Whether you live in a warm and dry climate or a humid and hot climate ducted air conditioning can often seem like it can suck your energy bill through the roof. If your air conditioning isn’t maintained properly or members of your family are constantly turning up the air conditioning, this may be part of the problem! If your household is trying to save energy on cooling or heating costs, take a look at these 3 ways your ducted air conditioning can keep your family home comfortable without breaking your wallet.

3 Easy Ways to Save Energy with Ducted Air Conditioning

1. Invest in a smart thermostat to control your air conditioner

First things first, saving energy largely depend on the individuals in your home. If each of members of your home keeps manually turning up and down the indoor temperature your energy bill will always be high. To keep your home comfortable with ducted air conditioning consider investing in a smart thermostat. There are many brands on the market from a Nest thermostat, Honeywell and Lennox are top brands that will learn your family habits such as when you wake up and when you are cooking, and when you leave the house to help you save energy. Help the thermostat learn your habits by taking a week and setting the temperatures to the high and lows of your heating and air conditioning that are comfortable for your family. For more tips on saving energy with a smart thermostat take a look at these top 5 brands of smart thermostats from LifeHacker.

2. Keep your HVAC temperatures comfortable and not extreme

If your house is always an icebox in the summer or a furnace in the winter depending on the season, your HVAC unit is working harder than it needs to. Teach your family members that setting your air conditioner to be comfortable rather than extremes will help save energy. The benefit of ducted air conditioning is the ability to control temperatures in multiple rooms at one time. The downfall of this is your family may think the entire house needs to be ice cold or very hot. This mentality will keep your HVAC unit constantly on and can create your central a/c unit working too hard day and night.

3. Try Pre-cooling with your air conditioning the night before it’s hot

If the forecast is calling for extreme heat the next few days consider pre-cooling your home the night before. This method works best in brick homes or homes that have good insulation and high ceilings. The brick will help retain the coolness of the home and when the heat rises the next day your air conditioning unit won’t need to run as long. This method can also help in the winter time but works in the reverse – try running the heat during the daytime before you will have a cold spell for consecutive days, then at night, you can bank down your ducted air conditioning and heating unit to come on less.

This season give your HVAC unit a break and learn why your ducted air conditioning could be working less this season. From teaching the members of your family to getting your HVAC system serviced regularly by an air conditioning specialist your energy bills will thank you each month.

For more ways to save energy in your home look at these HVAC posts.