We often receive inquiries about ways to reduce electricity bills when air conditioning is a concern here at PenAir. It would be best to be mindful of a few things we’ll cover below.
The most obvious answer is to use your air conditioner less. Having it cranked up in the height of summer has a cost attached; it’s just how it is. However, there are many ways to adjust your air conditioner to cut those energy bills and still achieve temperature control that will keep you comfortable.
You don’t need the controls turned so low that you must put on a jumper indoors in summer. Anything below 24°C is probably excessive and would feel cold to someone entering the home. Aim to achieve a relaxed, temperate environment – not arctic conditions.
Similarly, in winter, setting your control around 21°C is suitable. When you turn it up beyond 22°C, the system will need to work much harder to maintain that temperature and every degree above that will require even more work. Every degree above adds 10% or 15% to the system’s electricity.
Homeowners frequently let their air conditioners run all night – especially during summer. Ideally, you’ll want to set your timer so the air conditioner is not in use while asleep. Investigating the different rate tariffs supplied by your energy provider is also worthwhile. What the energy companies consider to be ‘peak hours’ are times of the day when energy is charged at a premium. For example, between 2 pm and 8 pm, Monday to Friday would be charged more per kilowatt-hour than other times. If you want to reduce electricity bills, setting a timer to prevent your system from operating during these high-cost hours makes sense.
Timers will work during times of the year when there aren’t temperature extremes. But they may not help you achieve cost-cutting when it’s scorching. It would be best if you rethought your strategy during heatwaves. For example, if you get home from work at 5 pm and turn the air conditioner on, it must work flat out to drop the temperature by 10 degrees. This again means it will be doing so at the highest kilowatt-hour dollar rate of the day.
In this case, a better strategy would be to turn your air conditioner on in the morning when you leave the house. In the cool morning, it will be able to achieve and maintain a temperature in the home of about 24°C very quickly. While it’s doing so, it’s also using cheaper power. Some systems can turn them on and off remotely using apps, which can be helpful if you’re travelling or working unusual hours and want to work around peak energy rates.
It sounds obvious, but keeping your windows open when your air conditioning is in use will push up the power it uses. There’s no point in having an air conditioner unless you’ve shut all your windows. If you have a ducted system, it’s not entirely necessary to shut your internal doors. But if it’s a split system designed for one room, you’ll want the doors closed to reduce your electricity bills.
Insulation in your walls and ceilings and double-glazing on windows are brilliant ways of managing heat in a home. Without them, heat seeps through your walls, and your HVAC system has to work harder to control the internal temperature.
Newer air conditioner models are much more energy efficient than ten years ago. Technology is changing all the time. For example, a new gas called R32 has come onto the market and is more efficient than the older types of gas. This means the star rating (how a system’s energy efficiency is graded) is excellent.
To explain how this works, let’s look at a standard household one-kilowatt electric bar heater. One kilowatt of electricity comes in, and one kilowatt of thermal energy goes out. A small air conditioner may have a star rating of five, meaning that for one kilowatt of electricity going in, five kilowatts of thermal energy come out.
Of course, a well-maintained air conditioning unit will always perform better, using much less power. This is why we always encourage regular servicing, especially for air conditioning units that are used heavily or have exceeded their warranties. Servicing will ensure your air conditioner runs at its most optimal level and prevent it from using up large amounts of power.
Whether your power bill tells you to invest in a new air conditioning system or change your usage and living habits, you can reduce energy use. If you have concerns about how much power your air conditioner uses, call us, and we’ll organise an inspection. We look forward to hearing from you.
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