The Texas heat is no joke, and we don’t have to wait till summer to learn that! With spring here and summer quickly rolling in, keeping your home comfortable and efficient may be on your mind. Air conditioning systems will be working overtime to help keep us comfortable and that can come at a cost. That’s why we wanted to provide you with some more efficient solutions to keeping your home and your wallet comfortable during the heat of spring and summer.
Use Fan and Ventilation Tips to Cool Down Your Home
While you’re at home, use ceiling and standing fans to help you feel more comfortable, rather than cranking down the A/C. During the spring and summer, your ceiling fans should be set to operate counterclockwise (this is a very important tip). Don’t have ceiling fans? An oscillating portable fan can also be used to help cool you down and they can be found pretty inexpensive at home improvement stores.
Program Your Thermostat
Cooling your home while no one home is not very efficient. That’s why having a programable thermostat is beneficial. If you are leaving for work for eight hours out of the day, program your thermostat to be 7-10 degrees above your normal temperature when you’re home. Energy.gov shares that homeowners can save up to 10 percent on heating and cooling by adjusting a thermostat back 7-10 degrees for eight hours a day from its normal setting.
During the warm spring days and summer, program your thermostat for the bulk of the day to a high temperature that is comfortable and ensures humidity control for your home.
Keep Out Direct Sunlight
Direct sunlight coming into your home is guaranteed to increase the temperature in your home. A home’s east and west facing windows will receive the most sun, and during the summer are at an even higher risk for high heat gain. Placing blinds, curtains, or reflective window panels are some ways to keep the sun out of windows.
Turn on Bathroom Exhaust Fans
While you should be turning on the fan anytime you shower, in the hot spring and summer months, leave it on for a while longer than just your time in the shower. Hot showers obviously heat up bathrooms, and that heat can spread out into other areas of your home. So, don’t just turn the fan off when you get out of the shower, leave it on for an extra 20 or 30 minutes so it can really pull the hot air out.
You might be thinking – how is this more efficient than just running your A/C? Well, bathroom fans run at a very low cost, especially compared to a whole A/C system.
Keep the Furnace Fan On
Most thermostats allow you to manually turn the furnace fan on that blows hot air through your home in the winter. In the summer, that fan can be run on its own (without the heat factor of course) to circulate and distribute the cooler air from the basement or main level of your home. It also acts as another way to keep the air flowing and moving, like a fan would, which makes you feel cooler. For furnaces located in rooms with a window, you can take advantage of the window to create even more airflow. When the fan is turned on, it will draw in the fresh air from outside and circulate it throughout your home.
