With the costs of cooling homes on the rise, and global warming making that task constantly more difficult, home owners are continuously looking for better, more inexpensive ways to cool their homes. Inside this guide you will find several strategies for lowering the cost of your utility bills, often with little or no investment of capital.
1. Cooling Starts With Your Home Design
The overall costs of building a home can be daunting, but don't overlook investing extra money into a cooling system. The quality of your life can be substantially improved with higher quality air, and the money you save each month on your utility bills will more than pay for the extra effort you put forth many times over..
2. An Essential Home Cooling Checklist
- Pay attention to your energy meter when everything is shut off in your home. Look for discrepancies - it should read zero - Install a programmable thermostat - Air ducts need to be cleaned regularly - Use solar panels on top of your roof to help power your most common appliances
3. Central Air Systems
If you are looking to cool your home, then your first order of business will be to determine how much you are willing to spend. A little more investment now can save you years of frustration. In addition, you will add to your home in a manner that substantially boosts its credit rating. Calculate how much more efficient a new system would be, and see if it's cost effective for you, versus simply maintaining the one you already have. Efficiency has come a long way in the last few years, so it's a good idea to check it out. If you absolutely are torn between expanding your home or picking up a better central air system, go for central air. A higher quality of oxygen in your home will lead to less or even no complications regarding dust and asthma. Moreover, it will allow you to get a more peaceful sleep at night.
4. Cooling Does Not Cost A Lot
Older homes are typically thought of as energy wasters. If you are considering buying a home or you just need to remodel and improve your existing home, know as much as you can about what keeps air from entering or leaving your home. Check your attic, garage walls, and basement to make sure you have insulation properly installed. Double paned windows, blinds or drapes can also dramatically improve your energy bills.
Many people retreat to their homes to take refuge from the summer heat, but whether you have window air conditioner units, central air conditioning or nothing at all sometimes a home simply doesn't cool down the way it should. Running your air conditioner constantly for days or even weeks in a row can also be a pretty expensive proposition, especially with energy prices skyrocketting upwards.
Besides putting in more air conditioners (and raising your electric bill even more) are some extra things you can do around your home to help make it cool. Here are four ways you can help cool down your home:
Ceiling Fans: Some people think they're ugly, but you can't argue with the cooling results a ceiling fan when weather gets warm. Ceiling fans are available in hundreds of different styles and shapes and they've become quite affordable in recent years. You may need an electrician to install a ceiling fan if you don't already have an outlet and brace in the ceiling of your room, but consider it a small price to pay for years of room cooling. Even if you have ceiling fans installed now be sure to make sure your fans are blowing in the right direction! Most ceiling fans can cool and help warm a room, based on the direction they're turning.
Shades: Here is something else a lot of people don't like for aesthetic reasons, but true-light blocking shades make a big impact on the temperature in your home, especially if you have large windows that face the sun during some or part of the day. Light-blocking blinds put up on windows or even in front of glass doors will cool those rooms almost instantly in the heat of the day when the sunlight it beating in.
Maintain Your Air Conditioner: Whether you have one central AC unit or several small window AC units, it's important to maintain their peak efficiency and effectiveness by cleaning air filters, inspecting them for damage and even making sure they are properly charged with coolant. A central AC unit should probably be inspected and given the once over on an annual basis by a professional and single air conditioner units should be checked out each time they are installed or turned on for the first time in a season.
Plant A Tree: Okay, unless you plant a thirty foot shade tree in your lawn this may not help right away, but there are a number of shade trees that do grow very fast and could be providing your home shade within a year or two. Trees block a lot of that sunlight that beats down on your home all day long. If you're walking in the hot sun and you want to cool down you go and sit in the shade, right? You can use the same principal for cooling your home: shade is cooler than sun!
By combining some of these relatively cheap and easy home cooling methods you can really reduce the amount of work your home air conditioner has to perform and in turn save a fair bit of money on your electric bill this summer!
Jt Miller has sinced written about articles on various topics from Home Appliances, Home Improvement How to and Jewelry. Not sure about air conditioner maintenance or ceiling fan direction? Visit HomeImprovementsDepot.com for more tips and tricks for the a. Jt Miller's top article generates over 60500 views. to your Favourites.