There are also less obvious strategies to stay cool and save energy. Running your dishwasher and doing laundry at night cuts down on bringing excess heat into the home. You can also try spending time in the rooms of your house or apartment furthest from the sun, like on the northern side of the building or in a basement.
Stop setting your thermostat at 72
Let’s settle the heated debate over your AC, once and for all.
Maintenance also plays a big role in making sure everything is running at peak efficiency. That means cleaning your air conditioner vents and changing filters regularly. You should also be sure to keep cool air in and hot air out, so be careful about opening windows and doors unless you’re doing so to ventilate the space.
Smart thermostats are another promising solution, although they don’t necessarily work in older homes with radiators or window units. If you have central AC, you can swap out the thermostat on your wall with an internet-connected thermostat that lets you control everything with an app. You set the system up to automatically change settings at certain times of day or optimize their performance to save energy. Good ones cost about $250, but Amazon sells a basic one for $80. If you have a window unit, you can upgrade it with a smart AC controller that adds connectivity. Your utility company may even help you pay for one of these devices.
You also shouldn’t sleep on the heat pump trend. Again, heat pumps operate on the same principle as an air conditioner for cooling: They use electricity and refrigerants to pull humidity and heat out of the air. They tend to be as efficient as ACs, too, so don’t expect your summer bills to drop if you make the switch. But by moving heat from one place to another rather than actually generating it, heat pumps are much more efficient when it comes to heating buildings. The Department of Energy says that heat pumps use up to 65 percent less electricity than old fashioned furnaces or baseboard heaters. You can also get a tax break for installing one in your home.
“There's no wrong way to save energy,” said Jones from Energy Star. “It's just a matter of figuring out what is appropriate and right for you given your situation.”
It’s possible that some magical new invention could come along and change the way we stay cool. One promising technology involves installing radiant panels filled with cold water that effectively pull heat off of people as they pass by them without actually cooling the air. Researchers at Princeton showed off a system like this in Singapore in 2019. They called it a Cold Tube, and people who walked through it reported feeling cool, even though the temperature of the air didn’t actually change. This type of technology is decades away from becoming mainstream, but it’s proof that a future without air conditioning is possible.
But for the futuristic AC-free technology to work well, guess what’s required? Fans.