Air Conditioner Use in Home

[bullmama]

I am getting very frustrated so I need advice and help from those who know about energy saving and air conditioning.

I have the AC set at 80 (yes I know that may seem warm to you but it is not when you live in the desert, it's actually quite comfortable). I would freeze to death in most of your climates!!!!

Hubby says we need to turn it down to 78 in the morning because the AC has a hard time 'catching up' in the late afternoon. So in his mind, if we keep the AC at 78 earlier, the AC will work "less hard" and cost us LESS MONEY. He thinks it does not matter what the temperature is set at INSIDE, it will cost us the same either way.

I beg to differ. I would actually set it at 82 if it were my choice. LOL

 

[MamaAndi]

I live in Nebraska and our climate is flippy! We turn our ac down in the morning and let mother nature do the cooling. We don't turn it up till the hottest part of the day.

 

[KMARINO]

Lisa, although Im no expert, I have always heard to leave it lower so that the unit does not have to work as hard to catch up in the afternoon costing more $$. I know for myself here in hot humid FL. in the mornings my unit will turn off and on to keep it at a steady 75. In the afternoon it runs NON-stop, then again in the evenings it will kick on and off. You have a much dryer heat where we are so humid that even at 75 24/7 it gets hot in here if I am doing anything but sitting.

 

[BruceP]

A/C units don't WORK harder depending on the setting. They put out X amount of cooling per time unit no matter where the thermostat is set. The thermostat only tells them when to start and shut off.
Example: if it is set for 80 the ac will turn on when the temp reaches 80+ and turn off when it gets to 80-. That's it! That is how they work. If you set it for 82 it will come on when the temp is 82+ and off when it is 82-. THats it. Of course, it will get to 82- and shut off much sooner that it will get to 80- so the ac runs longer as the heat goes up.

 

[Marine91]

I agree with BruceP... it also depends on what type of unit you have. Old, new, swamp cooler, single stage or dual stage. Does your until maintain the temp you set or does it wait for a specific increase in ambient in house temp before it kicks on and cool to a specific temp below what you have set before it shuts off? Here in Texas our ac runs about 10 months a year and the system we have maintains the temp instead of waiting for a specific increase so it only runs for about 15 minutes every hour durning the day on a single stage below 95 degrees outside then kicks in the second stage if it is above 95 as we keep it at 80 during the day with me working from home and it is quite comfortable. In the evenings it runs for about 30 minutes to drop it down to 78 as my wife is coming home then it is back to 15 minutes per hour. Rinse and repeat for when we go to bed and it drops down to 72.

 

[JAKEISGREAT]

Ummmmm....I was told by our a/c man...it's much better to maintain the same temperature. If you leave it high during day when you were say....at work, and then come home and turn temp down, your A/C unit works harder to get to lower temperature from a hot house than to maintain a comfortable temp all day. If its a couple degrees probably ok..but this is for trying to cool off a hot house.

 

[Marine91]

Ummmmm....I was told by our a/c man...it's much better to maintain the same temperature. If you leave it high during day when you were say....at work, and then come home and turn temp down, your A/C unit works harder to get to lower temperature from a hot house than to maintain a comfortable temp all day. If its a couple degrees probably ok..but this is for trying to cool off a hot house.

It's not so much that it works harder than it is that it will run longer. However, if you have an older system or are going from say 80 to 75 in the heat of the day you system may never shut off as it cannot efficently reach that temperature in a reasonable time frame thus causing you an increase energy costs. Simpliest thing you can do Iif you haven't already is get rid of an old mercury switch thermostat and replace it with a digital.

 

[JAKEISGREAT]

It's not so much that it works harder than it is that it will run longer. However, if you have an older system or are going from say 80 to 75 in the heat of the day you system may never shut off as it cannot efficently reach that temperature in a reasonable time frame thus causing you an increase energy costs. Simpliest thing you can do Iif you haven't already is get rid of an old mercury switch thermostat and replace it with a digital.

Ya..we just got an all new high efficiency system in at the end of last heat season! I'm hoping to see lower bills!

 

[Marine91]

We got a new one 2 years ago and it made a huge difference in our house. I went overkill and got a 20 seer dual stage system but it has been worth it dropping our electric bill from $500 a month in the summer to $300 even with us keeping it much cooler that we ever could with the old one.

 

[JeannieCO]

Set at 80 I would melt. I have mine on right now and it's at 73 for the day and 75 for the night and even then we have a portable until in our bedroom that's at 68. Two degrees is not going to make a difference and Mike says it's actually probably cheaper to run it at 80 all day so the AC is not kicking on and off. A HVAC friend of Mike's has a saying, so Mike just said when I read this to time...."that you need to leave the Fan on the entire time it runs so that way even though the AC cycles off the fan keeps all the air moving." In other words, keep the AC on but instead of running it on the Auto setting, run it on the Fan setting so it keeps the air flowing.

You'd need a parka in summertime at my place, lol.