It is safe to say that most of our utility expenses come from heating and cooling our home.

• In fact, my utility company sends me a monthly breakdown of my energy usage and based on the data collected, my HVAC unit accounts for 52% of my energy consumption.

I live in the southern part of the country, so due to the heat, I am constantly running my HVAC unit. Besides my refrigerator which is on all day long, my HVAC unit is the other equipment that runs the most in my home. And since I work from home the majority of the year, I use my HVAC unit constantly. I depend on it to keep me cool while I work during the day, and when I go to sleep at night, it keeps my bedroom nice and comfy. To be honest, I could live without my stove, my microwave, and even my refrigerator, but I don’t think I could live without my HVAC unit. The longest I went without air conditioning was during a power outage after a storm. I lost power for 3 whole days, but after the first day, I was unable to function. I ended up booking a hotel room for 2 days and that was the best decision that I could have made. In fact, while I was in the hotel room, I watched the local news that ran a story about how frustrated residents were because the power company was not able to provide an estimate for when the power would be returned. So, most of those people who did not have a generator or if they could leave to go elsewhere, had to remain in their homes with no means of air conditioning.

Commercial air conditioning system