When the temperatures start soaring, the need to be cool becomes an absolute necessity. Here in Jackson, temperatures are already starting to creep up into the 90s and it will be even hotter than that before you know it. As people begin to retreat into the comfort of their own homes and crank up the air conditioning, the price to keep the home cool also starts to soar.
So what is a person to do? Is it possible to use the AC in such a way that you cool your house without breaking the bank? What else can be done?
Your Local Electricians Can Save the Day!
In today’s blog, we want to provide our readers with a few tips and tricks they can use to make the most of their homes without spending an arm and a leg to run the air conditioner all day long. There’s a fair bit of misinformation out there, but luckily for you, we’re here to help. Here are a few things you can do:
Open Your Vents
One of the most commonly repeated bits of advice is to close the vents in your home that you aren’t using in order to push air to rooms that need it more. There is a grain of truth in that advice, but unfortunately it’s a bit more complicated than that.
To put it simply, the best thing you can do is to is to partially close off the vents that you don’t need. Research shows that closing off entire rooms that you don’t feel that you need to cool can actually damage your ducts and make your problem much worse. So go ahead and close vents, but be sure that they’re only partially closed because keeping them even a little bit open helps to promote air flow, keeping you cooler.
Mind Your Thermostat
Of course the other important thing you can do is to be mindful of your thermostat. Some think that the quickest way to cool down a home is to crank the temperature down to 50 degrees, but the truth of the matter is that your air conditioner can only cool air so fast.
Instead, purchase a programmable thermostat and put it to good use. Set a schedule to ensure that the air conditioner is only kicking on when you need it to, providing you with the most comfort with the lowest cost. One way to ensure that certain rooms don’t get too warm in this particular scenario is to buy a vent fan that helps to pull cool air from other parts of your ducts and circulate it in the rooms where you need cooler air. Lower air conditioning costs and cooler rooms is a win/win situation.
Keep Your Blinds Closed
Perhaps the best bit of advice is to be consider how you’re using your curtains or blinds. Yes, your blinds let in beautiful rays of sunlight, but along with that sunlight comes–you guessed it–heat, and a lot of it. Your best bet is to keep your blinds or curtains closed while you’re away for the day and open them up when you get home if you need the extra light. It’s a small step that can go a long way.
If your blinds or curtains absolutely must be opened, make it a point to open them in such a way that you’re not letting heat in. For example, blinds can be adjusted to allow light in, but pointed upwards to ensure that you’re minimizing the heat you’re letting in. Add see-through curtains to your windows for a similar effect.
Install Ceiling Fans
If your home doesn’t have any ceiling fans, this is one solution that we think will make a massive difference. Installing a ceiling fan can be tricky because it requires a particular junction box to be used and if your home currently doesn’t have a ceiling fan, chances are that it doesn’t have a junction box that’s rated for use with a ceiling fan. Using the right box and brackets is absolutely vital. Consider for a moment how much movement there is for a ceiling fan. Now consider what might happen if it’s not attached securely to the ceiling. Not good.
After all, the last thing you want is for your ceiling fan to fall out of the ceiling in the middle of the night.
Luckily for you, a licensed and certified local residential electrician can make quick work of a project like that, providing you with ceiling fans that can work with your air conditioner to push air around, helping you to feel cooler all summer long.
We’re the Electrical Technicians You Can Count on This Summer
No matter what your home needs–from ceiling fans to emergency backup generators to additional outlets in more convenient locations–we’re here to help you make the most of your current living situation. At Delta Electrical, our goal is to ensure the complete and total satisfaction of every one of our customers and we have made it our standard to go above and beyond to make sure that happens.
Whether the job you have for us is small or large, we’ll bring our average of twenty years of experience to the table to make sure everything is done the right way the first time around. Need a free estimate? We’d be glad to help! Contact us today to get started making your home the best it can be this summer.