✔ Kuryente Tipid Tips When Using Your Home Air-Conditioner

I’ve been working from home for 3 days now. I had a gastritis scare the other day, our work load is over the top so I just decided to work instead of rest at home and file for a sick leave.

Being home for 3 days in a row made me realize how crazy we’ve been over-using our AC. We’ll turn it on at around 11AM, after the baby’s morning bath. And then it’ll run until 5PM. 5PM is usually her walking time. I would allow her to walk outside the house so she could play with the other kids. Pero grabe! At 5PM, she’d still get super sweaty. So by around 6PM or 6:30PM, we’ll go home and give her another bath. And then turn on the AC again where it’ll run until 6AM the next day, if I have work. But sometimes, especially if I’m also home and I would like the baby to sleep some more, we’d turn it off at around 9AM already. Diba?! Literal na 24/7 ang AC.

Summer last year was like this also. So our electric bill shoot up to 6-7K. 7 freakin’ thousand pesos! Asan ang hustisya?!! But I kept on reminding myself that it’s okay. Everything for my baby’s comfort. And besides, I’d rather spend 7K on electric bill than 7K on medicines!

But this year, despite the excessive usage, our electric bill is only around 4K++. And our usual bill is 3K only. That’s on days when we’d use the AC in the morning but have it off at night. I was so amazed by the difference so I’m sharing with you mums what I did. I am very sure na madami sa inyo ang bet na bet to!!

Update: Our bill is now down to 2K on regular AC use (2-4hrs at noon and/or 4-6hrs at night) and almost 3K when our AC is on 20/7. I replaced our 2yr old ref with an inverter one. Woohoo!

1. Make sure your room is sealed. Our old room has some butas. Not really sealed. So the AC has to work hard to make sure that the room’s temperature is even. Pero ayun, lumalabas padin ang aircon!! hahaha! When I had the house renovated earlier this year, I made sure that they seal our little room. We also put that silver thingy on the kisame just to make sure that the coldness inside won’t easily get out. It works. But I still made sure that we have a nice, big window. So on those days that it’s actually breezy, we could just open the window and allow some fresh air.
2. Use the correct air-conditioning unit. We only use the 0.5HP AC. When I purchased a unit last year, I asked around what’s the most energy efficient that’s not an inverter type. Coz I can’t afford an inverter type AC yet. I decided to get the 0.5HP unit because it’s really very energy efficient and is enough to cool up our small room. This kind of AC is perfect for small rooms. Around 12sqm. And our room is teeny tiny making it the best choice for us. But if you have a bigger room, this type of AC is not recommended kahit na mas tipid. Why? Coz your AC has to work double time to cool off your room, so it’ll use more electricity. Non-sense diba? Plus I got the simple manual type, coz those more complicated eats up more electricity. So I suggest that you really do your research. Do not just base everything on aesthetics.
3. Keep your AC clean. First is para makatipid and second is to make sure that you won’t get sick. A dirty AC could lead to allergic rhinitis or common colds. Ayaw natin nun. We’d usually clean the filter once a month or once every 3 weeks, and clean the unit everyday. Just the usual wiping and dusting will do.
4. Put your AC away from direct sunlight or at least put a shed on the unit. I swear, on our old room, the AC is on direct sunlight. And you could really feel that it’s working hard just to cool off. Making it eat up more electricity. But our current AC position is much better. I put it on the far side of the house where there’s the roof to cool it off and a tree. Hehehe! Actually, it’s even more effective coz we don’t need to set it on full blast just to cool off the entire room.
5. Put a wall fan directly in front of the AC. Bale when we turn on the AC, and then turn on the wall fan, it would fan out the cool breeze from the AC. Yey! Mas malamig!! And it does help the AC even out the temperature inside the entire room. Dati it’s a major problem of ours, parang malamig lang on certain parts of the room.
6. Set the AC to it’s minimum cooling setting. Yeps! That Meralco commercial is true. Hindi sila nagjo-joke. Laking tipid talaga if you set it to it’s minimum setting. Minimum na cooling setting ah. Ours is on 6. Kasi if you set it to 4 parang fan nalang sya, pawis padin kilikili ng bagets. Low + 6 is perfect. And because there’s a fan, it’s enough to cool off the room kahit tanghaling tapat. Last year, our AC is on full blast the entire day. Full blast kasi if you set it to Low and then 6, jusko!!! Ang init!! Probably because of the location and that our room is not sealed nga. So it’s really important that you think of everything before installing your AC. Now usually, our AC is on High + 6 at high noon. And then Low + 6 at night. Sa gabi super sarap mag sleep kasi ang lamig.
7. Use a fan + an AC. But set both on it’s minimum setting. I promise. It’s more efficient. Weird as it sounds but I swear mas okay sya. Plus I noticed that the baby don’t get sick easily. Dati kasi, our pedia would always remind me not to use AC too much. And I agree coz mabilis magkasipon pag from super cool air-conditioned room and then lalabas sa init. And malakas din makasipon if you are directly in front of the AC’s breeze lagi. But now, since our AC is on minimum and we have a fan, parang our room is just cooler but the air is not dense. I love it.

There you go! My secret is out. And I hope it’ll help you mums as well.


Update: Adding the comment of one of my readers. "Another very important (and one that most people, if not all, don't know) Tipid technique for home air-conditioner is this: install your AC on the highest point of the room. Most people install theirs on the bottom area of the room (eg. near the floor) --- this is VERY INEFFICIENT. Yung paa lang natin ang mapapalamigan nyan, LOL. It should be installed very near to the ceiling. It's simple physics really. When the AC blows cold air, this cold air, being denser than warm air, would go down and push the warmer (lesser colder air) near the floor towards the ceiling. This warmer (lesser colder air) would then be "sucked" by the AC's exhaust fan to be blown outside. The AC would then again blow colder air into the room and the colder air would again push any warmer air downwards etc. etc. repeating the cycle --- causing a more efficient cooling method and also, air circulation :)" - adunahan

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