Staying cool is expensive. In a hot climate like Texas, the average family spends about $600 a year on cooling. In the Midwest, it’s about $300. But costs vary a lot within regions and even within a single neighborhood. Your home may cost $700 to keep cool while a similar home next door costs half that. This article will help you make your home the low-cost energy leader on the block. Our focus is on cutting cooling costs, but many of these tips will save you money on your heating too. We include upfront costs and payback for each of our tips, but the actual figures depend on your individual house, region, climate, living habits and electric rates. Replacing a 10-year-old window or central AC unit with an Energy Star model can cut your cooling costs by 30 to 50 percent and save you enough over the new unit’s lifetime to offset its purchase price. true if you live in a hot, humid climate. Central AC units are rated for efficiency

according to their Seasonal Energy- units are rated according to their SEER/EER rating is listed on the Energy number, the more efficient the unit. you double your SEER (or EER), you can cut your AC operating costs in half. find the rating on an older unit, check the data label or plug the model number into the online CEE-ARI database at < href="http://www.energystar.gov">energystar.gov oncentral air conditioner unit parts the Central Air Conditioners page. tools for car ac repair are required by law to have a SEER of at leasttypes of hvac returns 13 and an EER of 8. Central AC units manufactured from 1992 through 2005 have a SEER of about a 10, and older models are at 6 or 7. COST: Window units range from $250 for 6,000

BTUs to $750 for 24,000 BTUs. Replacing an old central-air system typically costs about $3,000, but it can run as high as $10,000. PAYBACK: The older your system and the more you use it, the larger your energy savings will be with a new unit. For example, replacing an ancient SEER 7 unit with a SEER 14.5 unit that costs $3,000 will save you about $700 a year and pay for itself in five years. Calculate your payback with the AC savings Buy an Energy Star–rated central AC unit with a SEER of 14 or higher (especially if you use your AC a lot). Buy the right-size central AC unit by making sure your contractor performs a thorough cooling load analysis on your home. contractors simply choose a unit that’s the same size as the old one. In many cases, the old one is oversized, so it wastes electricity. Replace the entire unit, not just the replace the inside coil and/or blower fan, you won’t get the rated

Buy a unit with eco-friendly coolant (R41A “Puron”) since R22 (Freon) will be phased out of production in 2010. If you get stuck with an old Freon unit, recharging the system will be very expensive (not to mention Use the Energy Star savings calculator at energystar.gov to figure out whether it makes financial sense to replace your AC, and get a list of the most energy-efficient AC units. Check for local, state and federal rebates on higher efficiency units at If you live in the Southeastern United States, consider a heat pump, which moves air more efficiently than a conventional AC unit in areas with high humidity. live in the Southwest, consider an evaporative “swamp” cooler, which uses 75 percent less energy than conventional AC and costs about half as much to install. For more information, go to energystar.gov. “My neighbor complained for years that my 22-year-old AC unit was too