It’s really still the best time of year around here, at least in my opinion. Where I live, the winter provides some of the best weather we see all year. The skies are blue, the sun is out and the temperatures are near perfect. And the heat pump is quiet for a time because there is zero demand for air conditioning. It won’t last forever though. By March, the temperatures will start to rise and the heat pump will be back in demand for more cooling comfort. But last spring, we tried something different. The fact of the matter is that we’ve been down here now for a decade. So it’s time to get real about the air conditioning costs, particularly in the summer. We’ve tried different strategies and always prepped the house to maximize the heat pump’s efficiency. But we also get weak knees by about mid July and begin leaning into the thermostat to provide more air conditioning. And this comes at a cost. It’s more expensive for sure to be running the air conditioning night and day. But there’s another cost involved. That cost is the fact that with all that air conditioning, the heat and humidity of summer feel all that much more overwhelming. So we did something last spring using more common sense and it made a huge difference. Instead of going right for the air conditioning in the, we waited until like mid May. Our bodies acclimated to the higher temperatures which resulted in a more comfortable summer and less demand for air conditioning.