It’s a given—homeowners all throughout Florida want to do everything they can to use their air conditioners as efficiently as possible, and subsequently spend as little as possible on their cooling costs. Nobody wants to pay more than necessary to cool their home, after all.
Unfortunately, in the quest to find out how to reduce cooling, homeowners often come across some well-intentioned tips that aren’t great tips at all. In fact, they’ll have the opposite effect of what you actually want. Believing the following myths can lead to AC inefficiencies and higher energy bills.
Myth #1: Bigger Is Better
Most homeowners understand that they shouldn’t get an air conditioner that’s too little–or rather, underpowered–for their home. It will not be capable of keeping up with the demands of your home and simply cannot effectively cool the space. This may lead you to believe that a bigger air conditioner is better when it comes to choosing a cooling system for installation. A more powerful air conditioner will cost less to run, right?
Nope.. a large, overpowered, air conditioner goes through a process called short-cycling. This is when it rapidly cycles on and off, and never actually completes a full cooling cycle. This is a problem in itself since you won’t be able to get as comfortable as you should be able to, and yet you’ll be paying too much for cooling. But also, short-cycling causes accelerated wear and tear on the components of your AC, also hurting efficiency and potentially leading to your system’s premature demise.
Myth #2: You Can “Just” Run Ceiling Fans When You Aren’t Home
There is no point of running a ceiling fan when you aren’t home! Ceiling fans distribute air. They do not lower the temperature. They’re great to use in combination with your air conditioner though! Because they better distribute air, it can help you feel cooler, and therefor you can turn the thermostat up a few degrees. This actually boosts efficiency instead of the other way around.
The problem is, if your home is unoccupied, nobody is there to feel cooler. And if you’re only using your ceiling fans and not using your air conditioner, you’re not going to benefit from running your ceiling fans.
Of course, ceiling fans don’t use a lot of energy so you don’t need to worry about wasting electricity there–but using them by themselves in your St. Augustine area home while you aren’t present will just leave you with a sweltering living space when you do get home–your air conditioner is going to have to run for a long time to cool the space back down!
Myth #3: Closing Vents in Unoccupied Rooms Saves Energy
We get where this myth comes from. You may have heard of zoned cooling and heating, which you can achieve with a ductless system or special zone control central AC system. This allows you to provide cooling (or heating) to only the rooms that are occupied. But zone control systems are specially designed for this purpose.
Closing the vents in unoccupied rooms simply creates pressure where there shouldn’t be, and will do more harm than good for AC performance and efficiency.
Contact Climate Masters for reliable St. Augustine, FL air conditioning services. Serving St. Johns County since 1988 with quality, hometown service.
