6 Tips for Keeping Your Home Affordably Comfortable

■Take care to set your thermostat properly.

Don’t overcool in summer or overheat in winter. You’d be surprised how much your air conditioning bill will climb if you lower your temperature too much in the peak cooling season. Your operating costs can spike from 3% to 8% for each degree your thermostat is lowered. When heating, your operating costs likewise increase for each degree your thermostat is raised. Try for a summer setting of 76 degrees and a winter setting of 70. You can still be comfortable and keep your energy bill out of the stratosphere.

■Be sure to clean or replace your air conditioning filters frequently.

You might need to do it more than twice a year, if you have dogs and cats. Keeping your filter clean is one of the easiest ways to ensure truly efficient operation of your home cooling system. If you don’t know the location of your filter, check with us. We can also advise on the best type for your individual circumstances.

■Keep your house as leak-free as possible.

Of course, you’ll want to keep doors and windows closed. But, you can stay both comfortable and cost efficient by retaining your conditioned air by adding insulation to the attic and sealing cracks around windows and doors.

■Keep both your indoor and outdoor air conditioning coils clean.

You’ll want a special evaporator coil cleaner for your interior unit and a solution of water and non-toxic, non-acidic cleaner on the exterior coil. Action Heating and Air Conditioning can perform this on a one time or routine basis.

■Watch out for ice on the pipes at your evaporator coil.

If you spot this, it signals a potentially serious problem. Turn off your unit right away and call us to send out a technician right away.

■Don’t let plants and other obstructions block your condenser.

Make sure you’ve got lots of air-flow around the unit. It’s best to keep all that vegetation a good 18 inches away from the air conditioner. And, don’t put any kind of shed or building over your unit. Keep the evaporator (indoor coil) unobstructedMake sure the evaporator is not blocked to insure proper airflow across the coil. (This may require a professional service technician to clean the coil). Coils should be cleaned in order to preserve the efficiency of the unit.