How to use your air conditioner to save money and energy
CTV
Tips and resources for how to be energy-efficient and cost-effective when using your air conditioner during hot summer months.
If you’re fortunate enough to have access to home air conditioning (AC), perhaps the recent sweltering temperatures across Canada haven’t been too unbearable.
The downfalls to using AC include increased electricity demand, especially when everyone cranks them up at the same time, which presents a challenge for electricity systems, according to Brendan Haley, director of policy research at Efficiency Canada, an organization housed at Carleton University’s Sustainable Energy Research Centre working towards an energy efficient economy.
“This creates peak demands that electricity systems must supply, and often this requires use of polluting fossil fuels or expensive imports from outside the province,” he said in an email to CTVNews.ca.
There are a few ways to use air conditioners more efficiently and effectively though, according to Haley.
If you’re looking to buy a new air conditioner, Haley suggests looking for units with ENERGY STAR labels and high seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER) ratings, to ensure you get the most energy-efficient and cost-effective machine.
The ENERGY STAR label is an internationally recognized symbol on products, homes, buildings or industrial facilities to show that it is certified to use less energy and reduce emissions that contribute to climate change.
Air conditioners on the market today have SEER ratings that range from 13 to 25. The SEER rating determines how much energy and money an AC unit needs to effectively run in a single year. A higher the SEER rating means the unit uses less energy.
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