Posted by: KHTS Newsroom in Santa Clarita Latest News, SCV Your Home Inside And Out April 9, 2019 – 10:00 am 0 178 Views
A Santa Clarita solar company is offering the community four tips on how to reduce energy use at home as electricity bills inevitably skyrocket during the hotter summer months.
“That’s one of the things that we try to do to separate ourselves from other companies out there, is not just give you cheaper electricity, but also help you learn how to use less,” said Mandy Rami of HomeLink Pros Solar. “There’s a lot of things that people are doing that they don’t realize is really using more energy than necessary.”
More than 50 percent of total electricity use in the months of July, August and September come from air conditioners, with increased usage costs even more “painful” because standard electricity rates are usually higher in the summer, according to Rami.
“There’s some simple things that you can do to save that money right away,” Rami said. “One of them would be where your thermostat is actually located.”
If the thermostat is near a window or in a room that doesn’t get used often, Rami noted that the temperature reading it’s getting is irrelevant to the comfort level of the home.
Re-locating the thermostat to a room that is used often, away from the heat of any windows, can help create a more accurate and relevant temperature reading, potentially cutting down on air conditioner use.
In addition, setting the thermostat to a temperature it will likely never achieve in the hot summer months causes the air conditioner to run constantly, racking up energy usage costs, according to Rami.
Santa Clarita Solar Company Gives Residents The Opportunity To Go Solar For Nothing Out Of Pocket
“If you put it at a more reasonable temperature, then the air conditioner will actually click on and off throughout the day,” she said. “It’s recommended that you leave your thermostat at 78 degrees and put ceiling fans in the rooms that you hang out in.”
The 78-degree setting on the air conditioner will go much further when combined with the use of an inexpensive ceiling fan, which Rami noted can run for an entire month nonstop for the same electricity cost as running an air conditioner for just 10 hours.
Another tip to reduce unnecessary energy usage is to lower the number of hours pool pumps are set to run, according to Rami.
“Your pool is usually set to clean and filter more hours than what’s really necessary,” she said. “Your pool pump is probably set right now to clean for six to eight hours, and you could probably get away (with) doing it in three to six hours.”
Rami recommends starting out setting the filter to three hours, and then adding an hour as needed depending on the state of the pool.
“If you’re not seeing your pool get green or slimy, it’s got plenty of time to filter,” Rami said.
Rami’s last tip on how to reduce energy use at home is for electric car users who need to charge their vehicles at their house.
“A few things that you can do with that would be to plug your car in at night, and then making sure that if you’re going to charge a regular vehicle at home, you’re going to want to upgrade your electric plug to a 220 plug,” Rami said.
The more traditional 110 plug typically takes twice as long to charge and uses more energy than a 220 plug, Rami added.
While these tips can help residents lower their electricity use at home, switching over to solar energy with HomeLink Pros Solar is recommended for those interested in drastically cutting their monthly costs for nothing out-of-pocket.
Originally published on KHTS Radio: https://www.hometownstation.com/santa-clarita-news/scv-your-home-inside-and-out/santa-clarita-solar-company-offering-tips-on-how-to-reduce-energy-use-at-home-271857
Ed. Note: This article is a KHTS Community Spotlight based on a recent radio interview with HomeLink Pros Solar.