Achieving better energy efficiency in your home is one of the best ways to alleviate high utility bills and reduce the strain on your household appliances. Since a large amount of your electrical budget during the summer goes toward operating your air conditioning system, it is important to focus on ways that you can maximize its efficiency.
One way to increase the energy efficiency of your air conditioning is to invest in upgrades that will make the system draw less power but without sacrificing your comfort.
Here are a few suggestions from Purl’s Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning for upgrades that can lower the energy your air conditioner uses while working its best to keep you cool.
An Upgraded Thermostat
Thermostats have a larger effect on AC efficiency than you probably realize. Older manual thermostat models are often imprecise and inaccurate, that means you will often set them to energy-draining temperatures without realizing it. The current crop of digital programmable thermostats not only increase precision, but they allow you to control the AC when you are not at home. You no longer have to waste power running the air conditioner all day so you can come home in the afternoon to a cool house: instead, you program the AC to turn on a half-hour before you come back.
A Replacement Condensing Unit
If your AC seems to be losing more and more efficiency with the years, you can have the outdoor condensing unit replaced with a new one, instead of replacing the entire air conditioning system. The new condenser will restore the efficiency of the system, and may even make it better than before.
Install a Zone Control System
This upgrade is done to your ventilation system. Technicians fit dampers inside the ductwork that control the flow of air to different parts (“zones”) of the house, and then connect the dampers to individual thermostats. This allows you to shut off cooling to parts of the house that do not require it, such as empty guest rooms. With zone control, you no longer have to expend power cooling down the whole home when only a few locations need it.
Call Purl’s Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning and talk to one of our NATE-certified and EPA-certified technicians for more ideas on how you can increase the energy savings from your AC. We have served Fresno with air conditioning services since 1952, and we can help you get the most from cooling system.