By the Snohomish County PUD
It’s summer! Hooray! Summer is here — at least according to meteorologists.
The National Weather Service measures summer statistics from June 1 to Aug. 31. In the Pacific Northwest, last summer was the second hottest on record, with a record 31 days of 85-plus degree weather and 11 that reached at least 90.
This summer is forecast to be hot and dry as well.
Staying cool will be important during those dog days of summer. Keeping cool in your home can be pricey, especially if you don’t do your homework. Cranking the air conditioner all day to keep temps down can balloon your energy bill as much as turning the furnace on too high in the winter.
So how can you stay cool and keep your PUD bill low? Here are tips to improve the comfort of your home this summer in an efficient manner so you can save your dollars for summertime fun:
Use a smart thermostat. In the same manner Nest, ecobee and other smart thermostats can keep your furnace working efficiently in the winter, they can do the same for your air conditioner in the summer. Smart thermostats use sensors and connectivity to tell when you are away, so air conditioning can be turned off when not needed.
They can also learn a daily schedule, be pre-programmed for home cooling and be controlled from your smartphone so that cooling is done as efficiently as possible.
Bonus tip: Currently, the PUD has a $75 rebate for eligible customers who purchase and install a qualified smart thermostat in their home.
Throw up some shade. If a smart thermostat is a futuristic solution to keep your energy bill low, then these ideas are more old-school. There are a number of low-cost solutions to keep the sun out, which can help keep the inside of a home cooler during hot days.
First, close the blinds, shades or curtains to keep the sun’s rays out and reduce the load on your AC system. For a more long-term solution, think about putting up exterior window awnings to reduce solar heat gain by as much as 77% on west-facing windows and 65% on south-facing windows.
Planting shade trees on the southwest and southeast corner of your property can help keep homes cooler in the summer. Along with creating shade to cool your home and yard, trees also clean the air and increase curb appeal.
Efficiently cool your home. Likely due to its name, heat pumps are often thought of as something that can keep your home warm in the winter. But they’re also great at efficiently cooling your home in the summer. Because they use more sophisticated compressors and fans, heat pumps use up to 30% less energy than standard air conditioning units.
Heat pumps can be a tad bit pricey, but the PUD offers varying rebates for heat pumps if customers with electric heat use a registered contractor to install one. For more information, visit www.snopud.com/smartrewards.
When it comes to air conditioning units, whether central or room units, choose an Energy Star rated model. According to the Department of Energy, Energy Star-certified air conditioners help Americans save more than $350 million each year in energy costs and prevent more than 6 billion pounds of greenhouse gases. To find out more on what air conditioners qualify as Energy Star-certified, visit www.energystar.gov/products.
Here’s one final tip: There are only 84 days of summer left. Skip being home and get out and enjoy it!
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