During a heatwave, the temperature reaches to it’s highest standard and often challenging for many AC unit. Don’t be surprised if the temperature inside of your house starts to creep up beyond the temperature that you set in the thermostat on extremely hot days.
However, don’t panic as Iain Walker, leader of the Residential Building System Groups at Berkeley Lab, comes with some easy and effective ways to keep your air conditioner cool during the heatwave. Here we have listed some of them.
Why your AC is not Cooling During the Hot Days?
Numerous issues can restrict the air conditioner unit from properly cooling down your house and buildings on extremely hot days. These problems also include,
- Ducts leaking inside the home
- Clogged air filter
- A blocked condensing unit
- An older AC unit
- A slow refrigerant leak
However, sometimes there’s actually nothing happens wrong with the AC unit and probably due to the outside heat wave, your air conditioner stops producing cool air.
Tips you Can Try to Better cool your home during a Heat Wave
These are the tips that you can try to keep your home cool during the extremely hot days. However, it doesn’t mean you need to all-time turn on your air conditioner. Also, if you thoroughly check out the below points, you can easily save your lots of money.
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Set the Thermostat higher
During a heatwave, it will not be the best option to always turn on your air conditioner. We advise you to set the thermostat on 80 to 85 degree and learn to live with a little heat.
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Turn on the Fans
Instead of leaving your fan on the auto position, you are advised to turn on the fan switch to the on position. This will definitely help you to flow the air in your house as well as make your room cool. You are also advised to turn off the fans on an empty room as they are using power as well as add more heat to your house.
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Change the Air Conditioner Filter
As we said earlier, a clogged or dirty air filter can restrict your AC from providing cold air. Hence, we recommend you to inspect the air conditioner filter and if you found it’s damaged, simply replace it with a new one.
Apart from this, in case, the evaporator coils are dirty, this will reduce the airflow. Also, in case, the condenser coil is dirty, it will unable to dump enough heat to the outside. Hence, if with condenser coil’ is filled with vegetables as well as other obstacles, thoroughly clean it.
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Searching for the Disconnected Ducts
In case, you place the ducts outside of your house, then you need to check if anything has come loose. If you found, fix it immediately. A supply duct and sending cold air to the crawl space and can immediately provide a positive impact over your comfort.
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Close the Unused Rooms
In case, you haven’t used the entire house or building at this time, we advise you to close all the inside vents of the unused rooms or bathrooms. This will help you to converse the energy as well as force the cool air to stay in your used area.
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Install a Window AC
If still the inside temperature of your house is extremely hot, we suggest you install a window air conditioner. We understand that a window AC can produce noise as well as it looks ugly, however, if you install a well-sized window air conditioner, then it will be the best task that you can do on the extremely hot days.
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Don’t use Appliances during Heat Waves
This is one of the most important points that you must consider if you wish to make your home on the extremely hot days. Try to avoid the using of stove, dryer or dishwasher as much as you can during the heatwave. Also, we advise you, if possible then try to prepare your food outside of the room.
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Turn on the Ceiling Fans
According to Iain Walker surely unable to produce cold air, but it can dry up the perspiration on your skin and feel you comfortable. Also, if you turn on the ceiling fans when you are in the room, there’s is no need to set the thermostat at a high temperature.
Parting Words
These are the effective cooling tips provided by the lain Walker. Also, if your air conditioner unit is older than 8 years, you are advised to replace it. However, research proved that an AC unit can last up to 20 times. However, after 7 or 8 years it almost loses it’s 40% of efficiency. Hence, the best way to deal with this is to replace the AC unit.
