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Any important home appliance will have several myths surrounding it, such as the old idea that putting ice cubes down a garbage disposal will sharpen the blades. Well, garbage disposals don’t have blades, and ice cubes can damage the disposal. Toss that idea in the trash and you’ll save yourself disposal grief.
Air conditions have their own body of lore, much of it false. Although some of these misunderstandings are harmless, others can lead to poor operation and wasted money. Below, we’ll debunk several major AC myths we encounter far too often.
Myth #1: ACs create cooling
This is a basic misunderstanding of how an air conditioner works. “Cold” is not a form of energy and therefore an AC cannot create it. Cold is the absence of thermal energy. What an air conditioner does to cool a house is to extract heat from the indoor air. This is why an AC’s cooling capacity is listed in thermal units: it’s the amount of heat the system can remove from a house during an hour.
Myth #2: A lower thermostat setting makes an AC cool a house faster
This myth is responsible for plenty of wasted electricity. When you turn the thermostat down, the thermostat notifies the air conditioner to turn on and run until it reaches the temperature setting. Pushing the thermostat lower only forces the AC to run for longer—not faster, and it will not produce larger volumes of cooling. We recommend setting the thermostat as high as you find comfortable and keeping it set steadily there during the day, then raising it at night.
Myth #3: Air conditioners dehumidify a house
This has a kernel of truth: air conditioners extract some moisture from the air as they absorb heat inside a house. This isn’t enough to properly control humidity, however, or make a noticeable difference in a home. If humidity is a serious problem, we recommend installing a whole-house dehumidifier to work with the air conditioner.
Myth #4: Shut off the AC when you leave the house for an extended time
On the surface, this makes sense. Why run the air conditioner when nobody will be in the house for several days or weeks? But it costs much more to cool down an extremely hot house when you return than if you had left the AC running at a higher temperature. With the thermostat set to 88°F, you’ll use a small amount of energy to keep the house from overheating while you’re away and save money when you return.
Myth #5: Let your old AC die before replacing it
This is a great route to wasting power. If you let an aging AC shamble on for an extra few years past its prime, it will cost you far more in energy bills as its efficiency starts to plunge. It’s better to replace it with a higher efficiency system and start saving money. You’ll also dodge having to rush to replace a system that failed abruptly on you in the middle of summer.
Need help with your air conditioning in Conyers, GA, or have any questions? We’re the experts you can always rely on.
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