Going energy efficient with non-exempt cash before filing

[lovebirds]

The outside condensing unit has them, just as the inside evaporation unit does. Outside - it's the finned radiator looking thing that goes around your unit. Inside, it's the same thing, just made differently.

Pull your air filter out and stick your head up in the space where the filter was at and you can probably see them. If they're covered with black goop, then need to be cleaned.

The outside unit needs to be cleaned every year, even if it doesn't look dirty. It is......

Well, my A/C unit actually died this weekend. It didn't like us turning on heat as much as we did. But the outside unit was very clean!

[lovebirds]

You may find that cleaning the coils (inside & out) would do wonders for your power bills.

Depending on what seer it is, you may or may not have electric savings.

If you do change, the 13 seer is still the best overall buy for the money. You can get the 16 seer and higher, but they do not seem to work as efficiently as they claim.

And also - don't forget that in summer, most all of the power companies raise their rates. What may seem high (that you're blaming on the ac unit), may be a byproduct of the rates imposed by the power company.

No no no. I track all our energy usage with a very elaborate, time consuming Excel chart. Can I tell I'm slightly OCD?

[tigergem]

My friend just a built a house here in deep east Texas and she got these programmable room units from Lowe's that are both a/c and heat. I think they are really nice, but I also think she has them mounted too high on the wall for good heat circulation throughout the room in winter. You might find something like that to be more efficient than a central unit, because you can just temperature regulate any room to whatever time of the day you are using it most.

Also, do you use a programmable thermostat for your central unit? I loved mine, when I had one. In the winter, I was able to keep the house heated to like 50 when nobody was home, and have the heat kick on to 70-ish about an hour before everybody got home. It did wonders for my gas and electric bills.

Now that I am in Texas, you know it stays hot here in the summer, too, but I keep the thermostat set at 80 when I am home, 85 when I am going out. You can still really feel the difference when you come in from outside and makes it seem much cooler.

I have heard that attic fans do a lot of good to reduce energy costs in the summer as well.

[lovebirds]

I have a programmable thermostat but for some reason it only works properly for the AC, not heat (not that it matters anymore! Freezing in Louisiana now). I set it to be pretty warm but during the summer the husband stays home some days and pretty much sweats all day long. We were hoping for a huge decrease in energy costs and we didn't even save a dollar so we jacked it back up to 80 during the day. I do keep the AC (when it is hot) at 65 when we sleep. My one luxury.

I may check into the attic fans. I'm not sure if we have those yet. Would I have to actually cut a hole in my roof?

As much as I'm complaining about my energy cost, I used to live in a tiny apartment and my bills were twice as much during the summer due to thin walls and old windows.

[OhioFiler]

I have a programmable thermostat but for some reason it only works properly for the AC, not heat (not that it matters anymore! Freezing in Louisiana now). I set it to be pretty warm but during the summer the husband stays home some days and pretty much sweats all day long. We were hoping for a huge decrease in energy costs and we didn't even save a dollar so we jacked it back up to 80 during the day. I do keep the AC (when it is hot) at 65 when we sleep. My one luxury.

I may check into the attic fans. I'm not sure if we have those yet. Would I have to actually cut a hole in my roof?

As much as I'm complaining about my energy cost, I used to live in a tiny apartment and my bills were twice as much during the summer due to thin walls and old windows.

Are you expecting those of us up north to sympathize with you? Forget it!

[lovebirds]

Haha! Most LA people would take the cold vs heat. I'm the completely opposite. Grew up without an AC unit in my home so I like it HOT HOT HOT.

[tigergem]

I grew up in Chicago and you couldn't get me near snow again at any cost lol.

The attic fans, yeah they might require you to cut a hole in the roof, depending upon the type you get. If you already have big vents on either side, I suppose you could get one that blows across the attic instead of sucking the air out the top. For the top of the roof ones, though, I would go with the solar powered ones. Yeah I would. Definitely.

[OhioFiler]

For any exhaust fan system to work efficiently the intake area has to equal the outflow area. Many times this doesn't occur and and the system doesn't do what it was installed to do. The solution is to move north where such a system is unnecessary.

[tigergem]

Oh. Have you considered a whole house fan? I walked into a house one time that had this omg.... gargantuan grid thing in the ceiling of the foyer. I had never seen one before, but apparently it was an old timey whole house fan. Predating a/c, I was told. Pretty cool. I even found the dinosaur looking mechanical relic in the attic. HUGE. I am certain it was no longer actually functional, but geez... If you had small children or pets, I think they would have gotten sucked up to the ceiling with that thing if it was on. Which, I guess, if you think about it, might solve other problems. I can only imagine how much noise the thing must have made, though. Like aircraft, maybe.

[OhioFiler]

They still use those old airplane engine fans around here. It's amazing how folks will waste money in the name of saving money.