Reduce My Summer Electric Bill (Part 1 of 2)
What can you do to lower your electric bill without sweating in your home all summer? We have lots of ideas from working with different families over the years. Let’s first start with the easy wins and simple DIY ideas. In part 2, we will cover solutions for longer term savings that will require more investment in time and money upfront.
Let’s start with how leaky your home might be. I’m talking about that precious and expensive cool air leaking out.
Some people are blown away how leaky their home is.
Close windows and doors when cooling your home. This might sound silly, but some of the households whom we’ve helped have been surprised how much this matters. People often forget sometimes. In our experience, this can account for up to 15% of leaks.
Double check your window coverings. Windows are easy to get to. Check your current window coverings with tips from this website or this article from the DIY Network. We estimate that leaky windows can account for 10% of cool air escaping your home. If you live in an older home or haven’t thought about your windows for a long time, this is good first step.
Insulate your pet door. That pet door is great for your dog or cat, but might be tough on your electric bill. If you feel a draft coming from your pet door in the summer months, there are several pet doors you can buy with more insulation. However, if you are feeling a bit handy, here are some DIY projects on how to upgrade an existing pet door and build your own insulated pet door.
Don’t bring in hot air through your chimney. People forget that lovely fireplace in the winter can become a big hole in the summer. A leaky chimney can account for 30% of air leakage. Be sure to inspect if the damper needs cleaning and is providing a tight fit. In addition, here are a few steps you can do to make your fireplace is as energy efficient as possible. Ensure your flue is sealed. The damper usually isn’t enough. You can get an inexpensive inflatable device such as one of these. Here is a good video on installing one. Also, have a secure door and cover to prevent downdrafts. Look at fiberglass and adjustable vents.
Scan for other air leaks. Don’t forget the attic. Houses are as unique as people’s personalities, so we can’t cover everything. Here’s a list of other leaky situations. Give it a quick scan to see what might apply:
- A step-by-step guide on DIY sealing and insulation throughout the house from Energy Star: here
- A video on sealing up an external door: here
- An article on how to seal your attic hatch: here. A video on adding foam weatherstripping and insulating the hatch.
- A video on how to seal a door to the attic: here
- A full video series on how to seal your entire attic: here
- Another article on weatherstripping doors and windows from Energy.gov: here
After ensuring that your home isn’t leaking too much of that precious cool air, it’s time to look at how well your home is cooled. Again, we are covering the easier wins in this article. For bigger and more thorough projects, check out part 2 of this series.
Save with more targeted and efficient cooling, especially considering the when and where.
Consider buying a smart thermostat. Maybe you already know that adjusting the thermostat while no one is home is a good idea. But this is a hassle and too easy to forget. A smart thermostat can make all these small adjustments for you, learning and tweaking the best patterns automatically. A smart thermostat is a reasonable investment upfront to make the best use of your AC. In our experience, it can account for 20% of savings without sacrificing one bit of coolness in your home. You can check out something like a Nest or newer ones like The Simple.
Clean and maintain your AC. Yeah, this can be a little bit of dirty work, but not really. You don’t have to do it often, and we have found that it can account for up to 10% of savings. Air flows into your rooms through air ducts and filters around your AC unit, so it’s important these are clean and maintained. Here is a video for maintaining your AC. It’s not as big of a hassle as you think.
Create your own temperature zones. Having multiple temperature zones (or sometimes called HVAC zones) means that the cooling duct is built to deliver different temperatures to different zones in your home. You can read more about temperature zones in this article. Multiple “zones” in your home allows you to program different target temperatures. This alone can account for 70% of savings if multiple zones are actually installed well.
Most people only have a single temperature zone in their home. So, just close the air vents for rooms you are not trying to cool. This may fix the issue by itself!
If opening/closing vents isn’t enough, you can look at a single thermostat that supports one or more secondary remote thermometers. This will help if the thermostat is currently in one location, while the rest of the house is a completely different temperature.
Use the draft at night. In some climates, the temperature swings between night and day. If you use your AC during the day, don’t forget to check the outside temperature at night to see if it’s still needed. You can often just open your windows and let in some fresh air at night. This can create a cross-ventilation draft through your home when the evening temperature drops. You may need to try different configurations of open windows and doors to get a good air flow going. When morning comes, you can close your windows and keep the cool air inside. If this works, it can account for up to 20% of savings.
Manually cool your home even during the day. Depending on your local weather, you may be able to extend the use of fresh air to cool your home even during warm days. Simply keep the windows open on the shady (cool) side of your home in the morning. When the sun starts going overhead and the temperature outside is about the same as inside, seal up your home, including all curtains and blinds. Finally, when the sun has lowered, open the windows on the shady (cool) side again.
If your electricity bill is really high in the summer, then a bigger investment in time and money may be worthwhile. Continue to part 2 for options that require more handy work or hired help like a contractor or HVAC professional.
