The first 90 degree temps could arrive this week, putting strain on your family budget through higher energy bills.
Volunteer Energy’s David Murphy said you can cut costs around your home as summer arrives. Murphy said water heaters and HVAC units account for 60 percent of energy costs. Murphy said simple changes to air conditioning usage have the biggest impact on consumption.
“During the spring and fall, if the outdoor temperature is 70 degrees and your set point is set at 70 degrees, the unit might not run at all for days on end,” Murphy said. “And so you can see significant increases of three, four or even fivefold between the spring and the winter and spring and the summer months.”
Murphy said keeping windows and doors closed while running the air conditioning can lower prices. Murphy said that taking shorter showers and consolidating laundry loads are other ways to cut energy costs.
“During the summer months, you’d want to keep your blinds closed and the curtains drawn to minimize the solar infiltration inside the home,” Murphy said. “If you have a lot of glass, leaving the windows exposed where the sunlight can eradiate inside the home, that will cause the temperature in the home to go up and the HVAC unit to have to fight against that.”
Murphy said most energy bills are between $120 to $150, and they can cost north of $200 over the summer.
“You can swap out light bulbs and that kind of thing, but the contribution from a light bulb to your total electric bill is significantly less than your HVAC and water heating,” Murphy said.
