Blog

5 Ways You Can Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

It’s understandable to have concerns and feel anxious about climate change when you’re constantly bombarded with doom-and-gloom stories on the news. You may also think that you, as one person, cannot make any difference on this issue. Fortunately, there are several easy things you can do, both around your home and how you live your life that can help combat the issue of climate change in your own small way without requiring you to get involved politically or become an activist. Here are five steps you can take to help reduce your carbon footprint.

1. Get Regular HVAC Maintenance

One of the very best things you can do to lower your carbon footprint is to get regular tune-ups for your heating and cooling units. When you invest in routine maintenance, this will help your HVAC system operate more efficiently. When your comfort systems run more efficiently, they’ll use less energy. Not only will this help you save on your utility bills, but reducing the amount of energy you use will also help lower your carbon footprint.

The experienced team at Breeze Air Conditioning can help with our Breeze Maintenance Program. With this, you’ll get biannual tune-ups where our technicians will check for things like dirty filters, wear and tear, loose connections, and refrigerant levels.

2. Monitor Your Thermostat Settings

In the hot climate of Palm Desert, you’ll use your air conditioner a lot more than your furnace each year. We understand the temptation to set your thermostat as cold as possible and crank your AC through the summer, when temperatures routinely exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit. However, running your air conditioner nearly nonstop will result in abnormally high energy bills.

The Environmental Protection Agency recommends setting your thermostat at 78 degrees during the summer. This might not sound like it will get your home cool, but it will, and you’ll save energy at the same time. If you have ceiling fans, you can get those going and turn up the thermostat an additional few degrees, and your home will still remain cool and comfortable enough.

3. Invest in a Smart Thermostat

If you live in an older house, or a house with an aging HVAC system, chances are you have an analog thermostat. While these are fine for setting the temperature and turning the system on and off, there’s not much more they can do. A smart thermostat offers features and functions older thermostats don’t have.

With a smart thermostat, you can control your heating and cooling units right from your smartphone. Not only can you turn the system on and off remotely, but you can also adjust and program the temperature accordingly. Lower the temperature setting, or turn off the system entirely, when you leave for work, and then turn it back on before you return home. Reducing the energy usage of your HVAC system will help lower your carbon footprint.

4. Turn Off Lights and Devices Not in Use

If you’ve spent a few days to a week or more out of your home on a trip, you probably turned off the lights at home as well as unplugged some, or all, of your electronics before you left. This is good, but you don’t have to just do this right before a vacation. Start incorporating this practice into your day-to-day life.

Go around your home and take inventory of devices and appliances you don’t use that often. Keeping things plugged in uses electricity, even if you don’t actually turn them on. Unplug seldom-used devices and only plug them back in when you intend to use them.

The same goes for lights. If you’re at home during the middle of the day, you probably don’t need that many lights turned on, if any. Open up the window blinds or pull the drapes aside and let natural light flow into your home.

5. Shop for Food Locally

When you buy food from a local merchant, you’re not just helping out a member of your community; you’re helping lower your carbon footprint.

Big retailers rely on trucks for deliveries, and these trucks often have to make trips of hundreds of miles to get to their destination. Shopping locally means you’re buying from retailers that grow or produce their food at their own farms. This means little, or no, need for transporting those goods. Taking trucks off the roads means a reduction in emissions released into the atmosphere.

Your HVAC Team in Palm Desert

At Breeze Air Conditioning, we’ve served Palm Desert and the Coachella Valley since 1980. We have NATE-certified technicians, and we offer free estimates for installations and replacements. In addition to heating and cooling system maintenance and installation, we can repair your units. We also offer indoor air quality services. Contact us today!