Be Cool: A Guide to Energy-Efficient Air Conditioning

The dos and don'ts of air conditioning.

May/June 2001
By Natural Home Staff 
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In the average home, air conditioning consumes more than 2,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually, costing the average homeowner $1,350. Air conditioners use about 5 percent of all the electricity produced in the United States, cost homeowners more than $11 billion, and release roughly 100 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air each year. This summer, save precious energy by adhering to these simple dos and don’ts.

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DO...

• Install window fans or a whole-house fan, which pulls cool air through the house and exhausts warm air through the attic.

• Plant leafy trees or shrubs to shade air-conditioning units; shade can mean a 10 percent reduction in the amount of electricity an AC unit uses.

• Clean or replace air conditioner filters once a month and keep both the indoor and outdoor coils clean.

• Keep the house tightly closed during the day and ventilate at night.

• Delay heat-generating activities such as dishwashing until the evening on hot days.

DON’T...

• Place lamps or TVs near your air-conditioning thermostat, because it will sense the appliances’ heat and run longer than necessary.

• Leave computers, TVs, and VCRs turned on during long periods of non-use.

• Set your thermostat lower than seventy-eight degrees Fahrenheit.

• Use bath and kitchen fans when the air conditioner is operating.

• Use a dehumidifier while the air conditioning is running; it increases the cooling load and forces the air conditioner to work harder.

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Comments

  • Phil 6/4/2010 9:24:05 PM

    I agree that some of the DONT suggestions are not really good. If I set my thermostat at 78 this house gets really not and we cannot use window or whole house fans due to the humidity and high heat here on the island. We had the attic sprayed with reflective paint and that has helped and we have a exhaust fan in the attic also which helps a lot.

  • Stuart 6/3/2010 5:42:49 PM

    I disagree with several of the items on your list of ways to save energy this summer. You state DON'T use bath or kitchen fans. The bath fan should be used in the summer whenever the shower is used. This removes the moisture from the air, reducing the load on the air conditioning unit. Similarly, the kitchen fan, if it is vented externally, should be used to remove moisture from cooking, such as boiling water.

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