Look out your window right now, and you may be overlooking one simple way to control your home cooling costs and extend the life of your home air conditioning system. It’s the sunshine through your windows. For exactly the same reason we encourage you to open your drapes, blinds or shades on the winter days to let the warmth of the sun in, we suggest closing them in the summer. Letting the summer sun beat down on your Harrisburg, Hershey, Carlisle, Middletown and Palmyra area home is an effective way to make your home air conditioning work that much harder to keep it cool. The sun really adds heat, so keeping it out means your air conditioning is just cooling the rooms to the temperature you set, not doing battle with the noonday sun. If your home air conditioning system is only doing the job it’s designed to do (without the added workload from the sun), then it won’t require as much energy, and you’ll save money on your energy bills.