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Lowering Your Air Conditioning Bill
Utah Power is encouraging customers to conserve engery, especially during the current hot weather. Residential central air conditioning is making a bigger impact on Utah Power's system than ever, especially between 3 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Utah Power offers these tips to help lower electric bills related to air conditioning:
- Raise the thermostat setting on air conditioners. Cooling costs are cut up to three percent for every degree over an eight-hour period. Riasing the setting from 68 degrees to 72 degrees can make a big difference, both on the customer's bill and the pressure on local power distribution systems during peak hours.
- Open windows at night and in the morning to let in cool air. Using the intake setting on a window fan helps bring in even more cool air.
- Close windows, shades and blinds when the sun starts hitting them, to keep heat out and trap cool air in. Windows in shade can be left open.
- Keep air moving inside your home with ceiling, window, attic and portable fans.
- Cook outside on the grill or cook in the microwave, which produces much less heat than a conventional oven.
- Turn off lights that aren't being used. They generate unnecessary heat.
Other Energy Saving Suggestions
- Use energy-saving settings on refrigerators, dishwashers, washing machines and clothes dryers.
- Check age and condition of major appliances, especially the refrigerator. Older refrigerators use substantially more power than newer energy-efficient models.
- Look for opportunities to replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. This can save three-quarters of the electricity used by standard bulbs and they last 10 times longer.
- Install a water-saving showerhead.
This Week
- Fix leaky faucets. Thirty drips of hot water a minute can waste 50 gallons of water and $1 in energy costs a month.
- Turn off faucets immediately after use. Over a year, the water wasted from running water while shaving, washing dishes, and other household tasks add up to thousands of gallons of water, in addition to the money it costs to heat it.
- Examine heating/cooling systems. The same comfort with less energy is possible through cleaning, retrofit or replacement.
This month
- Clean or replace furnace, air conditioner and heat pump filters. Dust and dirt can quickly clog vital parts, making your furnace run harder and eventually break down.
- Insulate hot water pipes wherever they're located in unheated areas.
- Locate and seal air leaks. The worst culprits are usually gaps around plumbing pipes, recessed lights and unfinished spaces.
This year
- Hire someone to inspect forced air or heat pump system. A $50 to $100 tune-up can reduce heating or cooling costs by up to five percent.
- Install a programmable thermostat. Use it to set back the temperature by 10 degrees for eight hours at night and heating/cooling bills will go down 10 percent a year.
- Replace aging and inefficient appliances.
- Insulate and seal heating/cooling system ducts. Improperly sealed and insulated ducts can waste up to 25 percent of a system's energy and can cause indoor air quality problems.
- Reduce air conditioning costs by planting shade trees and shrubs. One well-placed shade tree can reduce cooling costs by 25 percent.
- Install an automatic water heater timer to lower the thermostat during low-use times.
For more tips, get a booklet and/or home profile from Utah Power by calling 1-800-222-4335.
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