to automatically rise during the day when no one is home, can lead to annual savings of 30 percent, Godwin estimates. Even though most systems today have programmable thermostats, people only use them half the time, which means a lot of systems work harder than necessary. (If setting the thermostat leaves you scratching your head, the step-by-step video on the government’s Energy Star website, energystar.gov, can help.)

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If you haven’t installed a programmable thermostat at home, then you should immediately purchase and install one. Many homeowners can attest, and you can even ask your neighbor about it, that energy savings are significant with a programmable thermostat.

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In the end, you just have to embrace the fact that energy bills will spike during the summer, but it won’t mean you just do nothing about it.