Cut Your
Summer AC Bill
South Florida

General energy guidance is to hold around 78°F while you're home and let it drift warmer when the house is empty or overnight — a programmable or smart thermostat does that automatically. Every degree cooler than that adds meaningfully to the bill because your system runs longer and harder. Ceiling fans let you stay comfortable at the higher setting, so the two work together. What's right for your home depends on how well the envelope holds cool air, which is exactly what an energy walk-through measures.

Start with the free habits: raise the thermostat toward 78°F, run ceiling fans, close blinds against direct sun, change a dirty filter, keep vents clear, and shift cooking and drying to cooler hours. None of them cost anything and they trim the bill the same day. Once the free wins are in place, the next cheapest permanent saving is usually air sealing — closing the gaps that let conditioned air escape — before larger jobs like insulation or window upgrades.

Yes — good ones do two things at once. Insulated, low-E impact glass slows heat from conducting inward and reflects a large share of the sun's radiant heat, so the rooms behind them stay cooler and the AC runs less. Old single-pane windows do the opposite, leaking cool air and letting the sun cook the room. Because the same upgrade also meets Florida's wind code, it protects the home in a storm and can earn insurance wind-mitigation credits — a summer-and-hurricane double-win. See our impact windows page and insurance guide for the details.

In Palm Beach County, cooling is the largest share of a summer bill, and our climate makes the AC run most of the year. If the bill feels high, the usual culprits are a house that lets heat in and cool air out — thin attic insulation, air leaks around windows and the attic hatch, leaky ducts in a hot attic, and old single-pane glass — plus habits like a low thermostat setting. An energy assessment measures which of those is costing you the most, so you fix the biggest leak first instead of guessing.

In South Florida it's one of the highest-return upgrades a home can make. A dark roof over an uninsulated attic can push attic temperatures well past 130°F on a summer afternoon, and that heat radiates straight down into your living space. Bringing insulation up to current spec slows that heat and keeps the cool air you paid for where it belongs. An energy rater can tell you whether your attic is under-insulated and how much difference topping it up would make before you spend.

Often the smart order is to tighten the house first, then size the equipment to the smaller load — the same efficiency-first logic behind the owner's own home. A leaky, under-insulated house pushes people to buy a bigger, more expensive system that then runs constantly. Air sealing, insulation, and better glass lower the cooling demand, so whatever cooling equipment you have (or later buy) does more with less. An energy assessment gives you that picture before you spend on a system that may be oversized for a fixed-up home.

As a RESNET® Florida Class 1 Energy Rater, we look at where your home gains heat and loses cool — the attic and insulation, air leaks, windows and doors, and duct paths — and can perform a blower-door test to measure how leaky the house actually is. You get a prioritized plan: the fixes that lower the summer bill the most, in order, with no guesswork. And with every roofing or window estimate, that wind-mitigation and energy walk-through is free. Call (561) 779-3213 to book it.

Financing for energy and storm-protection upgrades like impact windows and new roofs is available through our partner Renew Financial's RenewPACE program — ask us about eligibility. Federal and state efficiency programs also change over time, so rather than name a program that may be out of date, we point homeowners toward what's active when we scope the project and suggest confirming details with a tax professional. We'll never promise a rate, payment, or approval — just help you see what's available.

Yes. Based in Loxahatchee at 16140 Okeechobee Blvd, we handle energy assessments, air sealing and insulation, and impact windows across all of Palm Beach County — West Palm Beach, Loxahatchee, The Acreage, Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens, Boynton Beach, and the surrounding communities. Call (561) 779-3213 to schedule your energy walk-through and start cutting the summer bill.