It's hot.  It's been hot. I don't know about you guys, but our air is on. 

July is only gonna get hotter, and a common myth about air conditioners might cost you.

Some people say that if you want to save money, you should leave your air conditioner on LOW when you're not home, because it requires more energy to cool down a HOT room than it does to keep a room COOL.  But according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, that's not actually true.  In reality, air conditioners are most efficient when they're running at full blast.  And they're also better at lowering the humidity level.

So in other words, turn your air conditioner off when you leave for work, then crank it to cool your place down as soon as you get home.

If you have central air, you should either turn it off or set the thermostat at 78 degrees or higher.  Each degree above that saves you about 3 to 5%, meaning that if you set it at 80 instead of 78, you're using up to 10% less energy.

Unless you have pets, it also doesn't make sense to leave a CEILING FAN on when you're not home.  That's because ceiling fans don't actually cool the room down.  They just move air across your skin, which makes you FEEL cooler.  So if you leave a ceiling fan on when you're not in the room, you're just wasting electricity.

One of the MOST cost-efficient ways to cool your place down is to create a crosswind by opening windows.  But most people don't do it right. You have to open two windows on opposite sides of your apartment . . . but not the whole way.  The less you open them, the more of a draft it creates.  If you live in a TWO-story place, crack one window on the first floor, and one on the second floor.  If you're using an air conditioner though, then obviously you shouldn't have ANY windows open.

What are some of the ways you keep the house cool on hot days?

Conditioningly yours,
Behka

 

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