Saving on A/C, Room by Room
 

In my last post, I talked a bit about how my rural Japanese town balances the desire for clean, delicious drinking water with the environmental impact of plastic bottles. Today, I would like to say a bit about air conditioning. The last two times I was in Japan, I actually did not have air conditioning, [...]Post from: EcoRenovator.org

Saving on A/C, Room by Room



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You can do this in America, too. I have a window A/C for the bedroom, and I could have one in the living room, too. Find room to set the A/C on the floor or a table during weeks of mild weather, so you can open a window and let in cool air. Being in Buffalo, I probably pulled the A/C out five times during the summer, and ran it for only six weeks or so. Even if it's too hot outside during the afternoon, you can keep your living space nice and cool if you plan ahead.

If you have central A/C, you should balance the ducts to send cool air only where it's needed.

If you have kitchen doors, close them and open the windows if you have something in the oven. My kitchen got HOT during the summer - probably triple digit temperatures while I was baking. Solution: if you must bake on a hot day, plan ahead. Do all your prep work before you turn on the oven, and do the dishes after the kitchen cools down. Or if you're having pork chops, have them on the grill instead of in the oven.

I do the same. I just have one window AC unit in my bedroom for sleeping. It would be nice to have one in the living room though. I certainly don't need to cool the entire house.

Those mini-split room AC+Heater units come in larger sizes,
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/projec...l-project.html
which are suitable for whole-house heating and cooling..

Our 24k BTU cooling+ 36k BTU heating Sanyo mini-split works very well with our small (insulated) home.

IMHO, the inverter type mini-split AC/heater has a very big economic advantage over American style HVAC 'central' systems..

Combined heating and cooling system cost is less.
Installation cost of a ductless system is much less.
Operating cost is much less when compared to almost anything else.

It's almost as good as geothermal GSHP systems for power useage,
and better in the areas of equipment cost and installation.

It's the poor man's geothermal GSHP.. :D

Cheers,
Rich