Easy Ways Lower Your A/C Bill

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In Phoenix, air conditioning accounts for about 60% of your home’s electricity costs. In some cases, during the summer, energy bills will double because of the A/C use. To combat these outrageous energy prices, most Phoenicians will switch to the APS and SRP time of use plan. On this plan most will only do laundry at night and will set the thermostat up during the day. Here are seven ways you can save on A/C costs without spending thousands of dollars upgrading your A/C unit to a high efficiency unit.

Leave your doors open
Your interior doors of course! Phoenix air conditioning companies have spread a lot of false information out there about closing your vents and doors.  You want all the interior doors open or at least cracked to help circulate air back to the return.

Seal the ductwork
Around Phoenix, most homes are losing between 20% and 30% of their conditioned air in their attic. If 60% of your energy bill is coming from your use of A/C in the summer and 20% of your conditioned air isn’t making in to the actual rooms then you can see how that can add up to quite a bit- especially over 5 years!

Some HVAC contractors don’t seal the ductwork on new, high efficiency air conditioners which is like driving a Prius with a hole in the gas tank.  Sealing your HVAC ductwork not only saves money on your heating and cooling bills, it brings less dust in the home too.

Air seal your home
Sealing your home, especially around exterior doors, electrical and plumbing penetrations, and recessed canned lights will keep your conditioned air inside and the outside air outside. Chances are, when your house was built, the builder ran wires and plumbing plates through holes in the wall that are much bigger than the wires themselves. That extra space around the wires can let your expensive, air-conditioned air leak outside—and invite hot, summer air inside. This leads to heat gain quickly and makes your A/C unit work harder and more often.

Install shade screens
Shade screens block up to 90% of the sun’s conductive heat while still allowing sunlight in. Windows account from more than half of your homes heat gain because they have no insulation value and are (obviously) transparent.

If you’ve been holding back on shade screens because you don’t like the way they look, shop around! There are a lot of discrete designs that are coming out. Or, take them off in the winter! Shade screens are typically clipped onto the frame and can be very easily removed after the summer is over.

Increase your insulation’s R-value
Are you even surprised that Phoenix attics get really hot during the summer? The temperature difference between the attic and the house can be a major contributor to high A/C costs. Having the insulation up to R-38 can protect your home from taking on the heat from your attic and make sure it’s not taking a toll on your bill.

Make sure there’s no connection between your garage and your house
This is one of the lesser known causes of high energy bills and is surprisingly common in houses in Glendale, Scottsdale and Gilbert. Like the attic, the garage gets very hot during the summer. Temperature differences is one of the  main drivers of heat gain and having a direct connection to that is like filling a pool with a slash in the liner.

Annual A/C unit tune up
​The most important aspect to this tip is that the tune ups are done by a trusted, experienced, and reliable contractor. I personally know that finding a reliable HVAC contractor can be difficult.  Just because your friend is in the air conditioning business does not necessarily mean that they will do a good job.  I have been in too many homes where an AC contractor and friend installed a new unit and cut way too many corners simply because that’s the way they’ve been doing it for the last 20 years.  After that’s done, fixing any of their work is much more difficult.

Here’s an easy test that you can do yourself to see if you’re paying too much for your A/C. With the A/C on, close a bedroom door. Place your hand under the door to see if you can feel air coming out of the room. If you feel air coming out then your room pressures are unbalanced and you are probably paying too much for your A/C. Have an APS or SRP Home Energy Auditor do a home performance assessment to actually measure the pressure in each room to determine if correction is needed.

​Following these tips are a great first step to lowering your bills and taking control of your A/C use. For other ways to save money on your utility bills, be sure to check out our past articles and get up to speed on APS and SRP energy audits for your home. Feel free to call Green ID for more information or schedule your energy audit.

After The Energy Audit...

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If you have an energy audit done for your house, feel free to give yourself a pat on the back. You just took the very first step to a more efficient and comfortable home. 

But it's not over yet! You may have been given small verbal updates on the state of your house during the audit, but the true results don't come in until later. You should have a follow-up appointment scheduled soon after the initial audit, where you will be able to see your audit report in-depth and be able to ask questions about it. This is where you might receive a list of possible fixes for the found inefficiencies in your home. 


​The next step is to make a plan! Write down what issues you want to prioritize, and what solutions you want to use on them. ​A good portion of the expected work might require professional touches. But don’t think you can’t do anything yourself. Some quick DIY fixes, along with the additional fixes your home might need, can have your AC running in tip-top shape even as the summer heat rages on outside. 

Energy Usage in Your Home

What is an Energy Audit?

Energy audits in Arizona are done to identify energy saving opportunities for home owners who want to lower their monthly bills, who are unsure what energy saving upgrades would be best for their home, who want to improve their health by cutting down on allergens and pollutants coming from the outdoors, and home owners who want an unbiased energy analysis and recommendations.

