Preparing Your Birmingham Area Home for the Summer Heat
Before you know it, summer will be here and homeowners will be closing all their windows and turning up their air conditioners. The question is: Is your home ready for the summer heat?
Instead of waiting for summer to arrive, why not start planning now by preparing your home to be energy efficient? This can save you not only energy but a substantial amount of cooling costs.
Here are a few ways to prepare your home for the summer heat:
Inspect Your Doors and Windows
As your house weathers and ages, cold temperatures can cause small cracks between your windows and doors. These openings can leak cooled air and drastically increase your energy costs. To prevent leakage you can inspect your homes insulation strips around the doors and the caulking around your windows.
Other ways to ensure that cooling air is not escaping is to cover east-west facing windows with reflective film coatings.
The reflective film is stress-free to apply and can be easily removed once the hottest part of summer is over. However, reflective coatings increase the need for indoor lighting so the energy savings might only be minimal.
Hiring a qualified technician to inspect your doors and windows can prevent a lot of cooling leakage. Air Repair AL offers a wide range of cooling repair and maintenance services. With a professional staff of 100 years combined experience and a 100% satisfaction guarantee, you can be assured quality service.
Prepare Your AC System
One of the best ways to lower costs is to prepare your AC system. Have an HVAC technician assess your home’s AC system by having it serviced and evaluating the duct work. You can also have the specialist verify that there are no leaks or blockages in the main and secondary trunk lines.
It is best to have you AC system serviced right before summer is in full swing especially if you have an outdoor unit. Also have the technician check for other services that could improve your system.
Installing a programmable thermostat is a great solution for efficiency and can save you quite a bit on your utility bill.
It provides controlled cooling times and can be set to cool your home 30 minutes before your arrival. Installation should also be done before the onset of summer. If you are hesitant about installing a programmable thermostat yourself you can have an experienced technician do it for you.
Air Repair AL technicians are highly knowledgeable and they make sure that your system is running correctly and efficiently. They have the expertise and experience to get your AC system running proficiently in a very short time.
Consider Your Ventilation
A ceiling fan that runs on a continual basis uses less power than an AC device that runs occasionally. A ceiling fan can pull cooled air up and recycle stagnant hot air. In the summer make sure that your fan is turning counter-clockwise for full effectiveness.
Attic fans are also useful. They stop hot air from settling down on your homes ceiling. As well, they can prevent possible exposure to extreme heat that can make some people faint.
Reduce Your Heat Lighting
When summer heat is soaring you can decrease your homes temperature by utilizing certain lighting. Traditional tungsten light bulbs are said to produce more than 85 percent of their energy consumption as heat energy. By converting to a light-emitting diode (LED) or compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) you can reduce temperatures and save on energy costs.
By preparing your home for the summer heat you can lower your energy consumption, increase efficiency and reduce your carbon footprint. Servicing your AC system is a project that cannot wait and should be done long before the onset of summer.
Our technicians are not only EPA certified but are highly knowledgeable. They offer a wide array of AC services like seasonal tune-ups, free estimates, energy-saving coil cleaning, Freon leak detection services and complete new installation for high-efficient HVAC systems.
Call 864-777-1111 for help when your AC system isn’t cooling like it should in and around Birmingham or contact us online with any questions.