by Joe Brooks

Created on: July 26, 2009

We are all feeling the pinch of the economy to some degree, at least, and we'd all like to spend less on air conditioning. We'd like to save the environmental cost of energy production as well. You can purchase an advanced, highly efficient air conditioning system, of course. And that might be the very best thing to do, in the long run. But what if you can't or just don't want to spend the money right now? Is there any way to save on AC energy costs and still stay reasonably cool? Yes there are ways. Let's talk about some of them.

Of course there hasn't always even been air conditioning. What did people do then? Well, they got hot, for one thing. Summer was hot; nobody was surprised; they adapted and dealt with it as best they could. People had sleeping porches back then. Some had those wrap-around screened porches, where there would be a selection of couches, spare beds, and a few roll-away beds tucked in corners to fold out for hot weather sleeping. Frank Lloyd Wright often designed upper-level porches for sleeping. People opened their windows, and used fans to stir up a breeze. And houses simply had more and larger windows, too, when you knew you were going to need them in the summertime. People way back then, especially in the South, often had outside kitchens, for when it was just too hot to cook inside. Modern style is patio grilling, which will work too. They saved energy by sitting still and fanning themselves. That doesn't cost much.

But what about now, when our homes were built to be air-conditioned, and don't have large windows for cross-ventilation or sleeping porches for summer napping? What can we do to at least cut down on summer energy costs? We can shade our windows from the outside, for one thing. Trees will help. Awnings and other outside covers will help. Those one-way covers that let you see out but block the sun's rays and the neighbors curiosity will work too. Inside, we can use shades and curtains and make sure the sun isn't coming inside with us.

We can also just use the air conditioner less. We can do that by using it for fewer days. With our outside shades and our inside curtains, and some good fans, we might could do without the AC for more days. Every day we don't run the AC we'll save the planet and save on the bill We'll warm up, to be sure, but we can survive. And we surely could learn to live at a little less cool temperatures. The time was when 72 was the standard setting. That's nice and cool, alright. But it will cost you. And it costs all of us, in planetary resources to generate the power to do that. Modern recommendations are for summer settings of 78, which is still nice. You might find that you can survive at 80, with some fans and a good summer salad recipe book.

So it's really up to you. Do you want to slide the thermostat down and pay the price, or take the steps to cut back on energy use and live a little less cool and costly? If you do decide to go for the coolest cool you can get, you should consider getting a qualified AC contractor to evaluate your situation and make some recommendations. Modern systems can help you keep the air conditioning energy use down while keeping your comfort level up to your standards.

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