No homeowner wants to open their electricity bill at the end of the month and cringe due to the enormous figure—everyone wants to see a small number, so you will often hear homeowners asking, does turning your AC on and off cost more?
According to HVAC contractors, to answer this question, you need to understand how air conditioners work.
How Air conditioners work
When you keep the air conditioner working all the time, you don’t use the air conditioner efficiently, which leads to a high energy bill. Since the air conditioner is running all the time, it has to keep fluctuating to accommodate the temperature changes, which, as you might guess, is energy taxing.
An air conditioner that runs all the time also has a short lifespan. To answer your question, no, it doesn’t cost you more to keep turning your AC on and off. You save more money doing it.
When you aren’t in the house, turn the appliance off, and this will not only see you spending less money to cool your house, you also will have a long-lasting appliance.
Taking advantage of a programmable thermostat
It’s a no brainer that switching off the AC when you aren’t in the house saves you energy, but no one wants to come home to a hot and humid house at the end of the day. Is there?
To solve this issue, you should invest in a programmable thermostat. The thermostat allows you to program the air conditioner so you can set the temperature at different times throughout the day. For example, if you aren’t at home most of the day, set the thermostat to increase the temperature while you are away.
You should then program the thermostat to return to your comfortable temperature at the time when you are about to get home.
Other ways to reduce your cooling bill
Other than turning your AC on and off, there are plenty of other ways you can reduce your cooling bill. Some of these ways include:
Tune-up your appliance
There is no way a neglected appliance will function optimally, so to ensure your appliance is working efficiently, tune it up. At least once a year, hire an AC technician to inspect your air conditioner and fix any faulty area present.
To save money on repair professionals, undertake your tune-ups when there is little demand for the repair professionals.
Make use of fans
Did you know fans consume little energy than air conditioners? When it’s hot, don’t put on your air conditioner at full blast as it will consume a lot of energy. Instead, make use of fans. Fans are an excellent way to keep the house cooler and push warm air out of the house.
Fans also come in handy at helping you circulate cold air from the air conditioner to the rest of the house. If you haven’t installed them, get a few from your local store. When making the purchase, buy those with lower current usage. You don’t want units that will consume more energy than you are looking to save.
Keep curtains closed
When the sun is up, keep the window curtains closed so that the sun rays don’t get into the house and heat it. You also should keep the windows and doors closed.
At night, when the temperatures are low outside, open the windows, so you allow the cool breeze into the house, so you don’t have to lower the AC settings to a larger magnitude.
Air conditioning service repair Vienna professionals recommend using a portable air conditioner that allows you to lower the temperature in the room you are using. Since you aren’t cooling the entire house, you save a lot of energy.
