3 Ways an Electrician Can Help You Avoid Wasting Energy With Your HVAC System
There are all kinds of steps you can take to reduce the amount of money you spend on your HVAC system, but there are key issues that an electrical contractor in particular may be able to help you with. Here are some of the ideas you may want to consider. If you have some electrical skills, you may be able to do some of these tasks yourself, but for others, you will need the help of a skilled electrician.
1. Consider a Split System
If you don't use all of your home all the time, you may want to talk with an electrician or an HVAC specialist about putting in a split system. This can be more energy efficient than an HVAC system that covers your entire home. Instead, each system is wired into a separate circuit with its own thermostat.
You can shut down one part of your home and cool only a portion of it. Similarly, you can also heat only one section of your home in the winter.
2. Put in a Smart Thermostat
Keeping an eye on the thermostat can help to lower your heating and cooling costs substantially, but with a busy life, it's often hard to remember to adjust your system manually at the beginning and end of each day. To help, you may want to put in an automatic or smart thermostat. Generally, this just involves removing your existing thermostat and attaching the wires to a new thermostat.
With a programmable option, you can set it up to change the temperature based on your schedule. For instance, you don't need to keep the house that cool whilst you are at work, and, similarly, you can lower the heat when you are sleeping.
A smart thermostat takes that a step further. Not only can you program it to ensure you aren't running the air conditioner or the heater unnecessarily, but you can also change the temperature remotely. You simply pull up the app on your computer or smartphone and then adjust as desired. That's great if you can't make it home and you don't want the AC to kick on without you being there.
3. Upgrade Your Wiring
In some cases, it's not your HVAC equipment or your thermostat that needs changing. Instead, you may be wasting energy due to old wiring. If your wiring isn't strong enough to support your existing HVAC system, you may get lots of unexpected shutoffs or over-cycling, and that can waste energy. Talk with an electrician to see if you need to upgrade the wiring in your home.