In Houston, Texas A/C is not a luxury - it is a NECESSITY! At least for me. We are in a very low-lying, flat, humid area. My Mom dubbed it, "The Arm Pit of the US." It is a very sweaty place for sure. My A/C system is about 8 1/2 years old and still going strong, but I KNOW they have more efficient technology out there now-a-days. I just want to get a few more years out of my extremely costly investment. Not only was it a chunk-o-change to buy and have it all installed back in 2000, but when they did it they made a HUGE mess of the ducting and seals in the attic and caused my electric bill to SOAR over $1,000 two months in a row...in the SPRING time. I can't even imagine how high it would ave been in the summer. They refused to take responsibility for it even when I went up in the attic and showed them the problems. Needless to say ARS does not get a good referral from ME.
In order to make my old unit a little more efficient I bought a mister device last month that attaches to the outside unit. It has a paddle that acts like a lever to turn on the misting tips whenever the fan kicks on and the breeze blows the paddle upward. When the fan turns off, the paddle drops and turns off the misting tips.
The idea is the mist cools the air in the immediate vicinity of the unit so the air being sucked in to cool starts out at a lower temperature and doesn't require as much energy to cool it down further. When I first hooked it up, it actually felt like the air coming out of my vents inside was a little cooler than it used to be - probably my imagination...but I am a bit of an optimist. To assist the system even further I put an umbrella over the unit so in the hottest part of the day it is shaded. My next bill bill should tell me if I made a difference or not. They say your A/C can be as much as 60% of your electric bill around here! My house is ALL electric, so it could be a smaller percentage - 45% maybe? But if my system is running 20-30% more efficiently, I should be able to see a difference in my next electric bill.
A couple of months ago I decided to forgo a LITTLE bit of my comfort and bumped up the thermostat to 77 degrees. That was 2-3 degrees higher than I usually kept it and it made a difference of $60 on our electric bill. My husband is perfectly happy with that temperature, but my Mom & I use fans to keep us a little cooler. Hey fans are cheaper than A/C! I already turn the thermostat way down in the winter - 6o-ish - but I saw a show on TV that says that is a little too cool for everyday living, and you should keep it closer to 65 for respiratory health reasons. Oh well, maybe that's why we got sick the past couple of winters. I will still keep it WAY below 70 this winter though, that's for sure...my husband can wear 2 shirts.
Whenever the time comes for me to replace my old A/C unit, I will get one of those super efficient ones. Even if they cost a little more initially, it is worth it to use less energy. Less energy - smaller carbon footprint - now that's GREEN!
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