I try to be a good neighbor.
But I’m also not one to offer advice that wasn’t asked for.
I hate when people do that to me so I do my best not to do that sort of thing to others. However, I break that rule sometimes when it comes to air conditioning and newbies to the region. I’ve just seen far too many people get blasted by the heat and humidity of Summer down here and bail on the region. It’s too cool a part of the country for that to happen. But I can also understand that if you haven’t experienced four months of serious heat and humidity, it can seem like a deal breaker. So whenever there is an opening in a conversation with people who are new to the area, I try to talk about the heat. For sure, we are all lucky to have residential HVAC and the cooling comfort that comes with air conditioning. At the same time, too much air conditioning can make the heat seem worse. And that sort of air conditioning demand gets very expensive. So I like to impart some wisdom from an old native to the region. The first thing I suggest is to get an air conditioning tune up early in the Spring. This ensures that the heat pump is ready for the big load to come. And it maximizes the efficiency of the heat pump. After that, leave the air conditioning off as much as possible until mid May. Believe it or not, this works. We get more accustomed to the higher temperatures which makes the Summer not so overwhelming. And this approach greatly reduces the demand for air conditioning and saves a bunch of money.