Your Energy Savings - Understand heating and cooling

The Department of the Environment and Energy report that in Australia 40 per cent of the energy we use at home is for heating and cooling. This doesn't include heating hot water. The amount of energy your household uses will vary depending on your circumstances and the climate where you live—as well as the type of heating and cooling systems you install.

A letter from to The Department of the Environment and Energy to HydroKleen Australia received 12.10.16 agreed that regular and thorough cleaning improves the operating efficiency of household and commercial HVAC systems.

They stated: "This improvement in efficiency can translate into large savings for households and businesses on their electricity bills and help reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases from electricity generation. For these reasons, the department encourages consumers to establish a system for regular and thorough cleaning and maintenance of their HVAC systems."

The Department of the Environment and Energy recommend using passive design ideas when you are planning a new home or for your existing home to help make your air conditioning cool and heat your building more efficiently.

Passive design ideas include:

• insulating the ceiling, walls and floor
• sealing draughts around doors and windows
• allowing winter sun to warm the house through north facing windows
• stopping summer sun from entering the house with good external shading. External shading devices such as awnings, roller blinds and one metre deep eaves on north-facing walls provide the most effective barrier against heat gain.
• Depending on your home and climate, window films can be a cost effective way of reducing solar heat gain, and can be applied to existing glass windows at low cost.
• using natural airflow to help with cross-ventilation.
• Deciduous trees can be an attractive way to shade windows, walls and your roof.
• Close curtains to keep heat out when the sun is on the windows and keep windows shut in the hottest parts of the day.
• Open up your home to breezes in the evenings and when it's cool outside.
• Make the most of natural airflow by opening low-positioned windows to bring the breeze in and high windows to let the hot air out.
• Where appropriate consider using roof ventilators, vented ridges and ventilated eaves to allow heat to escape from your roof space.
• Remove obstacles that can stop the flow of cool air through your house.

On The Department of the Environment and Energy website environment.gov.au you can find further recommendations on how best to warm and cool your building to reduce the running costs, remain comfortable all year round and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The type of heating and cooling solutions you choose, and how you operate and maintain your system will also have a big impact.

Has it been more than 12 months since you had your air conditioner professionally inspected, cleaned and sanitised? Do you need tips on what the tell-tell signs are to find out if your air conditioner needs an inspection, clean and sanitation service? We would be happy to help, give HydroKleen, the air conditioning cleaning specialist a call on 1300 608 318.

HydroKleen recommends a regular and thorough cleaning and maintenance of your air conditioning system once every 12 months.

HydroKleen step-by -step video showing the cleaning process on a wall split air conditioning system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DswSrqOHXsw