{"id":1567,"date":"2024-07-02T10:22:19","date_gmt":"2024-07-02T17:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sierrapacifichome.com\/blog\/?p=1567"},"modified":"2025-09-21T01:24:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T08:24:08","slug":"heat-wave-warning-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sierrapacifichome.com\/blog\/whole-house-fan\/heat-wave-warning-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Heat Wave Warning & Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What you already know:<\/strong> over the next seven or more days, the Sacramento area is going to experience a tremendous heat wave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get through it as best as possible, here are some tips for you to consider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What you may not yet know:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to operate your home and HVAC system during this unique stretch of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the following message, we\u2019ll share information about how to operate your heating and air conditioning system, QuietCool whole house fan (if you have one yet), and we\u2019ll talk about when (and when not) to use the HVAC system. Plus we\u2019ll share some insights on utility rates to help you manage your air conditioning bills, and still keep comfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
https:\/\/weather.com\/weather\/tenday\/l\/Sacramento+CA?canonicalCityId=f8ebf75cd2c0861ca707133456d9955a9119246d944c9503a76344f5faeede9c<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

First thing to think about, is your air conditioning system<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best tip we have is to keep your house cool by setting the temperature at one fixed, low setting, and then letting the air conditioner hold it there as best as possible. Start by cooling your home overnight and in the morning. Your goal is to get the walls, the floors, and the furnishings as cool as possible. Then set the thermostat at that one temperature and let it stay there all through the day to keep the house cool. Your air conditioner will work better if the indoor walls and floors and furnishings and air temperature does not get warm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using a QuietCool Whole House fan<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(if you don\u2019t have one, read this anyway, you might want one!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your QuietCool whole house fan is a savior when it comes to reducing your air conditioner workload. Use the QuietCool late at night and early in the morning to pull in the cool outdoor air into the house. At the end of the day, in the evening, purge the attic of the heat that is built up in your attic insulation. The QuietCool is tremendous for this. Your attic and wall insulation will become \u201csaturated with heat\u201d this week, using a QuietCool at night will help dissipate the heat from your insulation, thus keeping your walls cooler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beat the utility company’s \u201cPenalty Rates\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This next part is about utility rates. Disclaimer: there are many different rate structures, depending on the utility that you\u2019re in, so this is a general discussion and your individual circumstances will vary by your own specific utility rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The majority of electric users are now on what\u2019s referred to as \u2018time of use\u2019 or \u2018time of day\u2019 rates. Which means there are \u2018penalty hours\u2019. Once again, depending on the utility that you\u2019re in, the \u2018penalty hours\u2019 will vary, but they generally are from 4 PM to 9 PM (SMUD specifically is from 5 PM to 8 PM). This means every bit of electricity that you use (every kilowatt-hour you consume) between 4 PM and 9 PM will be penalized at a higher cost. These are extremely high electric rates during that window of time. If your home stays comfortably cool up until 4 PM, you can change your thermostat setting just a little higher so you can \u201ccoast through\u201d 4 PM to 9 PM to use less electricity. And then after the penalty hours have passed, put the thermostat back down at a low temperature so that the air conditioner can start operating to keep the house as cool as possible through the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Homes in Sacramento are generally not designed to sustain this long-term level of such high heat, so you should expect your air conditioning system to run a lot to keep you comfortable. Operating the home as a system will be an important part of keeping comfortable and managing energy use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, if you find yourself in need of a repair, Sierra Pacific service professionals will be working extra hours to help everyone we can, as soon as can be done, so don’t hesitate to contact us<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wishing you a cool, safe, Happy Independence Day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What you already know: over the next seven or more days, the Sacramento area is going to experience a tremendous heat wave. To get through it as best as possible, here are some tips for you to consider. What you may not yet know: How to operate your home and HVAC system during this unique stretch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[197],"tags":[173,141,170],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sierrapacifichome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sierrapacifichome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sierrapacifichome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sierrapacifichome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sierrapacifichome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1567"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.sierrapacifichome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1576,"href":"https:\/\/www.sierrapacifichome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567\/revisions\/1576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sierrapacifichome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sierrapacifichome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sierrapacifichome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}