Reducing Electric Bill in Summer

[RenW]

Thank you so much, everyone! I've been trying to glean information online, but for me it is much better to get advice from people who have lived it year after year.

[autism360]

I had sunscreens installed and am seeing a 25% difference in my electric bill, they were under 1000 to do my entire house with over 22 windows and my air conditioner is not working nearly as hard. I wish I had done this 8 years ago when I bought the house. It also helps balance the temperature in the house so you do not have 1 room like ice and another like an oven and it helps with privacy because it keeps people from seeing inside with the blinds up.

[Az_Mitch]

You can build your own sunscreens for much cheaper. You can get the screen and frame from any DIY store. Put the screens together and install them. We put them on the south facing windows that don't already get shade from the house. I didn't need screens on all the windows and didn't want to pay someone else to do them. The screens do work. The nice thing about the screens is you can take them down during the winter time if you want and let more sun in the house.

[macluffy]

Originally Posted by R_Cowgirl

My swamp cooler is portable and I use it all over the house, wherever it seems to need it. I got this one at Home Depot. It's not pretty, but I don't really care. My dogs love it and so do I. The thing is that if you don't have a way to hook up a hose, you'll have to haul water to it. No big deal, really. I get water delivered, so I pour one of those 5 gallon bottles into the thing and that will last hours. The benefit of using filtered water is that you don't get lime buildup on anything. I've had mine now for 7 years, so it's paid for itself. I've only had to replace the filter pads once. I don't turn my AC on until I have to. My house isn't huge, and this gets some cool air flowing.

It has two speeds, so if the noise is too much, you can crank it down a notch. It's also good for supplemental cooling when the humidity is low enough. Oh, and when I've done garage sales or had parties in the summer, this goes right outside and keeps things a tad cooler.

Plus one on the evap cooler idea. I have this one KuulAire 470 CFM 3-Speed Portable Evaporative Cooler for 350 sq. ft.-PACKA53 - The Home Depot

it says for 350 sq ft, it makes our living room practically frigid. Do not listen to the anti-evap. cooler people- swamp coolers DO work and I swear by them. The evap. cooler's efficiency goes down as the humidity rises- obviously because it works off of the evaporation of water. I highly recommend them. We bought ours when our A/C was being worked on and it really made it comfortable - you simply add water to the receptacle, just use any old jug and use TAP WATER. The "pad" is made out of cardboard (!) and lime/hard water buildup does not matter with this as the pad we're using is same one for months, no issues yet,anyway they can be replaced. The machine is very lightweight, even when filled with water it's on wheels but easy to lift if needed, it is not at all unwieldy.

GET ONE. They are *awesome* as an extra cooling trick, this one was about 230.00 at Home Depot. The water trickle is adjustable so you can modify how much water that runs down the pad (when filled at gal capacity, on LOW trickle it did not use up even half the capacity running for 7 hrs)

it has a sleep timer, a "swing" fan that oscillates if you want it to or not, and again the water trickling amount is adjustable and it also comes with a battery operated remote so you dont have to get up to turn it on or off- or adjust the fan to HI or LO/Medium.

I honestly did not think it would cool as much as it does and would be as quiet as it is.

They are truly just wonderful and I am wondering why more houses do not use them in this dry dry heat.

In the desert in Calif. I had a house with a rooftop "swamp cooler" with central air venting just like a regular AC had- and there was only a few days in the year during a hot humid thunderstorm that it was not efficient.

[elcajones]

Sweet, I did take this thread in the other direction... shoot sorry for the thread jack op.
I'm thinking my portable cooler will be on my patio for the heat of summer and running inside when we have the 70's to high 80's temps.

[hikernut]

Just a few more comments to (perhaps?) add some clarity.

There are basically three tasks to accomplish. (1) minimize the amount of direct sunlight entering through glass, (2) minimize the amount of air exchange with the outdoors, and (3) minimize the heat loss through the home's shell by conduction.

Item (1) is best solved by adding things outside the house that block some or all of the sun... shade screens, shutters, trees/bushes. Window coverings inside the house will help, of course, especially if they are light colored, but even they will absorb some of the sunlight that enters through windows. Keep in mind, the summer sun can enter through windows on any side of the house.

