Best AC & Heater Advice

Today, in our chilled state, we came across a great list of strategic steps and tips for staying warm at home if there’s little heat (for whatever the reason may be).Today is the first day that we’ve been truly cold in our home office, reminding us that the seasons have very officially shifted. We have on our wool socks, scarf, and almost considered finding some fingerless gloves so we could type more comfortably! We want to know your top way(s) of staying warm indoors.

Rant over.

We were chatting with a friend who spent several years in Japan about the Japanese proficiency for maximizing usable space in the home when he mentioned the kotatsu, a low multipurpose table that transforms for warm or cold weather configurations.

It’s summer and if you’re not getting out of town, chances are you’ll find yourself fighting a battle with the heat between now and the fall. Maybe you’re like us and you don’t have air conditioning, maybe you’re trying not to rack up big bills, or maybe you’re trying to be more environmentally-friendly. Here are some tricks we’ve accumulated through years of grinning and bearing (and sometimes baring) it.

We’ve blogged about a bubble wrap “stained glass window” before, but bubble wrap also works as a great insulator when it’s cold. See how to use leftover packaging to decrease your heating bill, after the jump…According to Build it Solar, bubble wrap is often used to insulate greenhouses during the winter — so why not use it at home, too!

Just the other day we were starting to think about winterizing our home for the season, when we got a great tip from one of our favorite home improvement gurus, Lou Manfredini. Lou suggested that as an alternative to covering drafty windows with plastic, caulk them with a temporary and removable sealant such as Zip-A-Way.

If you have an attic fan in your home, it may help you save on your cooling costs in the summer. But in the long, cold days of winter, the opening can be a major source of heat loss from the house. Here are a few ideas for keeping the warm air from slipping right through:Since warm air rises, an uninuslated attic fan opening draws heated air right up and out of your home’s living spaces. Insulating or blocking the air’s flow can help prevent heat loss.

If the idea of constantly heating your water in a big tank sitting in your basement sounds mighty inefficient and wasteful to you, then a tankless water heater may be the right option for you. I’ve researched some of the advantages of a tankless water heater system, alongside some of the compromises that come with the compact, more energy efficient option. There are many advantages to going with a tankless water heater.

I know, I KNOW. I hate to even bring it up. But soon it will be winter, your joints and dry skin will hurt, and you’d rather cozy up in bed instead of fiddle with your drafty windows and doors. Take advantage on this transition period by prepping your home for the cold to come. You’ve totally got this! If You’re a Renter: Even if you’re not responsible for the building itself, you can still amp up your home’s efficiency and reduce your own heating bills this winter.

While you may be grateful for it in the middle of a cold winter, an ugly heater can be an eyesore that you get tired of having to decorate around. Peeling or chipping paint, the wrong color or shape, or an awkward location can all make a radiator your least favorite piece of your home. Even if you don’t have a problem with how it looks, it may just be taking up valuable real estate that could be put to better use. But, don’t despair!

I used to be one of those people that always preferred being cold to being hot. “You can always put on more clothes,” I’d insist, “but there’s only so much you can take off.” Then a few things happened, one of which was that I developed an auto-immune condition called Raynaud’s. As many as one in 10 people have this issue, which causes fingers and toes to overreact to cold, losing blood and turning white-blue. (Yes, it’s as painful as it sounds.

For as awesome as having an electric space heater can be during the cold weather season, they often come with a lot of safety risks. We called on Jim Bullock, a retired FDNY Deputy Chief and President of New York Fire Consultants (NYFC) for advice on how to manage our space heaters properly at home. From when to turn yours off to places you should never put one, here are 10 expert tips for handling your space heater safely this winter.

When I moved into a sprawling old Victorian in Louisville, Kentucky three years ago, my neighbors terrified me with their tales of four-digit utility bills. I’d swapped an under-900-square-foot bungalow for the three-story, 1890 behemoth, and was so scared of the bill the first year, I chose to freeze rather than turn up the thermostat.

A while ago, I wrote a post about how to ventilate a kitchen when you don’t have a range hood or vent. A number of Kitchn readers recommended installing a reversible window fan which, when put on the exhaust setting, can effectively draw smells, steam, and smoke out of your kitchen. I don’t have a hood in my rental kitchen, and for a long time I just ran the ceiling fans in other rooms when I cooked something particularly smelly or smoky. It worked okay, but wasn’t ideal.

I don’t know about you, but on hot summer nights I don’t want anything remotely close to me, unless it’s the frigid, steady breeze from the AC unit. I’ve been known to draw an invisible boundary line down the center of our bed (not unlike the line that separated my sibling and me in the back of our parents’ car on long trips when we were kids), restricting my husband to “his side” so his body heat stays as far away from me as possible.

