Summers in Kansas City can be long, hot and humid, but lowering your cooling load can take the sting out of high electric bills. The cooling load refers to how much heat your cooling system has to remove from your home in order to reach the temperature at which you’re comfortable. When you seal the air leaks, add insulation, take care of the windows and a few odds and ends, you’ll see your energy consumption drop.
Air leaks
- Look for cracks between your window frames and the exterior of your home. Seal any with exterior caulk.
- If you can see daylight coming between the exterior doors and the frames, apply fresh weatherstripping.
- Look in the basement and attic for pipes or wires entering your home. Seal with expanding foam or insulation. If the gaps are around a chimney, use products that are non-combustible.
Add insulation to your attic, especially if you can see the tops of the joists. Insulation lowers your cooling load immediately and for years to come. You can use fiberglass batts or blown-in cellulose or loose fiberglass.
Windows
Shade your windows during the day with insulating coverings. Lined drapes, shade screens, Roman or quilted shades do a good job at keeping the heat from circulating into your rooms.
Miscellaneous
- Change your light bulbs to CFLs or LEDs. Incandescent bulbs throw off a lot of heat and use far more electricity than these more energy-efficient lighting styles.
- Use your oven sparingly, and if you have to bake, do it in the morning or after the sun sets. Slow cookers don’t use much electricity and can cook many different kinds of food.
- Wash your clothes with cold water. If you need to sanitize something, consider soaking it in vinegar or blotting it with hydrogen peroxide. Both of these are easy ways to disinfect without using hot water to lower the cooling load.
If you’d like to learn more about lowering your cooling load and making your A/C run more efficiently, contact Overland Park Heating & Cooling. We’ve provided quality HVAC services to the Greater Kansas City area since 1983.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Overland Park, Kansas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).
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