How to Reduce Your Air Conditioning Costby Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 17 Jun 2009 10:35 AM The cost of air conditioning can take lots of money out of your account. Each time you turn it on, you are draining money from your household. While few people can live without air conditioning these days, there are plenty of practical ways to reduce the cost of having air conditioning without suffering in the heat. If you have a central air system, consider shutting off vents for rooms that you don't frequent often or can live without cool air. The basement might be a good example or perhaps bathrooms. Maybe you can close the vents in bedrooms during the day. With less cool air needed in certain rooms, your system will not have to work as hard, reducing the cost of it to run. Just make sure that you have at least one functioning cold air return still open in your home. Take advantage of nature to reduce your air conditioning. In many climates, the morning and evening may see cooler temperatures. I open our downstairs windows when I get up in the morning. It reduces the temperature of our home by at least three degrees. Then when the outside air begins to warm, I close the windows back up to keep the humidity out. This has greatly reduced our need for air conditioning, especially in the spring and early summer months. If you have window air conditioning, then try this trick. Keep the air conditioners to your bedroom off until right before bed. Turn them on for about 30 minutes while keeping the bedroom door closed. This should be long enough to cool down the room and get rid of any humidity. Shut the air conditioner off, and go to sleep. If you keep the door closed, the room should stay comfortable enough for sleeping, since your body temperature naturally lowers at night. You can read more blog posts by Mary Ann Romans here! or subscribe to this blog using the subscription box on the right. Favorite Deal Websites: Related Articles: Getting Serious About Heat Conservation Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevantfrugal tags User Comments  ups477 (54) 17 Jun 2009 11:06 AMWe stopped using the window air contitioner in our upstairs last year. It gets cool enough at night that a window fan works just fine for us. Only time it is a little to warm is when it is raining and we need to shut the windows so rain dont get in. Then we use a floor fan to keep the air moving to help keep us feeling cooler. I only turn the unit on down stairs when it gets over 85 degrees outside or it is very hummid out. With window fans my home stays about 75 to 77 degrees when it is 80 to 83 out. This has helped us save so much on our elelctric bill and we are very cumpfy in our home... veebee26 (25) 17 Jun 2009 02:20 PMI live in the desert where air conditioning can be life or death for some people. Personally, I "run" hot all the time due to medications, and I have bad allergies as well which force us to use the a/c a lot. So we have to keep the a/c lower than normal or on more than most people. But, we do shut vents and even put magnetic covers over them as well to rooms that we aren't in, or just don't need it (like the bathroom). We also signed up for a budget billing type of system with our electric company. In winter it gets cold, but not terribly so, and we rarely use the heat in winter. We can bundle up in blankets and wear warmer clothes inside. Summer gives us our highest bills, so with the new billing system we pay for part of our summer usage during the winter.  thequeenofthecastle (413) 17 Jun 2009 04:36 PMWe live in Texas and our AC went out last week. Within one hour of the AC being out the house was 83 degrees! That is in JUNE... our hottest month is usually in August. So, AC is a must down here, but we also use budget pay and it really helps us spread out these shockingly high summer bills. Our company also offers scholarships for low income families to help them pay their bills. If you are really struggling to pay your bill you might want to inquire if there is something like this in your area. StBridgit (322) 17 Jun 2009 08:55 PMThere are a few home improvements that can show significant savings on both air conditioning and heating costs. First, make sure you have enough insulation in your attic or crawlspace, and your walls. Insulating gaps around doors & windows (usually present underneath the trim) with spray foam or fiberglass can drastically cut the leaks of cool air out in summer and hot air in. Second, consider which parts of your house are hit hardest with the western & southern sun. Those are the areas that will see the most heat during the day. Focus your efforts on reducing direct sunlight to windows in those spots, either with window films, landscaping with trees & climbing vines/arbors to shade those windows, or room darkening blinds. It also might be worth investigating whether you can get a free energy audit from the electrical company. The best of all is getting an audit with an IR thermometer, which will show where you might be lacking insulation in your walls. It's far cheaper to pay for blown-in insulation in gaps in your wall than it is to keep paying for heat exposure through uninsulated spaces. Community Tags air conditioning, cooling cost, conservation, frugal living Discuss this article
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