Reduce Heat Gain, Boost AC Efficiency

While an AC unit can cool a house down, you end up paying a lot of money to do so. In fact AC units are one of the most expensive home appliances to operate. If you want to save money on your cooling costs, you need to find passive cooling strategies that will help to keep your home cool without costing you money.

Metal Roof

When you set out to stop heat gain, you need to think about how heat gain gets into your home. The roof, due to the fact that it gets a constant barrage of sun energy for most of the day, is definitely deserving of attention. An asphalt-shingle roof will heat up to over 150˚ degrees on the average summer day. While your insulation will stop most of that heat from getting into your home, your AC unit will still end up fighting some of that heat. A metal roof will reflect the sun's energy away from your home, and thus reduce your cooling costs by up to 40%.

Awnings

Windows are another problem area for heat gain. The problem is that no matter how many panes of glass you have in your window, the sun's UV rays can still stream right through your windows and heat up the interior surfaces of your home. Thus, you need to do something to filter out the UV rays before they have a chance to get into your home. Awnings are one option that will make a big difference, saving you up to 24% on your cooling costs. 

Window Film

Another option for reducing heat gain through your windows is to use window film. If you don't like the look of awnings, then you can use reflective window film, which will defect UV rays before they have a chance to get into your home. Thus, window films can reduce cooling costs by up to 23%, and in that they can also reflect heat back into your house, they can reduce heating costs by up to 25%.

As you can see, heat gain is a big problem, but it is also something that you can grapple with if you have the right products. While a new roof might have to wait for a few years, and it would cost a lot of money to retrofit your home with window awnings, you should be able to afford to fit your home with window film and start saving money for other upgrades, or for fun.

For more information, talk with a company like Dependable Air Conditioning Co Inc.


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