Tenant Summer AC Maintenance Information
The Dog Days of Summer are upon us and relief is months away. This is not only creating stress for you and increasing your utility costs, but is stressing your air conditioning unit.
Here are some common sense and easy things you can learn and do to help your system keep you as comfortable as possible in the Florida summer.
PLEASE UNDERSTAND: Generally speaking any air conditioning system is designed to hold up to a 20 degree difference between the outside air and the inside air, while keeping the humidity around 55%. When the temperature outside reaches 95, your air conditioner will run continuously and really begin driving up the electric use attempting to reach anything below 75 degrees. With an outside temperature of 98 degrees, for highest efficiency you should set your thermostat no lower than 78 degrees. With extreme humidity that heat index could well be at or over 100 degrees. The difference between setting your thermostat at 72 degrees and 78 degrees can increase your cooling costs by as much as 47%.
TO HELP YOUR AIR CONDITIONER KEEP YOU COOL:
- Make certain you have clean filters. Change them often. This will increase air flow through the house.
- Make certain no furniture is blocking air conditioning wall air return vents.
- Use your ceiling fans or get floor fans.
- Make certain all shades are closed on the “sunny sides” of the house.
- Reduce heat sources. Use less lighting, turn fans off when no one is in the room, keep heat producing appliances, such as televisions or lamps, away from the thermostat. Their heat can make the thermostat think it needs to work harder to cool the room. Limit cooking and baking to the coolest part of the day.
Do not turn your air conditioner off when you are leaving for work or going on vacation. Leave it set at 80-82 degrees. This keeps humidity from building up, reduces energy consumption and will not over tax the air conditioning system when you get home and turn the temperature down again.
Armed with this information and a tall glass of ice tea, we wish you all a comfortable summer.
The Dog Days of Summer are upon us and relief is months away. This is not only creating stress for you and increasing your utility costs, but is stressing your air conditioning unit.
Here are some common sense and easy things you can learn and do to help your system keep you as comfortable as possible in the Florida summer.
PLEASE UNDERSTAND: Generally speaking any air conditioning system is designed to hold up to a 20 degree difference between the outside air and the inside air, while keeping the humidity around 55%. When the temperature outside reaches 95, your air conditioner will run continuously and really begin driving up the electric use attempting to reach anything below 75 degrees. With an outside temperature of 98 degrees, for highest efficiency you should set your thermostat no lower than 78 degrees. With extreme humidity that heat index could well be at or over 100 degrees. The difference between setting your thermostat at 72 degrees and 78 degrees can increase your cooling costs by as much as 47%.
TO HELP YOUR AIR CONDITIONER KEEP YOU COOL:
- Make certain you have clean filters. Change them often. This will increase air flow through the house.
- Make certain no furniture is blocking air conditioning wall air return vents.
- Use your ceiling fans or get floor fans.
- Make certain all shades are closed on the “sunny sides” of the house.
- Reduce heat sources. Use less lighting, turn fans off when no one is in the room, keep heat producing appliances, such as televisions or lamps, away from the thermostat. Their heat can make the thermostat think it needs to work harder to cool the room. Limit cooking and baking to the coolest part of the day.
Do not turn your air conditioner off when you are leaving for work or going on vacation. Leave it set at 80-82 degrees. This keeps humidity from building up, reduces energy consumption and will not over tax the air conditioning system when you get home and turn the temperature down again.
Armed with this information and a tall glass of ice tea, we wish you all a comfortable summer.
