Steps You Can Take
• Stock up on cold drinks. Stay hydrated. However, these drinks need to be water-based like ice water, juice, milk and non-caffeinated beverages. Drinking alcohol and sodas with caffeine when it is hot will dehydrate you further.
• Go light on clothing. Change into shorts and short sleeved shirts. Let the toddler run around in a diaper. Clothing holds in body heat. During a heat wave, less clothing equals greater relief.
control your air conditioning bill
• Don’t run your heavy, heat producing appliances during the day. If you run the dishwasher, turn off the “heated dry” cycle and simply open the door at the end of the cycle to let the dishes dry. You can wash your clothes, but put the clothing on a clothes line to dry. If you do not have a clothes line, wait until sun down to do laundry. If you need to cook, wait until after 8 PM or do the cooking before 7 AM. Cook with a microwave instead of a stove to put out less heat.
• Turn off all of the non-LED lights. LED lights do not generate the waste heat produced by traditional light bulbs.
• Turn off your computers and other electronics that produce waste heat. Wait until it is dark and the temperature has begun to fall before turning them back on.
• Use a fan to circulate the air instead of turning the thermostat even lower. This will distribute cool air further without using much more power.
• If your air conditioner is not enough to cool off the home, consider supplementing with a make-shift swamp cooler. Wet several sheets and hang them in front of a fan. The combination of air flow and wet cloth will yield a wave of air cooled by evaporation.
How Your Air Conditioning Service Can Help
• Have the HVAC service clean the vents, air intakes, filters and condensers to improve the system’s efficiency.
• Seek air conditioning help immediately when the AC isn’t functioning properly. Let the air conditioning help troubleshoot why your air conditioner is running below capacity before you try to turn the thermostat even lower when it isn’t putting out as much cold air as expected.
• Find out if your air conditioner is under-sized for the load it should handle. An air conditioning unit with more capacity will use less electricity overall because it will run fewer hours of the day to cool your home than a cheaper unit with less cooling capacity.
