Temperatures are rising in Florida, but the rain is also falling, so we aren’t quite into the full heat of summer yet. Your utility bills won’t show the price spike you expect when your air conditioning system starts running on a regular basis.
When the price spike comes, we’d like to help you keep it from being quite so steep. Here are a few simple tips to help lower air conditioning bills over the summer without having to make big sacrifices in comfort. Some you can do on your own. Others require the assistance of AC professionals—but they’re definitely worth it.
We often recommend UV air purifiers to our customers who are looking for the best in indoor air quality. UV air purifiers use the power of ultraviolet radiation, the same energy that comes from the UV rays in the sun, to kill organic pollutants moving through a home’s HVAC system. This includes bacteria, germs, viruses, and mold spores. UV air purifiers are especially helpful for the Florida climate, which is humid enough to make it easy for many unpleasant organic pollutants to thrive. Mold in particular is a problem that can get into many ventilation systems, where it not only releases unhealthy mold spores but can create damage to the ductwork.
One of the most important services that we offer our customers is routine maintenance service for their cooling and heating systems. We strongly recommend homeowners arrange for a maintenance tune-up and inspection in spring for their air conditioning systems. The work we do on your AC, such as tightening electrical connections, lubricating moving parts, and checking for a drop in refrigerant pressure, will give the system the best chance of making it through another sweltering Florida summer without suffering a breakdown. That will give you peace of mind, one of the best rewards.
Humidity in homes is a problem that can occur almost any place in the country. Even in a desert climate. The reason is that homes generate water moisture inside them, from cooking and showering.
The heat pump has become a popular home comfort installation in Florida because it’s a fantastic fit for our weather. A heat pump works as both an air conditioner and a heater: its cooling mode is powerful enough to overcome hot Florida summers, the heating mode is efficient and energy-saving for the mild winters. For many homeowners, having their year-round comfort taken care of with a single installation is a huge benefit!
The furnace may be the most common heating system in the country, but it’s still got its share of problems. In truth, furnaces only have a lifespan of about 10-15 years, at least if you expect it to run efficiently. Then again, heaters in Florida do not get as much of a workout as they do in other parts of the country, so it’s not too surprising to have heaters last longer than expected.
Many people end up in Florida because they hate the idea of too much cold weather. Most of us are quite glad that truly cold days are so few and far between. That does mean, though, that when it is chilly outside, we tend to want heaters to function properly so we can ignore the outdoor climate for a bit!
If you’re from another part of the country, you might mistake a Florida February for springtime (a very rainy spring season, that is). For the rest of us, these temperatures are just a delightful benefit of living in Lake City. This is a time when you don’t have to worry about much in terms of home comfort, aside from shutting the windows and keeping an umbrella by the door.
In this part of the country, we don’t see a lot of gas heaters. Electric furnaces do a fine job of warming up Florida homes (although we do recommend a heat pump to the energy-conscious Floridian instead). A major benefit to electric furnaces is that they are so durable, which is why it may be surprising when you notice yours has run into trouble, or won’t start up at all.
There’s nothing quite like central air conditioning if you live in Florida. We’re known for our humidity and our hot summers that last longer than in the rest of the country. But we get our share of cold days as well—especially in Northern Florida. That’s why we think there’s nothing quite like central air conditioning…except, perhaps, a heat pump.