Going Green Can Save You Money

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:49:20 +0000

Today many people are looking to conserve energy and “green” their homes.

Did you know that Florida homes, air conditioning accounts for 40-50% or more of your electric bill?

The top 9 items you can do to lower your monthly electrical bill as related to your air conditioning system’s electrical consumption.
1 - Keep your thermostat at 78 degrees while you are home. If you leave the house, turn the thermostat up to 82 degrees. Cooling down a home from 82 degrees consumes less electricity than cooling down from a higher temperature as well as less electricity to cool the house at 82 degrees than at 78 degrees during the hours you are away from the house. You might want to consider buying an inexpensive programmable thermostat to do this for you automatically.
2 - Keep the “auto” fan feature on at all times. The air conditioner will only turn on when it is needed rather than running all the time.
3 - Remind family members or guests that turning the thermostat down to a temperature lower than 78 degrees will not cool the house any cooler.
4 - Ceiling fans make us feel cooler there the natural evaporation of moisture from our skin – they do not make a room’s temperature lower. So when you leave a room – turn off the fan.
5 - Change or clean your air filter every month. A clogged filter can cause your air conditioner to work harder. In addition, if you have pets certain pets’ dander can cause your coils not last their full useful life. This can actually save you significantly – actually thousands of dollars.
6 - Be sure to keep all doors and vents open. We do call it central air conditioning!
7 – We love the our sunny weather in Florida, but did you know the sun entering the home causes the interior temperature to increase and requires your air conditioning system to work longer and harder? So, when you leave your home, be sure to close the verticals, shades or drapes.
8 – Be sure to check your ducts for leaks. Florida Power and Light offers a program where for a reasonable price they will check your ducts for leaks, recommend a local contractor for repair work, and possibly receive an incentive to cover part of the costs.
9 - Are you having semi-annual system checks? You might want to consider this service through a local qualified air conditioning service company. This will ensure many years of efficient electrical usage of your system, as well as, the benefits of having clean coils and clean air (dirty coils do have mildew and mold!). Pet dander can reduce the useful life of the coils, so the semi-annual tune-up will discover any issues.

Another large consumer of electricity is the swimming pool and a pool heater if you have one. With a pool you must run the filtration system to keep the pool sparkling and beautiful. But did you know running your pump 8 hours per day costs about $32 to $58 per month, depending upon your pool pump’s horsepower? By reducing the hours to 6 hours during the summer results a saving of about $8 to $15 per month. At other times of the year by reducing the hours of operation to 4 hours will save you about $16 to $29 per month.

If you have an electric pool heater and use it you should use a pool blanket to retain the heat – your monthly savings for electricity will be about $45 to $71.50.

If you have a gas pool heater your monthly savings will be about $80 to $125 per month.

If you don’t presently have a pool heater, but would like to have nice warm water during the winter, consider a solar heater – after all we do live in the Sunshine State and the sunshine is still FREE.

Naples Real Estate

Going Green Can Save You Money