Today on the Consumerism Commentary Podcast, Tom Dziubek speaks with Steve Rosenstock of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) about tips to cool your house in the summer. Steve discusses many ways to cool your house down, including giving your air conditioning unit a checkup, using a programmable thermostat and several cheap and easy methods which people may not have considered before.
Summer Cooling Tips, Steve Rosenstock, EEI: S05E10 / 141
Table of contents
[00:00] Introduction from Tom Dziubek
[00:37] Interview with Steve Rosenstock, EEI
– [00:51] Insulation
– [03:36] Cheap ways to make your home more energy efficient
– [07:41] Keeping a second refrigerator in the garage
– [09:40] Consider replacing an older air conditioner
– [11:00] Caulking and weather stripping
– [12:11] Replacing windows & the federal tax credit
– [16:03] Fluorescent bulbs
– [21:35] Using programmable thermostats
– [24:00] Using fans
– [24:53] Checking your local utility’s website
[27:00] End
We always welcome feedback from listeners. If you have any comments for this episode or for any other, or if you have suggestions for future episodes, please leave us comments here or email us at podcast at this domain name.
Theme music by Mindcube.
Published or updated June 25, 2011. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
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Luke Landes founded Consumerism Commentary in 2003 and has been building online communities since 1990. Luke, also known as Flexo, has contributed to PC World Magazine, US News, Forbes, and other publications. 
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Great tips. Keeping the fans blowing and not turning the air down so low could also help in cutting costs. Although temps can get pretty hot–so I don’t know how much I would be willing to sacrifice in order to save a few bucks.
i’m not a homeowner so i’m wondering what is the annual shelf life for an air conditioner before it’s replaced? Are flourescent bulbs really that much better than incandescent bulbs? I know there’s a lot of anger about these bulbs being phased out due to the 2007 energy bill.
This was interesting and informative. I never thought of a second frig. We do have two freezers one upstairs and then one in the basement that I keep meat and sale priced stuff.
Shading your heavily exposed windows can make a huge difference. I built solar screens for my southern exposed windows and performed a test with two thermometers. I placed the screen on one window and place a thermometer inside this window and another in an adjacent window without a solar screen. The difference? 30 degrees. I placed them on my first floor windows and it was very noticeable, however, since I didn’t get to the second floor, the A/C wouldn’t kick on as often as the thermostat is downstairs, and the upstairs got warmed up quite a bit. Things will level out more when I get around to the upstairs.
great cast full of good ideas! i can only imagine the difference this would make nation-wide if these changes truly took hold.