updated 2000SEP14

So was you electirc bill above $175 in August and your thermosat was set near 80 degrees? If so, want to lower your eletric bill?

Answer these questions.
• Do you clean your A/C filter monthly? -- Oh, you didn't know it had one :)
• When you walk to the street and hear your A/C run it sounds much louder than anyone elses on the block.
• The house never gets cool, even if the thermostat is set to Artic.
• The circuit break pops? on a hot day and the A/C doesn't put out any cold air.

If the answer to any of those questions is yes, then.
1. Do clean your AC filter monthly. You may need to clean the coils - you can do it yourself if you're technically competent - i.e. not a Tim Allan workalike :)) . Otherwise PAY someone to do it.
2. Trim those bushes back around the outside unit.
3. Get the outdoor coils washed -- Tim, DO NOT use high pressure water to clean your coils & PAY someone to do it and learn how, it's easy-- wash from the inside out. This means, turning OFF the AC breaker and unscrewing the lid / access panel and hosing the coils from the inside - USING gentle water pressure. Those fins are delicate and will breakoff if you're to rough. This cut my bill down some ~$3-$5 and the AC sounded better.
4. The AC is working to hard if it freezes or is very loud, your unit may not need to be replaced, but will need a checkup and a charge if it freezes up (check the filter first), and or pops the breaker (check the filter first). Also, you need to make sure the breakers are the correct values, mine was NOT when they replaced my AC and the wires were wrong too, they MELTED right at the breaker! The info panel on the outside unit will have a FLA rating this is the size the breaker should be rounded up to the next breaker size - NOT several sizes up. I.e. FLA = 36amps use a 40 amp breaker NOT a 50 amp breaker or a 35Amp (if you could even get one). Hey, Tim get an electrician do the actual work, okay. You will need to replace the breaker in the main panel and if the outside panel is a breaker for a switch.
5. Check the ducts - mine had seperated and was cooling the attic very nicely. Again, Tim pay someone to do it, falling though the ceiling really hurts!
6. Get more insulation in the attic. Call FPL to do an energy audit, it's FREE, and they will pay upto 1/3 of the cost for the insulation. Our attic cost about $400 and our bill went down ~ $25 dollars, it was well worth it as the house stays cooler with less fluctuations.
7. Wrap your water heater with a insulating blanket. Home Depot sells them. Saved ~$3 a month, it paid for itself quickly. Tim, this one you can do this yourself.
8. While you have the electrician there; have her wire in a water heater timer. We use two on/off times in the AM and the PM, very rarely do we run out of hot water, when we have guests stay over AND do alot of laundry -- only once, we just flipped the switch and fired up the heater, it then went back automatically back to the timer later. The timer costs ~$25.
9. Call FPL and join the ON-Call program, they come out and wire some boxes between the water heater and other appliances and you get interrupted during really big demands during the peak power usage. You save upto $16 a month for some POTENTIAL inconvience, each and every month. The deduction depends on how many things you have the box wired to, not if they do a cut.

more later, gotta go.

-- (pheasantwalk@worldnet.att.net), September 08, 2000