Before you leave your house to go out on vacation, there are a few things that you will need to take care of. One of these things is properly setting your air conditioner for the time that you’ll be away. It’s crucial to know what the right settings are so that you can ensure your air conditioning system operates efficiently while you’re away on vacation.
Your AC Must Remain On
It may be tempting to want to just turn your thermostat completely off while you’re away on vacation. In fact, if you do so, you’ll be saving yourself money on energy bills. However, leaving your air conditioner off can come at a higher cost.
The air conditioning system also works as a dehumidifier to remove excess humidity from the air inside of your home. This is essential in preventing unwanted bacterial growth inside of your home. If you make the decision to turn off your air conditioning system, the humidity level in your home will drastically increase. This will leave you susceptible to harmful bacteria growth.
The damage of high humidity inside of your home doesn’t stop there either. If you have wood furniture or objects throughout your home, they could be potentially damaged when there is too much moisture in the air. To prevent damage to your home and potential bacterial growth, it’s vital that your air conditioning system run while you’re on vacation.
Non-Stop Running
While your first instinct after learning about these harmful outcomes of high indoor humidity maybe to keep your air conditioning system running non-stop while you’re on vacation, that’s not the best idea either. If you leave your air conditioning system running 24 hours a day, this will drastically increase your energy bills.
The reality is that it’s not necessary to have your air conditioner running every moment you’re away on vacation. Rather, you want to aim for having it run a couple of cycles a day to help keep your relative indoor humidity levels in check. You can accomplish this by setting the appropriate desired temperature and turning your system to auto mode.
Auto Mode
Your air conditioning system has many different settings, one that you need to be familiar with is auto mode. Your thermostat will allow you to set a desired temperature that you want your home to be at. When you have it set on auto mode, it will constantly compare the actual room temperature to the desired temperature that you have set.
Anytime the room temperature goes above what your desired temperature is set at, auto mode will kick on your air conditioning system. Your system will cycle through until the temperature inside of your home matches what your desired temperature setting is. Due to the nature of how auto mode works, it makes it the perfect setting to utilize while you go on vacation.
Setting Your Desired Temperature
The next question that’s going to come up is what temperature you need to be setting your thermostat for auto mode to function correctly. The answer is that it depends on the temperatures in your area. You should take a look at the weather forecast to determine what the average temperature is going to be while you’re on vacation.
You want to set the desired temperature on your thermostat a few degrees below what the daily average temperature is going to be. For example, if the average temperature in your hometown is going to be in the high 80s for the time that you’ll be on vacation, you’ll want to set your thermostat a little bit below that. Setting your thermostat around 84 degrees is a great way to ensure that it will kick on at least a couple of times a day to help remove humidity from the air inside of your home.
Smart Thermostats
While smart thermostats have many different benefits that you can take advantage of, there’s one that is extremely helpful for times when you’re away from home. You can sync up your smartphone to your smart thermostat via the manufacturer’s app. This will allow you to alter the settings on your thermostat anywhere that your smartphone has internet connectivity. This means the if the temperature in your hometown drops, you can adjust your thermostat easily from your smartphone to ensure that your air conditioning system still kicks on during the daytime.
Dependable AC Service Pro
When you’re looking for a dependable air conditioner service pro for the Harrisburg area, look no further than HB Home Service Team. Our technicians provide quality cooling, heating, plumbing, ducting, electrical, and home safety services. Simply give us a call today to schedule your next air conditioner service.