This summer has already set temperature records around the nation, and we're still in the dog days of August. With money tight, and temperatures high, there's a temptation to test out unconventional ways to beat the the heat. But these odd home remedies can end up wasting energy and costing more money. Here's how to know what really works when you want to keep cool for cheap.Trane and Lennox make some nice variable speed air handlers, which can adjust their output to match demand. But most homes' units have just a single fan speed—on. As such, the house's temperature will always adjust at a fairly set rate. Cranking the thermostat to 60 to take a shortcut to 70 doesn't make a difference—the hot air moves at a set rate of speed. By undercutting the desired temperature, you're simply wasting an extra 10 degrees worth of energy and money.If you're out all day with the A/C off, it takes a lot of work for a central A/C system to bring a hot house down to the desired temperature. Yet it's even more wasteful to keep it running for eight hours.

The answer is to invest in a programmable thermostat, which can let the house warm through the day, then gradually lowering it to the right level before you return. Adjust the temperature up 7-10 degrees F while you're away, and a programmable thermostat can still save you up to 10 percent on your annual heating bills. Reduce the demand on the system by closing curtains before you leave, to block the afternoon sun while you're gone.Ceiling fans work by generating a wind chill effect, not by lowering a room's temperature. Essentially, they cool people, not rooms. That's not to say that fans aren't effective at lowering your cooling bills—in fact, using ceiling fans in conjunction with an A/C will allow you to comfortably raise the air conditioner's setting by several degrees. But, just like the lights, you should turn your ceiling fans off when you exit a room.This seems logical, but it can actually end up costing you a lot. Some sophisticated, super-efficient homes can effectively divide into zones of HVAC control.

But most modern central air systems are balanced to distribute air throughout an entire house. So if you randomly close a register, the system keeps cooling and pumping without delivering the cool air to a usable space. You're basically paying to keep the inside of your A/C ducts frosty. The compressor/condenser can cycle too frequently, putting additional strain on the system, leading to accelerated wear and tear. And for all the damage, it's not actually saving any energy. If you have a big house and you only want to keep a single room cool, consider a ductless mini-split air conditioner, or a basic window unit.We have it nice in America in 2012, but ubiquitous A/C is hardly the worldwide norm. And their strategies can come in handy. When managing editor Brian Barrett's A/C went out earlier this summer—in Alabama—he and his wife and dog hunkered down in the basement, a padded layer of carpet separating them from the cool concrete floor. A caveat from Barrett: "That only works if your basement's not too creepy."

Editor-in-Chief Joe Brown, on a trip to Zambia some years back, received a set of damp sheets as he checked into his evening's lodgings. "It's so hot, the water in the sheets evaporates," Brown says. "By the time you wake up, nothing is wet." And features editor Harry Sawyers, as a kid at SEC college football games and on sweltering Georgia campouts, learned to grab a piece of ice from the cooler, wrap it in a rag, and move the melting cube from wrist to wrist. ac unit fan covers"Then you just wring the melted ice water out of the rag, right down your neck. typical air handling unitIt's country, but it works."heating air conditioning units prices How do you optimize your system's performance—or beat the heat without A/C? Wipe the sweat off the keyboard and let us know.

[TXU - WKU - Consumerist - Horizon Services - SCE Home Energy Advisor - CUB Energy - DoE 1, 2, 3 - Robert Pernell / Shutterstock]A lot of people think when they turn off an electrical appliance that it doesn’t use any power. Time to think again, most electrical devices in your home still use electricity while turned off! Some appliances never actually turn off, they are still consuming power in a standby power mode. Some electrical appliances in your home aren’t in a standby power mode, but still consume power because the way their power supplies are built. This is called many things, vampire energy, phantom energy, electricity leak, or leaking electricity. Continue reading this go green tip to learn how you can save electricity and save money! Any electrical device that has an external power supply connected to it will still use electricity while powered off. Such as cellphone chargers, computer speakers, any of those electrical devices with a cubed power supply on it. Also any electrical appliances that have a clock, LED, light, or LCD panel on it will also still use electricity while turned off.

Such as microwaves, coffee makers, TVs, VCR’s, DVD players, etc. Also any devices that have a standby or sleep power modes will still consume electricity. Most TV’s and set top cable boxes never actually turn off, they just go into a standby mode. Computer monitors and computers are the same. Most computers will still keep power to the motherboard for different functions such as ethernet cards/network cards, modems, USB hubs, etc. The electricity consumed by electrical appliances while they are turned off depends on the electrical appliance. The range of electricity used by these electricity leaking appliances are anywhere from 1 watt to 50 watts of electricity! Now 1 watt doesn’t sound like a lot, which it isn’t, but when you have 20+ electrical appliances in your home using just 1 watt of power, that’s 20 watts being used! A single cellphone charger will consume 1 watt while plugged into the wall, even without a phone plugged into it! The same cellphone charger will also consume 4.5 watts of electricity with a cellphone plugged into it that is already fully charged!

The same cellphone charger will consume 8 watts of power while charging a cellphone. A stand-alone DVR set top box will consume 48.5 watts of power while turned off. A digital cable DVR set top box will consume 43.5 watts of electricity while turned off, while a digital cable box without DVR will consume 33 watts of electricity. A satellite set top box with or without DVR will consume 33.5 watts of power while turned off. Almost everyone has a TV in their home, so how much electricity do TVs consume while turned off? Rear projection TV will consume 48.5 watts of electricity while it is turned off! A standard CRT TV will consume 13 watts while turned off. Most of you will have a mini stereo system, one of those with speakers, CD player, AM/FM radio, etc all built into one unit. They will consume 24.5 watts of power while turned off! I’m sure most of you have one of these in your bedroom, living room, or kids bedroom. A home theatre audio receiver that most of you will have hooked up to your TV in your living room will consume 19.5 watts of electricity while it is turned off.

So with just the few things I’ve mentioned here, that’s a total of $127.69/year just for  electrical devices turned off for 16 hours every day. Most of you probably have more than 1 of each of those items in your home that are turned off, but still plugged in consuming power. So now I’m going to calculate an average family of 4, and see how much electricity is leaking in their home, and how much it costs them. Well the parents are leaking 2369.74 kWh a year of electricity, which costs $236.97/year! Each of the children leak around 920.43 kWh of power each year, which costs $92.04 each child! So we have a total of $421.05/year being wasted because of electricity leaking on your electrical devices in your home! There are 3 ways you can save money and save electricity by stopping these electrical appliances from leaking electricity. I will provide all 3 methods of stopping electrical devices from leaking electricity so you can save electricity. Some methods work better than others, but are not as convenient.

The cheapest and most effective is just by unplugging electrical appliances when you are not using them, which can become a major pain.This method works great as there will be no electrical usage at all since the electrical appliance is completely unplugged and can not use any electricity at all. As this method is the cheapest as you don’t have to buy anything new. The next cheapest and least effective method is buying a standard surge protector and plugging your devices into surge protectors, when not in use, turn off the power switch which will cut off power to all the devices plugged into the power strip. Standard power strips and surge protectors are priced well and will pay for themselves if you turn them off and stop your electrical appliances from using electricity while turned off. The reason this method is not as effective as you would think, is that each surge protector will still consume electricity, so even though all your electrical appliances are not, the surge protector will still consume around 6 watts of electricity.