When it comes to enjoying your home air conditioning system, one of the key components you want to make sure you always get right is your thermostat’s setting. Your thermostat is essentially the brain behind your air conditioner that tells it when to turn on and off. By optimizing your settings correctly, you can increase your comfort while boosting efficient operation to cash in on long-term energy savings.
Get the Right Thermostat
Before we dive into the appropriate thermostat settings, you need to start by having the right thermostat in your home. There are many different options out there to choose from, including manual thermostats, programmable thermostats, and smart thermostats.
While smart thermostats are more expensive than the other options, they provide a plethora of features that boost operating efficiency while enhancing your comfort. We highly recommend investing in a smart thermostat for your home.
What Is a Smart Thermostat?
As its name suggests, a smart thermostat is integrated with smart technology that allows you to control it wirelessly through your smartphone or other electronic devices. Smart thermostats come with programmable technology that enables you to set predetermined temperatures based on the time of day and the day of the week. This means you can set the temperature lower at times when you know you’ll be home and higher at times when you know you’ll be away to better optimize your energy savings.
Smart thermostats integrate with your other smartphone technology and allow you to enjoy benefits like voice control. Many smart thermostats will send you an alert when something is wrong with your system, so you can schedule repair service. You’ll even get a notice when a filter replacement is necessary. Most smart thermostats these days come with learning capabilities that automatically adjust your temperature settings based on your normal daily routine.
Even better, smart thermostats provide you with real-time energy usage reports. This allows you to better understand your energy consumption and craft ways to reduce your usage. Some smart thermostats even come with geofencing technology that allows your thermostat to automatically adjust down when it senses your phone is near. This ensures you walk into a nice, cool home without having to make any physical changes to your thermostat settings.
One thing to keep in mind when purchasing a smart thermostat for your home is the technology that it uses. There are different brands that integrate with different types of smart home systems, like Google Nest or Amazon Alexa. It’s important to choose a smart thermostat that integrates with your existing smart home technology to ensure compatibility.
Be Mindful of Placement
While you might not give it much thought, where you place your thermostat has a big impact on its effectiveness. Your thermostat has a built-in thermometer that allows it to read the ambient temperature. This way, it knows when to tell your air conditioner to turn on or shut off based on its temperature reading.
If your thermostat is in a location where it can be affected by heat sources, it will falsely read the temperature as being hotter than it actually is. This will cause your thermostat to have your air conditioner constantly running to combat what it perceives to be a warmer environment, which will raise your energy bills. It’s best to place your thermostat on a wall that is away from direct sunlight and isn’t near any heat-producing appliances.
Use Programmable Settings
One of the most effective tactics for optimizing your air conditioner’s energy usage is to use the programmable settings on your thermostat. Opt for setting the temperature higher at times when you know you’re not going to be home, like when you’re at work.
This will reduce the runtime of your air conditioner during these hours when it’s not necessary to keep anyone comfortably cool. You can easily reduce the temperature just before you know you’re going to arrive back home, so that you’re walking into a nice, comfortable home.
Some recommendations for general guidelines to follow when setting temperatures include increasing the temperature to 85 degrees Fahrenheit when you’re away and 78 degrees when you’re home. Opt for turning the temperature down to about 76 degrees when you plan on sleeping. This provides a good mix of comfort and energy efficiency.
Avoid Frequent Changes
One thing to keep in mind is that you don’t want to be making frequent changes to your thermostat. This will cause your air conditioner to work harder and waste more energy. Don’t make the mistake of turning the temperature down 10 degrees, thinking that it will cool your home faster. Your air conditioner can only cool your home at the same rate, regardless of what the temperature setting is on your thermostat.
Avoid Using Blower-Only Mode
One common mistake many homeowners make is switching their thermostats to have the blower running constantly to help circulate the existing cold air in their homes. While this might seem like a good idea on the surface, you’re inadvertently likely increasing the humidity level in your home and making it feel more uncomfortable. As your air conditioner runs, it naturally removes excess moisture from the air.
This moisture accumulates in droplets that form on the evaporator coil. It takes a little bit for those droplets to drop off the evaporator coil and down into the drain pan, where they can flush down the drain. If you run your air conditioner to cool your home and it creates droplets on the evaporator coil, then you switch it over to blower mode, the moisture droplets on the coil will simply evaporate back into the air that’s blowing over it.
This essentially humidifies the air that your air conditioner just ran to dehumidify. When humidity levels are high, it makes you feel more uncomfortable because the air is unable to absorb your sweat to cool your body naturally. Avoid putting your thermostat on blower-only mode, as it’s not going to make you feel more comfortable.
Other Helpful Tips for Lowering Summertime Cooling Bills
Apart from optimizing your thermostat settings, there are some other things you can do to help reduce your cooling bills throughout the summer months. One of the best things to do is to implement the use of ceiling fans.
These are known to help the room feel about four degrees cooler than it actually is because they provide a gentle breeze that wicks away sweat from your body. Ceiling fans cost much less to run than your air conditioner, making them a key part of any energy efficiency plan.
Before the summer sets in, opt to check all the exterior walls of your home for any air leaks. These are more prominent around the frames of your doors and windows. You can tell there’s a leak when you run your hand over the area and feel a temperature change. Be sure to use caulking, weather stripping, or even spray foam to seal those leaks to prevent the hot outside air from penetrating your home.
Expert Thermostat Service
Ahoy! Cooling & Heating offers expert thermostat service for the Tampa Bay, FL area. We can also assist with all our cooling, heating, and indoor air quality needs. Call Ahoy! Cooling & Heating today to book your next service consultation.
