Tips for Saving Electricity Costs from Air Conditioners

Air conditioning systems are installed in almost all the homes and offices and are one of the major electricity consuming devices leading to high electricity bills. Following certain tips can greatly help reducing your electricity bills from air conditioners. Here they are:

If you are purchasing the new air conditioner check for the SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio) rating of the air conditioner. SEER is the performance rating for unitary air conditioners and heat pumps defined by Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute. As per the norms set by the US government, all the air conditioners manufactured after 2006 should have SEER rating of at least 13, however the window units can still have SEER rating of 10. Purchasing the air conditioners with high SEER ratings saves the electricity bills substantially. If you have old air conditioner with SEER of 9 and if you replace it with new one having SEER of 13 there can be power saving by 30%.

The filter of the air conditioner is as important as the fuel filter of any automobile. The filter is placed just before the cooling coil and removes all the dust and dirt from the room air. The filter tends to get choked from time-to-time which prevents the room air from entering the cooling coil leading to reduction in its efficiency and continuous running of the compressor which ultimately leads to high electricity bills. To avoid choking of the air filter, clean it every fortnightly by compressed air or ordinary water. Removing the air filter from cooling coil is very easy and even cleaning it is very easy. The whole process will take hardly 10 minutes, but it will greatly increase the efficiency of the air conditioner and reduce the electricity bills.

It is always advisable to do the preventive maintenance of the air conditioner and check it at regular intervals. The regular maintenance of the air conditioner includes keeping the machine clean, preventing the occurrence of the leaks, keeping the insulation intact, checking for the proper working of the compressor, keeping cooling and condenser coils clean and most importantly keeping the air filter clean. It is always better to have annual maintenance contract of the air conditioner with expert professionals. Keeping the air conditioner free of the trouble helps greatly in saving electricity.

Many times we tend to install too big or too small air conditioner in the room. Before purchasing the air conditioner try to calculate the total heat or cooling load in the room and purchase the unit of proper tonnage. Too small tonnage won’t give you comfort conditions while too big unit will result in high initial as well as running cost. You can seek the advice of HVAC consultant in this regard. If you want to cool the whole building, check whether installing individual units in each room will be cheaper or big unit cooling the whole building will be cheaper. The individual units are preferred when the use of air conditioners is irregular, but if they are used continuously then one large unit is preferable to save the electricity bills.

By automatic system I mean the programmable thermostats. The air conditioners fitted with mechanical thermostat tend to keep on running continuously on the temperature set by the user. With the programmable thermostat you can set the temperature for different conditions as per the requirement. There is also automatic setting for such air conditioners, which will set the temperature inside the room automatically as per the prevalent conditions inside the room. With programmable thermostat you can set the temperature for night sleeping, when you are away from the home and want it pretty cooled when you return back and similar other instances. This greatly saves the electricity bills since the compressor will run only when required.