Ways to save money during the summer heat, what do you do?

[A+]

I didn't give a rats ass last season cause I had my uncle living with me at the time who is a hvac Guy so my system was always in tip top shape. I'm scared this year my plan is to stay out of the house. Sweet plan huh

[zachary]

After reading the solar screen thread I opted for solar screens on the sunroom. During the day I have left the sunroom windows open to just the screens to get circulation going. Installed the gable fan in the attic and also resealed the attic door. INCREDIBLE differance from only about 250$ bucks. The little things can really help if you can not afford all the bigger things. Still want to insulate both our garage doors and do the radient barrier in the attic.

[Sgt Beavis]

I've done the following:

1. Solar attic fan
2. Sealed HVAC ducting
3. Solar Screens
4. Ceiling fans in every room.

My house is a hair under 1800 sq ft. Last July I had my highest electric bill ever at $225. Keep in mind that I rarely run AC at night. However my wife and I are home throughout the entire day and the AC and several computers are running. I keep the thermostat at around 74F.

I'm getting ready to sell the house so I'm not planning to do much else. I considered solar panels but I just didn't want to make the expenditure.

For our next house I might go with solar panels but I'm also going to look into a residential fuel cell. They run strictly off natural gas. The primary exhaust is distilled water, that can be stored for drinking or watering the yard. The units run about $10K after gubment subsidies.

[SMKR]

we did attic barrier, then did solar shades, then programmed our thermostat and that has been the biggest bang for the buck. Learning to live comfortably with 77 degrees vs 70 where we used to set it has saved us $200-$250 a month

[SMKR]

We priced solar panels last year, since the wife works in the industry. Our home was going to cost $20,000 to put on the one slope of the roof and the ROI was going to take right at 11 years.

[zachary]

we did attic barrier, then did solar shades, then programmed our thermostat and that has been the biggest bang for the buck. Learning to live comfortably with 77 degrees vs 70 where we used to set it has saved us $200-$250 a month

Could you tell a difference with your attic barrier?

yeah in louisiana the state pays for half solar systems right now. so we are lucky. our system was 40k, but we will only have to pay about 7k

[KBScobravert]

We bought a more efficient a/c last October, added more insulation to the attic for a total of 22-24 inches, added solar ridge vents that are bigger than the old ones, added more sofet vents and use cross draft winds and a few box fans instead of the a/c when ever we can. Electric bill last monthr was $60 and I was in the garage a lot using all 13 of my 4' fluorescent ceiling lights.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2

[jyro]

The mastic is used with fiberglass tape to have lasting results

I will be doing this over the weekend. I have read this helps quite a bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTU_McRxFL0

I think I can put them (or one) in the attic somewhere and turn them on from time to time to displace most or at least some of the 150* attic temps during the summer

If you don't duct the air either on the inlet from outside or the outlet outside, all you'll be doing is blowing around hot air in your attic and you'll add the watts of the motor on the blower to the heat. You need to move the air out of your attic and replace it with outside air that is 30 or 40 degrees cooler.

I use 2 120v attic roof fans. they are 2 speed and are connected to a single thermostat. My attic stays within 15 degrees of outside all the time.

Ridge vents are a scam. Go into a attic with ridge vents and the sun out and take a temperature reading.
I'm in them all the time working on ac units.

solar screens work.

For windows you don't use, go to home depot and get a sheet of styrofoam with foil on one side. cut it to fit the window and put the white side to the window. use blinds or shades to cover the window on the inside.

Keep your outside ac unit coil (the condenser) as clean as possible. It's just like the radiator on your car, any heat it can't give off is less cooling for your house.

As far as the ac filter inside your house, you can cause poor ac performance if you use too restrictive a filter. the 3M AC filters that look like a sheet of paper block too much air and can cause freeze ups in your inside unit ( the evaporator ). Get the pleated filter that has a pillowy looking cloth, it's fluffly looking. they filter good and block less air, and are cheaper. If you have to use the hi-dollar 3M because of allergys have extra filter grills installed.

[zemog]

plant trees around your sun baked house, my house also had no trees around where we built, now it took 6-8 years for the 5gallons bradford pears to get big enough to cover but its cut my bill by over half in summer time compared to no trees

[unkoricky]

The coserv guy came to my house and suggested a few things, but he gave me a 12 pack of CFL and a 150$ rebate for an AC Tune Up.

He gave me the answer of leaving the AC on all day is better for your house and bill.

[robbyrine]

We live in a house and to protect our house from overheating in summer, we have recently installed exterior roll down shades ( https://www.royalcovers.com/exterior-roll-down-shades/ ) after having replaced our 22 year old windows. We decided that outside mount shades would have been the best solution. Btw, as for exterior applications they are very reasonably priced.