Parts of your body are sticking to other parts of your body, and it's horrible. Lucky for you, you've got air conditioning. Unlucky for you, A/C is a real punisher on the power bill. Here are a few tips for maximizing your cool without crippling your bank account.You've been sweating your face off outside, and nothing feels better than coming in to a nice, cold room. Your impulse will be to set your A/C to 66 degrees and let it get nice and nippy. Keep it set to 78 degrees. You don't need to be cold, you just need to be comfortable. For every degree below 78, you are increasing your energy usage by approximately 8%. You don't need to be indoors in a sweatshirt. Keep it at 78 or higher and rock a t-shirt and shorts. If you have a window unit with Low, Med, and Hi as your only options, keep it as low as you can handle. It's better to use your A/C minimally and have one cool room than to have your A/C maxed out and have your whole apartment only marginally less blistering. If you don't have a door that you can close between rooms, improvise!

Hang a thick blanket in between rooms to create a nice cool-box that doesn't stress your A/C. (I recommend using picture-frame hangers, and then threading a few safety pins into the blanket so it's easy to put up and take down.)Ceiling fans use waaaay less power than an A/C unit, consuming about the same amount of energy as a 100w light bulb, which isn't too bad, comparatively. Make sure the fan is going in the correct direction so that it is pushing air downward toward you (the higher edge of the fan-blade should be the leading edge in its rotation). Ceiling fans don't actually make the room cooler, but they make you feel cooler when they're blowing on you (think wind-chill). As with an A/C unit, if you're not in that room, turn your fan off. Your A/C unit has a filter. It's thin, light, easily removable, and if you've never seen it then it's probably pretty disgusting right now. Pull it out, stick it in the shower, and give it a good once-over with a sponge. Let it dry then put it back in—and be thankful you aren't breathing that crap anymore.

This will increase the unit's output and lower the temp. The other half of this is keeping the coil clean. If you're on the ground floor, then it's pretty easy: just use a garden hose to blast some water into the unit through the grates at the top and the sides. Patio Furniture Dublin IrelandIf you're on an upper floor of an apartment building, you're going to have to get creative. Inmate T ShirtTry using a portable, pumpable paint-sprayer (but use water, not paint… duh).Vinyl Blinds Walmart CanadaThis one's a twofer. Keeping your air conditioning unit in the shade can make it up to 10% more efficient. If you have means to build a shade for it (that's not too close so there's no vent blockage), by all means, do it.The other half of this is shading your apartment.

We covered some of this recently in our article on low-budget cooling, but this especially applies when using A/C. When it's hot and sunny lower your blinds, yes, obviously, but if you really want to see a difference get yourself some honeycomb blinds (also called celular shades). They are fantastic insulators. They will help keep the cooled air in during the summer and they're great for the winter when you want to keep the cold air out (and they can darken the hell out of a room for a more cinematic movie viewing experience). They will reduce your bill and start paying for themselves very quickly. There are many other things you can do to stretch your A/C, but these are the quickest, easiest, and cheapest. If you have more tips, leave 'em in the comments. You can keep up with Brent Rose, the author of this post, on Google+ or Twitter.Air conditioning efficiency helps to make living in extremes of temperature more comfortable. There are efficient ways of using it to ensure you get maximum benefit.

Far too often air conditioning is seen as a system to make a room cold. The main aim of air conditioning is to make the room comfortable. If there is an outside temperature of 90º, walking into a room set at 65º is too much of a change. Ideally you should have the room temperature set at a level that feels neither hot nor cold. Increasing the internal temperature to 72º will make the room much more comfortable and reduce the demands being made on your cooling units. The same comparison can be made for heating systems except that the extremes of temperature cannot be so easily avoided. If it is 32º outside you will still need to have 72º inside. If you have cooling units that are mounted at floor level, on a patio for example, it is easy for things to be blown up against the grills and filters. If you are using your air conditioning on a daily basis you should have the system checked at least four times a year. Of particular importance is maintaining the coolant gas levels.

If gas starts to leak the units have to work a lot harder to maintain the set temperatures. Eventually the gas levels will be too low to create the pressure necessary to achieve cooling. When you have doors and windows open it makes sense to either turn the air conditioning down or off altogether. If your air conditioning can be isolated to individual rooms, close the rooms with windows open and turn off the air conditioning in those rooms. Ducted air conditioning does not need to be available in all rooms in the house. Close ducts in bedrooms during the day when they are not in use. This will ease the strain on the air conditioning units and cut your electricity costs. It is also important to ensure that ducts are kept clear so that the air has a free run when required. Don’t have the air conditioning working if the house is empty. If you are leaving the house for several hours you can turn the air conditioning levels down to ease the demand. If the house is closed up the temperature will remain fairly stable for quite a long time before rising or falling to match outside temperatures.