Easy ways to keep your power bill down during the summer

News 12 First at Five/ July 2, 2014

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW) -- Your power bill may be feeling the heat this summer, but the experts gave us some tips to help cool it down.

Monitoring the temperature in your house is just the beginning.

With energy services at Georgia Power says anytime your thermostat drops below 78 degrees, it's going to cost you about 3-5 percent more on the power usage, Jack Dogan said.

When you're out of the home, remember to raise your thermostat. Dogan says the air conditioning should never be turned off completely because you'll be paying a lot of money when you eventually turn it back on. To keep air circulating throughout your house, keep the fans set to summer mode. The fan should be blowing air down, rather than up.

Experts also suggest changing the air filter regularly.

"Check or change the filter once a month...the reason is because a dirty filter makes the unit work harder," Dogan said.

Also, take a look at where your HVAC unit is.

"You want to make sure there aren't bushes around the system, its just sitting there alone," Dogan said.

He says leaves and twigs can get into the system and burn out the coils.

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Easy ways to keep your power bill down during the summer