Lowering your energy bill during this extended period of hot temperatures comes down to warming things up inside.
Volunteer Energy Vice President of Cooperative and Member Services Jamie Creekmore said summer energy costs are higher because it is harder for HVAC units to cool a home when it is significantly warmer outside. To combat this, Creekmore said people should raise the thermostats.
“Anytime that you can raise that indoor temperature setting on your thermostat to you know, anything above 74, 75, you know I think TVA even says 78 degrees is kind of a temperature they’d like to see people set it at,” Creekmore said. “That’s ideal because it’s closer to what you’re getting outside.”
Creekmore said he recommends circulating air with ceiling fans or box fans, but people looking to cut costs should turn them off before leaving the room. In addition, Creekmore said smart thermostats also help people manage their energy consumption.
Creekmore said a mistake people make is turning off their air conditioning before leaving for work and turning it back on when they return home. He said the it costs more to re-cool the home than it would have to leave the unit running throughout the day.
Creekmore said the biggest contributor to an energy bill is the HVAC, followed by the water heater. Creekmore said people can lower their bills by lowering the temperature setting on their water heater.
“Those water heater settings can be reduced from what they were set as the manufacturer,” Creekmore said. “I would always air to the side of checking with the manufacturer to see what is a safe setting, but if they have it set at a higher setting than what is necessary for the home, you know, you can usually look at trying to reduce that setting.”
Creekmore said it is important to contain the cool temperatures already inside the home. One way to do this is with energy efficient curtains. Creekmore said people should check their attic insulation as well.
“It can really improve usage if they have what we consider good insulation thickness in the attic,” Creekmore said. “There’s a certain R-value, I think it’s an R-value of 30 we really look at people trying to increase that to.”
Creekmore said people can schedule energy efficiency evaluations for their home if they would like to dive deeper into their consumption.