Every day, your air conditioner toils to keep your house cooled and climate controlled. For the most part, many Americans take their heating and cooling systems for granted, just letting them go about their business unchecked. We tend to ignore our cooling systems, until they break. Once that happens, it becomes painfully clear just how necessary climate control can be.
We’ve been taking care of air conditioning systems for years, and there’s much more to caring for your systems than just making sure nothing’s caught in the condenser and ensuring your ventilation is clear. As such, here’s a few tips we want to share with you so you can save money on your air conditioning while still keeping your residence or business as cool as you want, all summer long.
Know Your System’s Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio
The total efficiency of air conditioning systems is called the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio, or SEER for short. The guidelines of this efficiency ratio were created by the Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute, with 2008 being the most recent revision. The SEER is calculated by taking the amount of total cooling that a system has performed and dividing it by the amount of electricity it used in total. America measures cooling and heating units in the “British Thermal Unit” or BTU, and uses “watt-hours.”
If it’s too much math for you to figure out, that’s okay. We can help you figure out the SEER of your air conditioning system. New systems are required by federal regulations to have a SEER rating of at least 13. An AC unit having a SEER rating of 16 or greater will save the owner hundreds of dollars a year in efficiency. Older systems, especially those made before 2008 can have SEER ratings of 6 or lower—a huge difference in efficiency.
If you know your system is older and more inefficient, don’t fret – contact us at Care Temp. We know how to install high-efficiency systems and bolster current systems to be more energy efficient. Contact us today to learn more about AC units with only the highest SEER ratings. In the hotter months, New Jersey can get very hot, humid and uncomfortable. Start saving money by using only the best SEER rated systems.
Do You Use a Modulated AC System?
In a nutshell, Modulated Air Conditioners are operated by a variable-speed system that changes the speed of the system when it needs to. When a property is getting cooled to the desired levels, it will turn to a lower speed instead of turning off outright. Likewise, it won’t wait until your residence is warmed up to turn back on. The system maintains a low, efficient cooling speed to keep your property cool instead of constantly switching off and on. This process creates level cooling that is energy and cost efficient. Additionally, many of these systems have separate, more efficient humidifiers and dehumidifiers, which play a huge part in the heating and cooling of a property. Through both of these advantages, Modulated A/C Systems can save you a nice chunk of cash every summer.
Speaking of Humidifiers… How’s Yours?
It’s a valid question to consider, after all. Often, areas can feel hotter than they actually are, which can cause people to over-cool their properties. This practice obviously costs you more money than you have to be spending on cooling. At the same time, not enough humidity causes parts to dry out, and can cause damage to different things in a property that may need a little humidity to stay in good condition. This could include leather furniture, carpets and even people and pets sleeping in your house.
It pays over time to get proper humidity control systems in your property, whether you need humidification, dehumidification or both. Some properties have excess moisture in the air of their basements and need to add humidity to the rest of the property. You can save hundreds of dollars a year on cooling by having healthy humidity levels throughout your property. Many modulated air conditioners come with humidity control in them, but if you’re using another older system, Care Temp can visit and tell you your options for humidity control.
Does Your AC System Incorporate Heat Pumps?
Most standard A/C units use a refrigerant-based cooling process that uses a condenser in conjunction with an air handler and evaporator coils to extract heat and moisture from the air and create the cooled air that people love in the summer time. This process takes a decent amount of electricity and can be very demanding on energy budgets. This is where heat pumps come in—they are specially built to extract heat and then dump it outside of a property when they have to, and extract heat from the outside and pump it into a property when they have to.
Instead of using traditional refrigerant cooling in a property, consider a system that skillfully uses heat pumps to save a lot of money on cooling, without any risk of putting strain on the A/C unit. Heat pumps are built to handle high-stress heat extraction and will save hundreds of dollars for property owners.
These four tips will save you a lot of money on air conditioning around New Jersey. If you are looking into getting more efficient A/C systems put into your house before the hotter months of July and August, look no further than Care Temp. We’re used to keeping families cool in many hot and humid areas of New Jersey. Don’t hesitate! Call us today at 855.788.TEMP and ask us about our most energy efficient cooling systems.