Staying cool in Belize’s rising heat may be costing you more than you realize. Air conditioners are now more affordable and widely used, but experts say simple mistakes can force them to work overtime and send electricity bills soaring. So, is your AC driving up your bill, or could another appliance be the real culprit? News Five’s Paul Lopez investigates.
Paul Lopez, Reporting
With Belize getting hotter, more households are turning on the AC to beat the heat. Engineer Jordanny Williams says air conditioning units are no longer reserved for a select few because lower prices have made them more accessible.
Jordanny Williams
Jordanny Williams, Engineer, FT Williams & Associates
“It is across the board, as soon as somebody can afford it, and they are getting much cheaper now a days and so you start seeing a lot more people from different tax brackets started purchasing Acs.”
The hotter the day, the harder your AC works and the more electricity it uses. BEL Executive Chairman Lynn Young says compressors consume significantly more power as temperatures rise.
Lynn Young
Lynn Young, Executive Chairman, BEL
“An AC for that kind of temperature difference might burn fifty or sixty percent more energy that it normally would burn for the same period of time, for the same temperature.”
Young’s explanation checks out, but the good news is that AC users can take simple steps to reduce their electricity consumption. Williams says cutting energy use may be easier than most people think.
Jordanny Williams
“You go into many places, homes, even commercial spaces and you see if they have a mini splitter, high wall unit, you see it is at sixteen degrees, which is sixty degrees Fahrenheit. Given the construction that we have in Belize, it is virtually impossible to reach that without very insulted walls, roofs, ceilings and so forth. So, once you have that set at sixteen it doesn’t make the AC cool better or anything like that. It just makes it work a lot harder.”
Williams recommends setting the AC between twenty-three to twenty-four degrees Fahrenheit and a point or two lower in extreme instances. Servicing AC units regularly also helps to decrease energy consumption.
Jordanny Williams
“But usually once you have it on cool that is the recommended setting. Cool which will always be that snowflake. Usually, I like to keep the fan on medium. That usually worked good for me, just because I know it is taking more moisture out of the room.”
At its core, an AC unit’s energy use depends largely on the temperature. These tips will likely save you some money on your next electricity bill. But, as Williams recently learned, they won’t altogether shield you from the sharp increases many Belizeans are seeing in their energy bills.
Jordanny Williams
“I know in the past month our bill went up significantly, at least thirty-three percent and I keep my temperature high. I keep it at seventy-eight one I go to bed.”
Paul Lopez
“So the advice you are giving us, you use?”
Jordanny Williams
“Yes, I don’t take my thermostat lower than seventy-five. I keep it at seventy-five and up and I feel cold. In my parents house they keep it at seventy-four as well. and the other units we might have, twenty-two, twenty-three.”
Paul Lopez
“So you feel like if you did not implement some of these same advices, your bill could have been much higher?”
Jordanny Williams
“I don’t want to imagine what that bill would be.”
AC units are heavy energy users, but better habits should help control the cost. Williams made those changes, yet his electricity bill still went up. If his appliances are not the only issue, could BEL’s smart meters be part of the problem? Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.
Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.
