It may still be spring, but we know when summer comes, those warmer temps won’t hesitate. With our summer climates, it’s important to ensure that you have an effective, efficient, and fully functional cooling system to rely on, right? Hopefully, you’ve already taken at least one step toward making sure this is the case—you had professional maintenance done. Professional tune-ups allow our technicians to fully inspect, clean, and adjust components that need it within your air conditioner.
If you haven’t scheduled a tune-up yet, don’t worry! It’s not too late to give us a call. And in the meantime, we’ve shared below some additional tasks you can do to ensure your air conditioner operates efficiently and therefore costs less due to the energy you’ll save.
Increase Your Thermostat’s Temperature
Okay, we understand—this sound like an odd tip to give homeowners for summer. Why, after all, would you want to make it warmer than it needs to be within your home?
Actually, most homeowners make it cooler than it needs to be in their home, setting their thermostats down as low as 72°F, thinking it will help cool their home down faster (this doesn’t actually work—this just makes your air conditioner run longer and use more energy than it should.) Most people are comfortable and can stay healthy at 78°F
If you care to save energy, and subsequently save money, then you should raise the temperature to a more reasonable level. The same can be said when you’re not home or when you’re sleeping—the thermostat probably doesn’t have to be as low as you typically set it at these times.
Use Your Ceiling Fans
Ceiling fans aren’t capable of lowering the temperature of your home, but they can certainly help your household feel cooler when used in combination with your home’s air conditioner. This is because they help sweat evaporate form your body, and therefore help you cool off. And when you feel cooler, you can turn the thermostat up a couple of degrees and use less energy as a result.
The way this works is that when you use your cooling system in combination with your ceiling fans, the fans help push cool air down, and distribute it more evenly, while keeping warm air rising, for more efficient and effective air conditioner use.
Change the Air Filters
There are not many maintenance tasks that we recommend a homeowner do on their own. Changing the air filters of your HVAC systems though, is definitely one you can and should) do on your own, every 1-3 months (timing depends on the type of air filter and the level of contaminants in your home).
The air filter of your air conditioner stands between the air intake and the interior components of the system, protecting those components from dirt, dust, and other debris that can get in and harm them. This is an issue that impacts not only your air conditioner, but your furnace too. So, it’s important that you stay on top of changing your air filters all year long.
For reliable professional air conditioning services in Roanoke, VA, contact W.C. Butler Heating and Air Conditioning.