How to lower your AC bill in Cape Coral

LCEC or FPL: check your bill

LCEC serves more than 240,000 customers, including Cape Coral, North Fort Myers, Pine Island, Sanibel, Captiva and parts of Lehigh Acres. The city of Fort Myers is largely FPL. Look at the top of your bill if you are not sure. It matters because the utility programs are different.

FPL customers: the AC credit

FPL offers a $200 instant credit on a new system for residential customers. The rules, as FPL publishes them:

• It is for a new indoor and outdoor system, not just one half.
• The system must be rated at least 15.2 SEER2.
• It has to be installed by an FPL-approved Participating Independent Contractor.
• It is for FPL residential customers only.
• No rebate for the same system within two years.

If you are replacing and you are on FPL, ask the company up front whether they are a participating contractor. The credit is applied at the sale, so it is easy to miss if nobody mentions it.

LCEC customers: the usage analysis

I did not find an LCEC rebate for AC equipment. LCEC does offer a free usage analysis (an energy survey) on its website, which is a reasonable first step if your bill jumped and you don't know why. A sudden jump with no change in weather or habits is often a sign that the AC itself has a problem, such as a dirty coil or low refrigerant, and that is worth a service call more than a new thermostat.

Thermostat and humidity

The DOE Energy Saver guide's general advice is to set the thermostat as high as you are comfortable with while you are home and raise it when you are away. I am not going to give you a percentage savings per degree, because it depends too much on the house.

In Cape Coral the comfort problem is usually humidity, not temperature. A dry house at 78F feels better than a damp one at 75F, and you pay for every degree of that 75F. The EPA recommends keeping indoor humidity below 60 percent, ideally 30 to 50. A cheap hygrometer will tell you where you are. If the house is cold and still damp, the system may be oversized or set to run the fan continuously. Ask the technician whether the fan should be on "auto" rather than "on" for your system, since a fan running between cycles can blow moisture off the wet coil back into the house. More on this in our humidity page.

One more local pattern: people in their first Cape Coral summer post their bill and ask whether it is normal. Part of the jump is just the season, since July here runs the AC almost around the clock. Part is often fixable. Some homeowners say a stand-alone dehumidifier let them raise the thermostat a few degrees and stay comfortable, which fits the EPA's point that dry air is the goal. If the system runs nonstop and the bill keeps climbing, have the system and the ducts checked before blaming the rate. When the AC can't keep up.

Airflow and ducts

• Filters. Change them on schedule. A clogged filter cuts airflow, makes the system run longer and can freeze the coil.
• Ceiling fans. A fan cools people, not rooms. DOE says ceiling fans let you raise the thermostat setting without feeling less comfortable. Turn them off when you leave the room.
• Duct sealing. Most Cape Coral homes have ducts in the attic, which is the hottest place on the property in summer. Leaky ducts pull attic air in and push cooled air out. Sealing and insulating them is on DOE's list for a reason. Fixr puts duct repair at $300 to $700, with $500 as the average.
• Outdoor unit. Keep plants and debris away from the condenser. Salt air builds up on coils near the water, and a dirty coil works harder.

Duct cleaning is a different thing from duct sealing. The EPA says duct cleaning has never been shown to actually prevent health problems, and it will not lower your bill on its own. See our duct cleaning page before you book a coupon special.

Maintenance and when to replace

A tune-up runs $65 to $200 according to This Old House, with $133 as the average. It is worth it if the visit actually cleans the coils and clears the drain line, and less so if it is mostly a sales visit. Our maintenance page lists what a visit should include.

This Old House puts the typical life of a home cooling system at 12 to 15 years. An older system near the end of that range, especially one that needs a major repair, may cost more to keep running than to replace. New split systems in Florida have to meet at least 14.3 SEER2. Our repair or replace guide goes through the math.

Why the bill is high here in the first place

The AC in Cape Coral runs most of the year. In 2016 to 2025 Fort Myers averaged 145 days a year at 90F or hotter, up from 121 in the 1991 to 2020 normal, and 100 nights a year that never dropped below 75F. Warm nights mean the system never gets a break. The full numbers are on our heat and humidity data page.

Nights per year when the low stayed at 75°F or warmer