This is just the start of the summer heat, so how do we keep our homes cool without driving up our electric bills?
It's a scorcher out there and to keep the sun's heat from warming up your home, you may be tempted to blast your air conditioner all day. But this new device, a "Modlet", can cut your energy usage and your bill.
The Modlet works with any air conditioner that uses an electric plug. You set the temperature with the remote and download the app to your smartphone.
"You can turn your room air conditioners on and off via your smartphone or a web portal," says Adrienne Ortizo of Con Edison.
The Modlet costs about $50 at select Best Buy stores.
Con Edison recommends setting your air conditioner at 78 degrees, and while that might be high for some, remember that lowering the price will increase your cost.
"For every degree you lower your air conditioner, you probably your increase your cooling cost by about six percent," says Con Edison spokesman Michael Clendenin.
Other ways to cut your bill include turning the lights off when you're not using them and avoid producing heat!
"Your oven obviously creates heat, if you can cook in the microwave, cook in the microwave. It does use more energy though, but it’s not going to heat up your house the way an oven would," says Clendenin.
Dishwashers and other appliances also create heat.
"Washers, dryers, all those things that create heat, run those things at night," says Clendenin.
The epic is a gold LEED-certified building designed to reduce total energy use by up to 10%.
Jordan Barowitz, of Durst Fetner Residential, showed us features in their apartments that save energy and money like these energy-star appliances.
"Throughout the building we have compact fluorescent lightbulbs which of course use less energy than incandescent bulbs," says Barowitz.
They also use windows that deflect and keep out much of the heat, as well as digital thermostats on their air conditioning units.
"They all have timers on them so you can set it to turn on fifteen or twenty minutes before you come home from work," says Barowitz.
You can also remove any dust on your light bulbs. That makes the bulb hotter, again creating heat.
(Information courtesy NBC News)
