Room Air Conditioners

Tips on how to cool your home:

• Keep Cool Air In & Hot Air Out. When it’s cooler outside than inside, open your windows instead of using air conditioning. Use a window fan, blowing toward the outside, to pull cool air in through other windows and to push hot air out. When it’s warmer outside than inside, close your windows and then draw window coverings against direct sunlight.
• Adjust Your Schedule. On hot days, delay heat-producing tasks, such as dishwashing, baking, or doing laundry, until the cooler evening or early morning hours.
• Seal It. Caulk around window and door frames, use weather stripping on exterior doors, and have a professional properly seal gaps where air can travel between the attic and your living space.
• Use Exhaust Fans. Use your bath fan to remove heat and moisture generated by showers. The savings in your cooling costs will far outweigh the electricity use of the fan. Also, if your kitchen range hood fan exhausts to the outdoors, use it to remove hot air while cooking.
• Lighten Up. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). Incandescent light bulbs lose 90% of their energy as heat. CFLs operate cooler and cost you less to use because more of their energy is used to produce light, and less is lost as heat. Find where you can buy CFLs near you.
• Shop Smart. When buying air conditioners, choose the smallest ENERGY STAR® qualified unit appropriate for the size of the room you’re cooling. Oversized models can be less effective at reducing uncomfortable humidity and they cost more to operate. Find the right size air conditioner for your room.
• Clean and Maintain. Fill gaps along the sides of your air conditioner to keep outside air from leaking in. Remember to clean air conditioner filters regularly and keep the front and back of air conditioners unobstructed.
• Planning New Landscaping? Leafy shade trees planted on the east and west sides of your home can improve comfort and decrease cooling needs by blocking heat and sunlight. You’ll still have the benefit of heat from the sun in the winter, after the leaves fall. Ask a landscaper or at a nursery about the right species and proper planting techniques.
• Considering Efficient Windows? They do a great job of increasing comfort but the high purchase price is rarely paid back by energy savings. So, it's not financially advisable to replace functioning windows for energy-saving purposes alone. The time it makes the most financial sense to invest in efficient windows is when you’re replacing a non-functional window or you’re putting a window in a space for the first time. Otherwise, it’s possible to improve your functioning windows, to make them perform nearly as well as new ones, but at a fraction of the cost. Replace cracked panes and any cracked or missing glazing, run a bead of caulk around window frames, and use side-mount sash locks to hold windows firmly in place. If you don’t have storm windows, have them made now for installation next winter.
• Take Advantage of Warm Days. Summer is a great time to make energy-saving home improvements. These improvements can reduce both cooling and heating costs and make your home more comfortable year-round. A Home Performance with ENERGY STAR contractor can find and fix the causes of high energy bills, uncomfortably hot or cold/drafty rooms, moisture problems, ice dams, and more. Find a Home Perfromance with ENERGY STAR contractor near you.