After you get your air conditioner—of if you’ve had one for a while—you’ll learn that efficiency is the key. Efficiency leads to better comfort, cleaner air, and best of all, lower energy bills. Whether you have AC now or are thinking of installing one, we have a few efficiency tips that will help you save more money every month.
Air Sealing
In your air-conditioned home, air is money. You can’t afford to have air just flying out the windows. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happens with homes that aren’t properly air sealed. For homes that are extra drafty, what they need is some sealing around the windows, door frames, and other places that let air in and out.
There is an art to air sealing, however. A home that’s too airtight is not going to have the desired effect and will lower your indoor air quality. A professional HVAC contractor in Brandon, MS will be able to air seal your home according to the best practices so that you can enjoy better comfort and lower energy bills.
Duct Sealing
Somewhat like air sealing, but the location makes all the difference. While air sealing keeps conditioned air inside your home, duct sealing keeps the air inside your ducts. The only place that air should be coming out of the ducts is through the air vents leading into the rooms of your home. However, after a few years of use, your ducts can come subject to wear and tear, including leaks.
Up to 30% of energy is estimated to be lost through these duct leaks, but it can easily be prevented by making sure it’s sealed up through the entire duct system.
Regular Maintenance
Just like with a car, nothing will keep your AC running smoothly and efficiently as good as regularly scheduled maintenance. We know that a lot of homeowners are skeptical about the benefits of maintenance, but when you break it down and understand all the parts involved, it makes sense.
Air conditioners are finely tuned machines. If even one major component stops working the way it’s supposed to, it will have a domino effect on the rest of the system—and it’s not always apparent. For example, leaking refrigerant is one of the worst problems your AC could have, but it can go completely undetected. Leaking refrigerant can lead to big problems like frozen coils and possible compressor failure. Before any of these things can happen, though, it’s going to increase the demand on your system, directly affecting the efficiency and leading to higher monthly costs.
Attic Fans
The use of an attic fan is an indirect, but highly effective, method for lowering the temperature in your home.
The beating sun, combined with the fact that heat rises, makes the attic extremely hot on even the most average summer days. This heat will dissipate into your home and raise the temperature as much as 8 degrees. Attic fans work to push this air outside, thus lowering the temperature in your attic and in your home.