Some things are just plain old hard to remember, especially when it comes to ongoing home maintenance. I’m not talking about doing the dishes or laundry regularly, but the stuff that only needs doing every once in awhile, like cleaning your ceiling fan blades or washing windows. Which is why I love the idea of an air filter that tells you exactly when it’s time to swap it out. My air filter gets a workout.

If you’re on the East Coast of the United States, chances are you’re currently being pummeled by what meteorologists are (horrifically) calling a bomb cyclone. Basically, it’s a blizzard on steroids (aka low barometric pressure). If you’re safe and sound at home but could use a little more oomph from your radiator, here’s a handy tip that uses something you probably have in your kitchen drawer.

The temperatures are starting to drop, and if your home is a bit drafty, chances are there’s a space heater making its seasonal return from the depths of the closet. Though before you plug it in, one fire department has an important reminder on how to safely operate the units. “The weather is getting colder, and people are pulling out their space heaters,” the fire department shared in a Facebook post.

While they’re absolute LIFE SAVERS in the summer months (or, if you live in the South like me, 11 months out of the year), A/C window units are pretty much hideous. But, cooler temperatures bring the opportunity to hide or disguise that window A/C during the winter, and it’s a small tweak that will dramatically upgrade a room’s look.

It’s been hot these last several days in LA. Anyone who has lived here for awhile knows this summer heat can go well into autumn, as September can be one of the hottest months of the year. And for those of you lucky enough to have AC in your home, you might be realizing now — as you start to crank your unit higher — the air conditioner is quite an ugly necessity… Here’s a worthy DIY that will not only hide a wall or window unit, but give you extra storage as well.

On those unbearably hot days I really need to turn on our apartment’s window air conditioner I’m certainly thankful I installed it. But for the majority of the year the air conditioner is an unsightly presence, blocking a third of the view looking outside our windows and keeping desirable light from entering…A Brooklyn designer decided it was time to give eyesore window air conditioners a visual makeover.

When you share an office with another, whether it’s your home office or in a work office, chances are the AC is either too cold or too hot for one person. Sometimes a desk fan can offer some level of comfort for hotter temps without going to to the extreme of a cold blasting AC, especially in spring and early summer…Dyson Desk FanThe fan, called the Dyson Air Multiplier fan, does away with the blades used in common desk fans.

Our readers are in the know. Yesterday, in our post seeking tips for warming up a very cold apartment, several readers chimed in with their hearty recommendations for parabolic heaters. I stopped mid-comment thread with the realization that I had no idea what a parabolic heater actually IS — never heard of them before.A google search followed …According to Answer Bag, this is what they are: A parabolic heater earns its name because of its shape.

During this post-Labor Day week, I can sense autumn creeping into the picture. While I’m sad to see summer come to a close, there is one advantage to the impending change of season. It will soon be time to remove the air conditioners and reclaim the windows! Here are a few tips for storing an air conditioner in the off season: After removing your air conditioner, take the time to clean it before you stick it in storage. Remove the filter and clean it in warm, soapy water.

Being a writer by trade—with more than a few writer friends—we’ll often get caught in discussions about semantics. Things like whether it’s proper to say “done” or “finished,” for example. But recently we got caught up in an Unplggd-worthy battle of meaning: When you want it to be cooler, do you turn the air conditioner “up” or turn it “down?”You say po-TAY-to, I say po-TAH-to. You say turn it up, I say turn it down.

Yesterday, we featured 5 Tips for Annual Air Conditioner Maintenance. It was a helpful article for anyone with central A/C, but Unplggd reader Amanda H pointed out that we completely neglected many small, cool dwellers with window or free-standing air conditioning units.Just like any other appliance in your place, the window A/C also needs tender love and care. Make sure to give it a thorough cleaning at least once a year:1. Wash the filter.

Before you go blasting the cool air from your A/C, make sure you’ve given your trusty appliance it’s yearly check-up. Air conditioners require regular maintenance to work at their peak. If you follow our tips each year, you’ll be staying cool and saving cash—in energy bills and unexpected repair costs.1. Change the filter.Central air systems should have their filters changed at least every few months.

Dr. Peter Tsou of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory once said, “you could take a two- or three-bedroom house, insulate it with aerogel, and you could heat the house with a candle. But eventually the house would become too hot.” So why haven’t we all been spraying our buildings with the stuff? Unfortunately, for the past 75 years aerogel has been way too expensive, but that’s all about to change.

Kristy has a good question: A few months ago, I moved into in a small apartment with a built-in wall air conditioner. I live in Colorado, where the weather is starting to get cold and windy, and I have discovered the wind blows right in around the wall unit. Any suggestions for sealing, insulating, covering, or otherwise blocking the draft?(Note: Include a pic of your problem and your question gets posted first.