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With the heat of the summer months, you want to reduce as much heat as possible and save energy at the same time. It is natural that you will spend less energy over the summer months than the winter months; since you need less energy to keep heat in. however, you should be careful that you are not using too much energy to reduce the heat in your home over the summer.
Specially in hotter states, our energy bill in summer cost us more than that in the winter. Energy conservation help us in maintaining cleaner environment.
Some of the practices that will reduce summer energy spending are as follows:
- Use fans with your air conditioner, at is helps to circulate the cool air from your air conditioner.
- Use ceiling fans to improve the air circulation in your home, so that you can feel some breeze in the heat of the summer months. You can opt for the use of a house fan so that your whole home is ventilated in the heat of the summer. This fan can be mounted in the attic and will be perfect when the windows to the home are open.
- If you can, get an oscillating fan as they will turn from side to side as opposed to blowing in one direction. For the maintenance of the fan, make sure you follow the manufacturer’s instructions for the care and maintenance of the fan to ensure that the operating costs are controlled
- Use a washer which allows you to control the level of the water needed to wash the clothes. For this, you can save a lot of water and energy when you need to wash some few clothes. Also, it will be a good idea if you just wash clothes when you are sure you will be having a full load. For example, wash the clothes once a week rather than once every three days. Then you will be washing when you have a full load.
- Do not use hot water unless you really need it, most clothes can be washed by the dryer with warm water rather than hot water.
- Rinse in cold water; unlike what you may think this has no effect on the quality of your clothes. If you are using hot water, your water heater should be close to the washer to reduce the distance it will travel to reach the washer. This will prevent it from losing heat.
- You can save a lot of energy in the summer by drying your clothes in the sun rather htan using the dryer. Most clothes can be hanged on the line without any negative effect on them. You can also dry others like acrylic sweaters on the ground.
- Ensure that they are not over-dried-whether you are drying them outside or you are dying them using the dryer-this will cause you to use more water on them every time you wash them and this will mean more energy.
- Use energy efficient water heaters that will save you energy over the summer. With the heat of the summer, you can reduce your hot water needs; for example you can have hot water showers only in the evening or in the night.
- When you want to purchase one, consider how many times you will be heating the water and how large your family is. If you use hot water most of the time and you are many, you may want to buy a large one. If the reverse is true then you can opt for the smaller one. When the heater is too large, you will use too much energy heating it and when it is too small you will find yourself without water most of the time.
- Use air conditioners that are energy-efficient; those that will spend less energy in the long run. Get one that has a timer, or get it installed in the one that you already have. This timer will control its operations especially if you are not always at home and you tend to forget to shut it down when you leave.
- Opening your windows will help to reduce the heat of the summer, which will go a long way in helping you spend less energy in the long run as you will not use much energy with your air conditioner. Still, if you have a lot of humidity in the area, you may want to close your windows when using your air conditioner. This will prevent the humid air from getting into your home when you are cooling it. it will save you a lot of energy at the same time.
- Your air conditioner should have varying fan speeds to allow lower or faster cooling whenever you need.
- Install the air conditioner in a place that is central so that it does not use a lot of energy cooling the whole house.
- Set the thermostat of the air conditioner at normal or slightly higher but not high as this will save energy. Setting it at high in the beginning will not help to cool the room any faster.
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Readers, can you share some other methods you are following or have followed all along? Let’s make this article an useful resource for all future readers.
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Great list. We do many of these things. I love line drying the clothes. They smell so fresh after. Plus clothes seem to last longer. I think dryers beat them up a bit. We also use a timer on our air conditioner so it only comes on a bit before we get home from work. That way we don’t have to have it run all day.
If a room is in direct sunlight most of the day, you can keep it cooler by drawing dark curtains or blinds to keep the sun out. Otherwise, you’re passively heating the room which could mean your AC is working too hard.
-Christian L.
Cover your windows in rooms you aren’t in so the rooms don’t heat up like a greenhouse when the sun shines on them.
Get a dish rack and wash your dishes by hand, Get sun-blocking drapes for your sliding glass doors, sun brew tea (not really to save money, but it sure does taste good!) are a few other ideas that I do to save money.
I use a cold water wash for everything and haven’t noticed a difference. I suppose if you have children with really dirty clothes, you may want to test it out, but it works for me.
I wash everything in cold water. I have found that a lot of my clothes shrink when washed in hot water.
Actually I noticed my dryer as the main culprit for shrinkage, not the washer. Are you sure its the washer?
It’s really a list to consider when talking about saving energy available in any form because you listed all the basic ones that relates with the others and these tips would also not cost much like the idea of fan with AC.
You are actually right. These tips can take of any season. Thanks for your comment
We keep the temp on 76 or 77-keeps out A/C bills low, and we opted to use the washer/dryer in the apartment complex instead of getting on in our own apartment to save on energy costs. Great post! 🙂
good planning, thanks!
It is going to be 100 degrees today and I am cranking up the AC….I don’t care how much it costs! = )
Good tips!
take shower a couple of time, turn on the fan and don’t lower temp by much.
I find that keeping the house closed up early in the day helps to keep the heat outside. Also, the air conditioner and ceiling fans work very well together.
yes you are right. Even the extra heat insulation on your roof goes a long way in keeping the inside temperature cool. First floor homes stay cooler compared to second or top floors.
I find that opening the windows at night (to let in the cool air)… and then closing the windows and blinds first thing in the morning (to keep the sun and heat out) makes a HUGE difference in keeping our house cool all summer long. Only when it’s super hot do we turn on the a/c.
That’s a very good strategy. But you probably can’t do it in hotter states.
Your ceiling fan can only make you feel cooler. It is not a magical physics defying machine. So make sure that you turn it off when you are not in the room. A fan is motor, motors take electricity and turn it into motion and HEAT! You feel cooler because moving air increases evaporation from your skin.
So YES turn on the fan when you come in and turn it OFF when you leave to save energy!
Another option for those of us in the deep south humidity capital of the world is to get a dehumidifier. This works just like a fan. If you can decrease the humidity in the air you can increase evaporation from your skin this makes you feel cooler just like a fan.
Humidifier is a cool option, I know people use it for little children at home.