Nobody wants to spend a bundle on heating and cooling bills, and now you don’t have to. Michael Scott is the owner of Riverside Heating and Air Conditioning Inc., a certified, insured and licensed firm serving the heating and air needs of the greater Memphis, TN area, and he talks here about ways to maximize the efficiency of your home HVAC system – and save money at the same time.
It’s not that difficult to increase the efficiency of your home heating and cooling systems. The best way is to replace your equipment with new equipment. Newer heating and air conditioning equipment is now known to be 40 percent more efficient overall than it was just five years ago.
One reason for this is that they have been changing the type of refrigerant that is used in all cooling systems - a new way of doing things that began in 2010. Freon is now being eliminated 100 percent from all new cooling systems. That is because it is not considered to be environmentally friendly. Starting this year, they eliminated all equipment manufactured with Freon, and the production of Freon to refill old systems will be totally eliminated in the year 2020.
There is now a new refrigerant, called Puron, which is what every manufacturer is using today. The biggest difference is that if it gets released into the atmosphere, it will not destroy the ozone layer, which is the problem with the old Freon. The new Puron refrigerant is being used both in home air conditioning units and in light commercial ones, and is also more efficient and is becoming less costly than Freon used to be.
In conjunction with that, a lot of energy is wasted through the duct systems in older homes. The ducts are not sealed properly and therefore they can leak attic air into the system and leak conditioned air into the attic. This causes the system to work twice as hard as it has to in order to heat and cool your home. It also shortens the lifespan of the equipment.
With this in mind, our top tips for increasing the efficiency of your heating and cooling systems in your home would be:
- Get a new system that uses Puron instead of Freon.
- Get a technician out to make sure that all the ducts are sealed properly.
- Upgrade your windows and doors to more energy-efficient ones, and to make sure there are no leaks.
- Make sure you have the proper amount of insulation, keeping in mind that there should be an R30 rating in all attics.
- Make sure you have a programmable thermostat that allows you to raise the temperature in the house when you’re not home, and that will automatically reset to a comfortable temperature before you get back home. You can save a lot on your utility bills by doing that. This is especially important in a climate such as the hot one here in Memphis.
- Change your heating and air conditioning filters monthly.
By using higher energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, upgrading your equipment, and relying on Puron refrigerant rather than Freon, you are doing your best to both help the environment and save on energy bills. Checking that you have the right insulation is also important when it comes to saving money. At Riverside Heating and Air Conditioning Inc., we specialize in replacing residential and commercial air conditioning units in the greater Memphis area. Give us a call today – we do free estimates.
