How you run your air conditioner can maximize its efficiency. Even if you’ve replaced your old central air or room air conditioner with a brand new model with an SEER 13 energy rating, there are ways you can ensure that it works as efficiently now -- and in future -- as the day it was installed. How you operate your air conditioner may be as important as its size and Energy Star rating. Keep It On Don’t set the thermostat down low when you turn the unit on or make constant adjustments. It will take the house the same time to cool down to your desired temperature. Constant changes not only cause more energy use by fans, but lead to fluctuating temperatures. When the temperature rises, set your “AC” to the warmest temperature you can live with -- and leave it there The U.S. Department of Energy recommends keeping indoor temperature as close to outdoor temperature as you can stand for the best efficiency and most comfortable conditions. Give It Help Give your AC a rest during periods you’ll be away.

Turn it off, or set it high, at 85 degrees Fahrenheit so the house doesn’t get so hot that it takes hours to cool down. When nights are cool, open windows to ventilate your house at night, particularly if you live in a climate with low humidity. how much for a small ac unitRather than running the fan in your air conditioner to circulate cool air, invest in a box fan to move air between rooms and improve ventilation and leave the air conditioner fan on the “auto” setting. price of a new ac unitAn inexpensive circulating fan will move the air through your rooms more efficiently and save wear and tear on the pricey blower fan that you depend on to move air for both the AC and the furnace. prices for new ac unitImprove Its Accuracy Consider replacing your thermostat if you have the kind with the lever that you move behind a temperature scale for your central air unit.

A digital thermostat with a day and night programming capability can save energy by cutting back on cooling when it’s not needed -- such as while you’re sleeping, out of the house at work and school and off to the cabin for the weekend -- without having to remember to change it manually. Another way to improve accuracy is to keep lights and other heat-producing appliances well away so their heat does not trigger the thermostat. Keep It Clean Never run an air conditioner with a dirty filter or litter in the aluminum blades that protect the condenser coils in the outdoor unit or behind the front panel of a window unit. Obstructing either limits the movement of air that is essential to your air conditioner. The less freely air circulates around the condenser and compressor coils, the harder the blower and fan have to work to send cool air into the building’s interior and vent hot air away from it. Vacuum or replace filters and clean delicate aluminum blades with a soft brush. References American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers: Top Ten Things About Air ConditioningEnvironmental and Energy Study Institute: Air Conditioner Efficiency Standards: SEER 13 vs. SEER 12U.S. Department of Energy: Tips: Air ConditionersU.S.

Department of Energy: Room Air ConditionersU.S. Department of Energy: Energy Savers: Heating and CoolingOregon Department of Energy: Energy Tips Photo Credits Yamini Chao/Digital Vision/Getty Images Suggest a Correction You’ve probably wondered this at some point, after coming home to a stifling house on a long, hot, summer day: Do you really save energy—and money—by shutting off your air conditioner when you’re gone? Or would it be better to just let it run at the same temperature setting all day long, so you don’t expend extra kilowatts starting it up and getting it to a comfortable temperature? Wasting energy not only costs you more money, it leads to more burning of coal and other fossil fuels that contribute to global climate change. Related: The Better Man Project From Men’s Health—2,000+ Awesome Tips on How to Live Your Healthiest Life We contacted Jennifer Thorne Amann, MES, buildings program director for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), to help us figure out whether you should leave it on or turn it off.

The theory behind leaving it running is that the stable temperatures mean the air conditioner won’t have to work as hard. If you let the house get hot when you’re away, the air conditioner will use more energy when it’s time to cool things down. But the contrasting theory states that even if your AC needs to work harder to cool the house in the evening, that still doesn’t waste more than letting the air conditioner run all day. Related: How to Stop Sweating So Much So what should you do? Turn it off when you leave, Amann advises. It may seem like a waste of energy, but it actually saves you a fair amount of money. It also helps your air conditioner work more efficiently. Related: 10 Budget-Friendly Ways to Keep Your House Cool This Summer While it may seem like your unit has to work hard to cool a space down from 80 to 75 degrees, “air-conditioning systems run most efficiently when they’re running at full speed,” rather than running for shorter periods at a less powerful speed to maintain a constant temperature all day, Amman says.

Related: The Best Temperature For Sleeping They’re also better able to dehumidify your house when they run full blast, she adds. The article Signs You're Using Your Air Conditioner Wrong was originally published by our partners at Rodale's Organic Life. It's been hot here in the Atlanta area lately. Just three weeks ago we were wearing jackets with low temperatures in the thirties Fahrenheit, and now we're getting up above our summer design temperature every day. That means that a lot of air conditioners are running as everyone tries to keep cool. One common question I get from homeowners is: Should I put the fan in the on position? Most thermostats have two settings for the fan - auto and on - and some well-meaning HVAC techs tell their customers to put the fan in the on the position to distribute the cool air in the house better. Let me back up a bit here. For purposes of this discussion, your air conditioner has two components: the part that cools and the part that moves the air.

You adjust the part the cools by changing the temperature setting on your thermostat. You can affect the air movement by setting the fan to auto or on. When the fan is in the auto mode, the air conditioner moves air only when the cooling part is running. When the thermostat senses that the house has reached the setpoint, it shuts off both the cooling and the fan. When the fan's in the on mode, the fan keeps running continuously, even when the cooling part is turned off. One of those settings is better than the other. The photo below shows how my thermostat is set, and that's how I recommend you set yours, too. The number one reason you don't want the fan to run continuously is that your air conditioner is probably oversized. Since your AC is responsible for doing two jobs, cooling and dehumidifying, moisture from the air condenses on the cold evaporator coil when it runs. An oversized AC will shut off after a short run time and leave a lot of water sitting on the coil. By running the fan after the coil warms up, a lot of that water will evaporate and be put right back into your home.

So, putting the fan in the on position compounds the error of having an oversized cooling system. Your house will cool down quickly without dehumidifying well. Running the fan continuously makes the dehumidification worse and your home less comfortable. Update (9/8/14): See my actual data on how setting the fan to the on position raises the humidity. Even in a dry climate where dehumidification doesn't matter because there's little moisture in the air, there are other reasons not to leave the fan in the on mode. First, it costs more because you've got that fan using about 300 watts while it's running, and you're probably not getting much benefit from it. Good HVAC design in new homes will obviate the need for this if you're running the fan because of air distribution problems. [See addendum below regarding dry climate fan operation.] Another reason to use the auto mode is that if you have leaky ducts outside the building envelope, it can add to the air leakage of the house.

Depending on the type of duct leakage, you may end up with higher infiltration (air leaking in) or higher exfiltration (air leaking out). In either case, you add to your cooling load and make the home less comfortable. Here's another really good recommendation, too. If it's just too hot out, go find yourself a nice waterfall to cool off in, like I did this weekend. Addendum (6/2/13): If you're in a dry climate, running the air conditioner for a few minutes after the compressor shuts off can help cool the home more efficiently. You don't want to run the fan continuously 24/7, though, because that will use more energy than is necessary for the extra cooling and have the duct leakage problems mentioned above if ducts are outside the enclosure. The way to do this would be to install John Proctor's Western Cooling Control, which Martin Holladay wrote about at Green Building Advisor. How NOT to Use Your Heat Pump Thermostat Do Programmable Thermostats Save Energy? heating & cooling distribution,