Alabama heating and air companies give advice on how to keep power bills low
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) — Our state’s hot and humid summers leave Alabamians using 30% more energy than the national average, according to Alabama Power.
People have been calling heating and air companies nonstop this summer.
“All day, all night, even into the early morning, which is good for us, but bad for the public,” Travis Swiney, owner of Home Pros Plumbing, Heating, and Air said.
With heat indexes reaching the hundreds during the Alabama summer, people want to make sure they can get relief from the heat indoors, leaving heating and air companies with booming business.
“It’s always by nature going to go up this time of year just due to the conditions with the increased temperature, humidity, things of that nature, and it puts more stress due to longer run times on the every day individuals,” Corey Nielsen, HVAC Department Manager for Dixie Electric, Plumbing, and Air Montgomery said.
It also puts stress on your wallet. Air conditioning systems need more energy to keep your house cool when outside temperatures are high which causes your electric bill to go up. However, there are ways to make your cooling system use less energy.
Swiney says proper maintenance is more efficient and less pricey than fixing a broken air conditioning unit. That’s why it’s so important to change your air filters regularly and get maintenance on your air conditioner at least twice a year.
“People do not realize how important maintenance on an air conditioner is,” Swiney said. “They take their car in to get an oil change and all that, but they don’t think that their air conditioner, which is one of the most expensive appliances in your home, needs that same love and care.”
These experts say your air filters probably need to be changed more often than you think.
“Frequently people kind of think, I’ve bought a 90-day filter from one of these vendors locally, my recommendation is people at least put eyes on it every 30 days, we would request that you change it every 60 days,” Nielsen said. “We find that for the average household they typically don’t make it to the 90 day mark before they need to be changed. ”
If you have pets, he says your air filters probably need to be changed even more often.
Swiney says it’s a common misconception that turning off your air conditioning system when you’re gone will save you money. This actually is pretty inefficient as it requires your system to play catch up when it turns back on. Instead, he says to bump the thermostat up a few degrees when you leave.
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