Heating and cooling your home makes up of about 50% of your energy bill, so making a few adjustments in your habits can save you a lot of money. Here are three of the top heating and cooling mistakes most people make.
1. Trying to heat or cool your home faster
Maybe you heard that turning the air up while you are at work could save you money on your cooling bill, so you set it to 80 degrees when you leave the house. But you are most comfortable at 74 degrees when you are home, so you unlock the door and immediately walk to your thermostat. You punch it down to 72 thinking the ac will work harder and faster to cool the home. You, like many others, would be wrong. The air conditioner does not work harder or faster based on the temperature entered or the difference between the temperature in the home and what was set. The air conditioner will kick on and work as efficiently as it can to cool the home to the programmed temperature.
2. Leaving your thermostat at the same temperature
Thinking that leaving the thermostat set at the same temperature day in and day out is more energy efficient can actually cost you savings on your monthly bill. It is true that adjusting your thermostat when you are away for 8 hrs. or more can save you money. In fact raising the temperature 5-8 degrees in the summer months and lowering it 10-15 degrees in the winter can save you up to 15% annually.
Remembering to adjust the thermostat is the hard part, so upgrading your thermostat to a programmable one can be an investment for your home.
3. Adjusting your thermostat too much
Do you and your spouse argue back and forth over what temperature it should be in the home? Perhaps one or even both of you adjust it when the other isn’t looking. Although you, or maybe it’s your spouse, may be thinking you are winning the battle of the ac, you are both actually losing.
When the thermostat is constantly being adjusted, the air conditioning unit stops and restarts constantly. This effect can wear out the motor and leave it running inefficiently.
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