From Guest Blogger Lizzie Weakly: Home Energy Efficiency–Four Ways to Reduce Your Cooling Costs

As it gets hot during the summer, most homeowners look for cost-savings methods. Attempts to lower your utility bills while staying cool at home can be frustrating. Review these ideas to stay comfortable while reducing the bills for keeping your home cool.

Clean Your Ductwork

Most homeowners know that ductwork is like the veins and arteries in your body. Your cooling and heating system is the heart of your homes air circulation. After cool air leaves your air conditioner ducts circulate it throughout your home. They direct cool air to rooms hotter than others. Ducts are essential to maintaining a comfortable temperature throughout the house. Ductwork constantly expands and contracts when it is cold or hot outside. Condensation forms when your air conditioner sends cool air into overheated ductwork.

Condensation creates moisture in your ductwork, which makes it vulnerable to unpleasant things. Bacteria thrives in a warm, moist environment and rapidly multiplies into mildew, mold and other air contaminants. Meanwhile, ducts continue to circulate air throughout your home. This sends mold spores, dirt, mildew and other contaminants directly to your lungs. Increase air duct efficiency and keep you and your family healthy. Have your ductwork inspected and cleaned by a professional.

Repair or Replace Your Air Conditioning Unit

Homes built before the 1980s with original cooling systems cost up to 50 percent higher to cool. Imagine what you could do with the extra money in your wallet if your utility bills were half of their current costs.

Homes with cooling systems over 10 years old consume up to 40 percent more energy than current central AC units. When professionals like 1 Arizona Refrigeration Service Inc. inspect your air conditioner, keep those figures from the US Department of Energy in mind. Offset the cost to replace your air conditioner with the savings on your utility bills. Local incentives also help lower costs.

Install Ceiling Fans

Air circulation is a key method to cool both rooms and hot bodies. Ceiling fans serve at least two purposes during the summer heat. They help your body by circulating air over sweaty skin, cooling you off. This helps you sleep better at night.

Additionally, ceiling fans pull hot air up to the ceiling and allows cool air to stay lower in the room. This helps rooms cool efficiently. Not every room needs a ceiling fan, but larger rooms that tend to retain heat will be noticeably cooler with one.

Plant Trees and Shrubs

Plan ahead and plant shade trees in key areas of your yard. Summers will not cool down in the years to come. Wishful thinking and procrastination will not change reality. Talk with someone at your local plant nursery to find native trees. Ask what shrubs grow quickly to provide shade for your overheated home.

You could notice a difference by next year if you plant shrubs now in strategic areas. Find spots to shade windows during the hottest part of the day. The alternative will find you in the same, sun-drenched rooms next summer. You will wish you had planted trees and shrubs this year. Trees and other plants help clean the air. That gives you additional incentives to help your home and the environment.

Ask a professional to take a look at your cooling system to give you an idea of where you can save energy. Celebrate when your utility bills go down and you find the value of your home increased.