Whether you are from the far north of the far South, we all experience a certain period of the year where the HVAC system is running near constantly.
Of course, the resulting utility bills can make us choke on our checkbook.
For my family, it is the summer that just kills the household budget. So much of our funds end up going toward keeping the house cool enough to get through the heat. There is about a four month stretch where I am just afraid of opening the monthly electric bill. It’s hard for me to even go to the mailbox to retrieve the mail because I know it’s in there lurking. But, I got sick of that feeling a few years ago and decided just being passive and taking it wasn’t getting me anywhere. As a family, we decided we wanted to get some of that money back so we could do more stuff. The first thing we did was get our house in order, so to speak. We started pulling blinds by about 10am to keep the direct sun heating to a bare minimum. My daughter even went out and got some solar cling for the worst windows. Then, we decided to take a more proactive approach to the HVAC thermostat. First, we actually programmed it so the temperature would rise with the outside temperature. This greatly reduced the load on the HVAC. We also decided that we could stand having the thermostat a bit higher when we were in the house, particularly at night. That was the big one. Our efforts resulted in a 20% savings through the worst of the HVAC demand. That money was certainly enjoyed by all of us on our weekends.