If you don’t have a swimming pool in your backyard, you are missing out on a golden opportunity to use less a/c and save money.
- My brother is lucky enough to have a pool, and they use it quite frequently.
Even though he has a pretty big house, their utility bills are not all that high. I am convinced it is due in part to the swimming pool. When you go and swim in the pool, you naturally feel cooler and don’t have to set the thermostat as low as you would otherwise. In addition to using less a/c because the3y are cooled off from the pool, my brother and his wife also make use of modern HVAC technology. They bought a house that has HVAC with zone control. That means that the house is divvied up into zones, and if no one is using a certain zone, the a/c does not cool that space as much. You can have multiple thermostat settings for different locations throughout the house. For example, my brother has two stories, but no one really uses the upstairs unless there are guests staying. Therefore, the thermostat setting for the upstairs is several degrees higher than it is downstairs, where they do all their living. Not only that, they also have sensors in their house that can control the HVAC. The sensors detect movement, and if there is no movement detected, the HVAC can adjust the thermostat setting in order to reduce energy usage. Of course, my sister in law jokes that she always gets hot when she sits down to read a good book!