Item (2) is mostly about making sure there are no big leaks around windows and doors. Add or replace weather stripping and caulking as needed. (For a new build there are other things that can be done, of course.)

Item (3) is mostly about insulation. If you have attic access, check the depth of insulation and add more if necessary. This can even be a DIY project. Replace single-pane windows with double-pane versions.

[RenW]

Originally Posted by elcajones

Sweet, I did take this thread in the other direction... shoot sorry for the thread jack op.
I'm thinking my portable cooler will be on my patio for the heat of summer and running inside when we have the 70's to high 80's temps.

Don't worry about it! I'm glad for the information too. It sounds like with a room evaporative cooler you can keep the AC higher because the lived in rooms are more comfortable. Every little bit helps.

I was over at the house today and decided to raise the temps at the vacant place to 84 when we aren't there. I may move it up even higher.

I had failed to notice that some previous owner had tacked sun screen on top of the attached pergola over the side patio. That helps to reduce the amount of sun that even gets to the patio door. But I tacked some black out fabric over the patio windows on the inside to further reduce the sun that gets in. I had forgotten I had some! I'll get some good black out curtains soon, but that will work for now.

A while back I picked up some black out fabric to darken our bedroom. I didn't want to invest in black out curtains since we didn't own the apartment. You can buy black out fabric from a fabric store. One side is pure white the other and off white. It is the fabric that is used on the inside of many black out curtains. I tacked it over the window and it was hidden by the blind over that. From the other side all you could see was flat white like a pull shade. It was a cheap fix for the situation.

[autism360]

Originally Posted by Az_Mitch

You can build your own sunscreens for much cheaper. You can get the screen and frame from any DIY store. Put the screens together and install them. We put them on the south facing windows that don't already get shade from the house. I didn't need screens on all the windows and didn't want to pay someone else to do them. The screens do work. The nice thing about the screens is you can take them down during the winter time if you want and let more sun in the house.

I priced the materials for my 20+ windows and I was unable to see much of a savings because you have to buy in bulk and end up with a lot of leftover stuff that destroys your savings. I also noticed some homes that looked like crap from people not doing the job right and thought it was well worth the extra because of increased home value because of increased curb appeal. I also got a 200 dollar rebate from SRP because I used a licensed contractor.

[azjack]

Here is a youtube video on making your own sunscreens from SRP:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSn1g7Icy28

[R_Cowgirl]

Originally Posted by macluffy

Plus one on the evap cooler idea. I have this one KuulAire 470 CFM 3-Speed Portable Evaporative Cooler for 350 sq. ft.-PACKA53 - The Home Depot


In the desert in Calif. I had a house with a rooftop "swamp cooler" with central air venting just like a regular AC had- and there was only a few days in the year during a hot humid thunderstorm that it was not efficient.

Thanks for the heads up on this one. I was thinking of getting another one as my 7 year old machine could use an upgrade. Some of my neighbors in this older neighborhood have swamp coolers on the roof. I still don't understand why they didn't put the AC and swampers on the ground in the shade when they built, but that's just me...

Originally Posted by autism360

I priced the materials for my 20+ windows and I was unable to see much of a savings because you have to buy in bulk and end up with a lot of leftover stuff that destroys your savings. I also noticed some homes that looked like crap from people not doing the job right and thought it was well worth the extra because of increased home value because of increased curb appeal. I also got a 200 dollar rebate from SRP because I used a licensed contractor.

At least no one has suggested aluminum foil on the windows!!

I also had misters installed when I first moved into my house. They were just 1/4" PVC pipes connected to the garden hose with a filter. That worked for about 5 years. Then it got moldy and stopped working. So they came down last summer. I'm noticing a difference this year and may invest in one of those systems again. But I would definitely use the metal pipes instead of PVC. Meanwhile, i saw a little portable thingy at Home Depot. Orbit Cobra Mistand-10057W - The Home Depot It looks like fun and should be good for sitting on the patio in the evening.

stay cool everybody!!
hydrate!