When the warm summer weather comes back around, many of us are looking for ways to stay cool and comfortable. Unfortunately, many people fall victim to various misconceptions about how to stay cool. We’re going to bust some of the most popular myths out there so that you don’t fall victim to them this summer season.
A Bigger AC Is Better
The size of your air conditioner has a big impact on its ability to adequately cool your home. It’s not uncommon to think that if you get a big AC unit, you can cool your home faster. The reality is that a bigger air conditioning unit than your home actually needs can cause a waste of energy and sacrifice your comfort level.
When an air conditioning system is too big for a home, it will turn on and off in short bursts. This doesn’t give your air conditioning system adequate time to remove the humidity from the air inside of your home. When this humidity is left inside, it can make your home feel much warmer than it actually is. This, in turn, causes you to turn down the temperature on your thermostat, which consumes more energy.
Keep It Off When You’re Away
Another common myth that is readily distributed is that you should turn your air conditioning system off when you’re not going to be at home. This is not a good option as it can lead to two main problems. First, your home will get very hot and take longer to cool down whenever you do get home.
Second, without your air conditioning system running, humidity will get trapped inside of your home and make it feel hot and sticky. When humidity levels get too high in your home, it can cause damage to wood furniture and lead to potential biological growth.
Turn the Thermostat Down for Quicker Cooling
We’re sure that you’ve heard the recommendation to turn your thermostat temperature way down to get your home to cool down quicker. In most cases, this is a complete myth. Most of the cooling systems that are in use have only a single-speed fan. This means that it doesn’t matter how cool you set your thermostat. Your air conditioning system can only produce so much cold air per hour.
It is imperative to note that some newer cooling systems have a variable speed fan motor. With these types of systems, the fan can adjust to a clicker speed whenever there’s a large gap between the actual indoor temperature and the temperature that you have set.
Appliances Don’t Create a Lot of Heat
When it comes to keeping your home nice and cool, you want to keep as much heat out of it as possible. You may not even give a second thought to the heat that your appliances produce because you don’t think it’s large enough to worry about. The reality is that various appliances throughout your home can create a significant amount of heat that your air conditioning system has to constantly combat.
Some of these appliances include your clothes dryer, dishwasher, oven, and even the lights throughout your home. You should restrict using many of these appliances until the dark hours of the night so that your air conditioning system is not battling the heat from the appliance and the heat from the sun.
Opening Windows Helps Airflow
One myth that has many people confused is the fact that opening windows at night can help keep your home cool. It seems to make sense at first glance because the weather is colder in the evening hours. However, when you leave your windows open, you allow both the heat and humidity from outside into your home.
The next morning, your air conditioning system will have to continuously run to bring your house back down to temperature. In addition, it’s going to have to fight the excess humidity. That same humidity will make you feel much warmer and likely cause you to turn the thermostat down even lower. This just creates a vicious cycle of your air conditioning system consuming large amounts of unnecessary energy.
Closing Vents Saves Energy
If you have rooms throughout your home that do not get any traffic, such as a spare bedroom, you may consider shutting the vents in those rooms. The idea behind this myth is that you should be able to use less energy to cool your home because you’ll be cooling a smaller space without all the non-trafficked rooms.
The problem with this tactic is that the ductwork for your air conditioning system was specifically designed for all the vents throughout your home to be in an open position. Whenever you close off any of the vents, it can change the air pressure inside of your ducting. This can ultimately result in uneven cooling of the remaining rooms of your home that have open vents. It’s best to leave all the vents open throughout your home as you consume less energy in the long run.
ACs Create Cold Air
A lot of people are under the false assumption that their air conditioning system creates cold air. Not many people realize that air conditioning systems are large heat-transfer systems. Instead of putting cold air into your home, air conditioning systems remove heat from the air.
Essentially, the warm air inside of your home is pulled in through the return vents of your ducting. A fan forces the air over the evaporator coils inside of your air conditioning system. When this happens, the refrigerant inside of the coils pulls the heat and moisture out of the air. The remaining cold air by-product is returned to your home via the supply vents in your ducting.
Ceilings Fans Make Rooms Colder
When it comes to saving energy, many people recommend using ceiling fans to help cool their homes. Ceiling fans have no ability to cool the air inside any room. Their job is to simply force air in one direction. Ceiling fans can be a great addition to an air conditioning system as the area that they force down onto you can allow you to feel much cooler than the air actually is inside of your home. A steady downward breeze can make a room feel up to eight degrees colder than it actually is.
Leaving It on All Day Is More Energy Efficient
One myth that many people fall victim to is this concept that leaving your air conditioning system running all day long is more energy efficient than turning it on and off whenever you enter or exit your home. Having your air conditioning system constantly run throughout the day consumes a lot of unnecessary energy. Conversely, leaving your air conditioner off all day long and then turning it back on when you get home can cause it to consistently run for a long period of time, using a lot of energy.
Ideally, you want to have a programmable thermostat where your air conditioning system will automatically kick on whenever the temperature inside of your home rises above your set temperature. By having a programmable thermostat running, your air conditioning system can kick on only when it’s needed and turn off whenever it reaches your desired temperature. This allows your home to stay cool throughout the entire day.
Courteous AC Service
Fahnestock HVAC provides professional air conditioning services for the entire Wichita community. We’re also here for all of your heating, electrical, plumbing, and geothermal needs. Just call us today to get the help that you need!
