3 Energy-Saving Tips for Monsoon Season

If you have noisy ductwork whenever it gets windy outside, or your home gets dusty during the Monsoon season, these tips from your Phoenix based energy auditor can help. Monsoon season has started up in Arizona. The severity of monsoon season can be hard to predict, so that blazing 120-degree weather can morph into a rainstorm in a matter of a few weeks or days.  

As with all major storms, it’s best to plan ahead and prepare for any possible outcomes or damage caused. A storm can cause a minor issue to be exacerbated into something that causes huge amounts of damage and money to fix in mere seconds. So it’s better to make sure that you’re ready beforehand.

Firstly, go out into your yard and have a look around. It’s better to prevent damage from happening in the first place than to fix it after the fact, so make sure that your HVAC is on high ground and away from any possible falling debris and that the grading is sloped away from your house, not towards.  Trim any trees or bushes that need trimming and take inside anything that could easily be picked up or thrown around by wind. After the storm, look again and see if it needs to be cleaned off.  Also make sure your ductwork is sealed so that any extra dust doesn’t get pulled into the house through leaks. If you have an evaporative cooler them wrapping it in a protective cover can prevent some of that dust from entering in your ductwork.  

You might also want to make sure your house is free of leaks. It gets extra dusty during monsoon season, so you want to make sure there’s no way that all that dust is being sucked into your house. This might be a good time for an energy audit, so that you can learn if your house has any leaks or inefficiencies that will cause headaches for you later on.

Next, check your air filter. With the extra dust being kicked up by the monsoon winds, your filter will start to get clogged significantly faster. If you normally check and change your filters every 1-3 months, start looking at it every 2-3 weeks during monsoon season.

Lastly, prepare for a possible power outage. I know this is not a common occurrence, and if it does happen, I wouldn’t expect it to last very long, but it’s not the end of the world to prepare for it even if it never happens. You should of course have the basic necessities such as extra gallons of water, canned food, flashlights, candles, and a first aid kit. If a power outage happens, make sure your appliances are fully off to prevent a power surge or electrical circuit problems.