​An auditor will analyze your energy consumption and home performance by inspecting the layout of the home, its thermal envelope, air flow, and air leakage. This 41-point home energy audit will take into consideration any large appliances in the home as well as lifestyle factors when putting together your final report. This report put together by Green ID’s home-as-a-system inspection is a unique comprehensive action plan for how you can reduce the energy action in your home. This report will outline beneficial upgrades for your home, estimated costs, and payback periods.

Having a home energy audit can help with a variety of problems that you may be experiencing in your home whether it be hot/cold rooms, abnormally high energy bills, low air flow, noise control issues, and drafty rooms. Getting an energy audit can improve almost any home’s energy consumption unless it was designed specifically for energy efficiency.

How Arizona Homes Can Benefit From Having An Energy Audit Performed - Ranch Style Home

The Arizona home profile chosen today is the all American, ranch style home. Whether APS or SRP customers, Arizona homeowners can find these long, low roofline homes in almost every city from northern Phoenix, south Scottsdale, Sun City, Mesa, Chandler and Glendale. Ranch style homes are usually 30 years or older when energy codes didn't exist and attic insulation and energy efficiency was an unheard of word. Here are the most common things we have found after doing more than 1,000 energy audits on this type of Arizona home.


Arizona ranch style homes have low rooflines with little attic ventilation. This is one type of Arizona home where adding a rigid vent at the peak of the roof slope is probably a good idea. This passive ventilation helps circulate the air out of the attic, without actively sucking your conditioned air from inside the house like a solar attic fan or electric powered attic fan does. I like rigid vents because it may be difficult to add the bird-hole vents along the perimeter of the house and it is not possible to add another gable vent. Because the attics of Arizona ranch homes get so hot in the summer, it is essential to add at least R-38 insulation to the attic to slow the transfer of attic heat down into the house. R-19 or even R-11 may have been code when the house was originally built so adding more insulation should be a no-brainer. Another way to help cool the attic temperatures is installing a radiant barrier along the roof slope. Radiant barriers reflect the heat back out of the attic and help keep the ductwork cooler in the summer. You can read more about radiant barriers on our previous blog.

Attic connections into the house are also a common energy deficiency found in Arizona ranch homes. When you walk to the bedrooms does your ceiling lower because of the metal ductwork running above the hallway? If you put a thermal camera on those interior walls during the hot Arizona summer you'll find that the walls a bright orange and red color compared to the other walls of the house. Why?? It's because those walls are directly connected to the attic from missing top plates. You could actually stick a 8 foot ruler down the entire length of the hallway wall from the attic. Those areas need to separated and sealed from the attic.

The ductwork in a Arizona ranch home is going to be very leaky and may not be sized properly. This can cause bad airflow, hot rooms, constant AC problems and high energy bills. When these homes were built the metal ductwork was held only with tape so even a slight bump in the ductwork can separate the round rigid lines. APS and SRP estimate as much as 30% of your conditioned air is lost through leaks in the ductwork. Add to that a poor design and it's no wonder why some rooms are hotter and colder than others. Sealing the ductwork up can have huge benefits to the comfort of the home and the energy bills.


Do you have a swamp cooler? Do you love using it?

Some Arizona ranch style homes still have an evap cooler attached to the roof, and many Arizona homeowners love using their evap cooler 2 months out of the year. What these homeowner's don't know is that their evap cooler is costing them more to keep and use during the hot summer months when the AC is on full blast and what they save during those two months of more temperate weather. During those two months yes, you are saving more money by not using the AC. However, during the 2 months of the dead heat, when 100 degrees looks like a break from the heat, you are loosing more money from leaky ductwork. Check out our video on swamp coolers here.

What about spray foam in the block walls?

I was speaking with the program manager for the Arizona energy audit program about what he thought of spray foaming the block walls of a home and what he said surprised me. He told me that his own home is a ranch style house with block walls and after he insulated the attic, sealed and re-did the ductwork, and air sealed the attic from the house the only things he has done to his walls was put a trellis with cat's claw vine along his sun struck block wall and his energy bills are not more than $220 on a 2,100 sq ft home.

I verified this with our energy models and while spray foaming your sun struck walls does save money on your energy bills, our models show you get 90% of the savings you would from spray foam wall insulation by simply shading the wall. I have become a proponent of spending $400 on a landscaping trellis than $3,000 on spray foaming one wall.

Arizona ranch homes have a number of distinguishing exterior features, including a long, low roofline with have large windows in the living room. However they also have some pretty distinguishing energy efficiency features that directly causes high energy bills, comfort complaints and poor air quality. Having an APS or SRP approved energy auditor to inspect the home's performance can be the greatest gift you can give yourself that keeps on giving for years to come.