One L.A. (county) girl who ISN'T high-maintenance (to live, costs)

[DowntownVentura]

Originally Posted by JerZ

That would be me.

I am SO FREAKING cheap it isn't even funny. OTOH, I'm not from L.A. originally.

However, my husband is...and he is cheaper than ANYONE I know. (No, he wouldn't be offended to read that. He'd be surprised he didn't say it first. Usually, he does.)

I'm dying over here, never turning on the air conditioning until 8:00 at night. Even last Friday when it was 107. Yesterday I (gasp) turned the air on at only 6:00. This only because my lungs feel like there are glass in them from having the windows open for some breeze (any breeze, please please god) during all these fires, and my head was pounding scarily from many months of relentless heat.

So there's an actual question here, making the title misleading...but...I have about a 1200-sq.ft. house (rather small; I like that, though). I usually have the air on from 8PM-9AM, set fairly high, like 76-ish.

Last month our electric bill was under $200. If I spent really hot days like this from now on until it cools down, running the air all day instead, what kind of a bill do you think I'd have? Would it be outrageous?

Does anybody here have about my size house, and have the air on (or have it set at a certain temp to go on automatically) and can tell me roughly what your bill is in these summer months?

I would be very grateful. Because I just can't stand the thought of one more year this way. I can't...I feel like I'm dying. Sounds melodramatic but I mean, try it for three months while being very physical with housework and kids and you'll see what I mean.

I do have fans, BTW. Blowing 107-degree air around doesn't help a heap.

You should look into whole house fans. The idea is when it is cooler outside than inside, it brings in the cooler air, moves the warmer air into the attic, and the attic air outside. It doesn't take too long before all the air in the house is exchanged with the cooler air. If you have a large attic, it also ends up replacing that air with cooler air setting a nice buffer to start the next day.

Regular fans/ceiling fans are not as effective as they do just push around the warmer air.

Originally Posted by JerZ

...
I even told my husband that next year, I'd like to take the kids away somewhere for the summer. I know that would be even more expensive but I just can't take it.
....

Isn't that more expensive than just running your a/c? Or maybe I misunderstood what you just can't take?

[Charles]

Originally Posted by DowntownVentura

You should look into whole house fans. The idea is when it is cooler outside than inside, it brings in the cooler air, moves the warmer air into the attic, and the attic air outside. It doesn't take too long before all the air in the house is exchanged with the cooler air. If you have a large attic, it also ends up replacing that air with cooler air setting a nice buffer to start the next day.

Regular fans/ceiling fans are not as effective as they do just push around the warmer air.


Isn't that more expensive than just running your a/c? Or maybe I misunderstood what you just can't take?

Whole house fans are OK, especially for a 1200 sqft house. Still, you need the right conditions (cooler outside). They are very noisy and may require removing joists or other load bearing lumber in attic (be careful about this because you can get nailed at resale time).

Another good thing is a thermostatically controlled attic fan which moves cooler outside air into the hot attic. I have several on my home here in Huntsville.

Whole house fans work great in the morning as you can precool the house but like I wrote above, they are noisy and nobody wants that roar at 6AM.

Ceiling fans cool by wind chill effect.

I think the single best thing to do to save on cooling costs is plant lots of deciduous trees on the east and west side of the house. Ideally buy a house with a low amount of windows on the east and west sides of the house and lots of windows on the south side of the house (for free winter heat).

Double pane glass is good for thermal isolation but not too good for solar radiation. That is, if the sun is shining into your house, the double pane doesn't make that much difference (that's why east and west windows are undesirable). Also, double pane's real benefit is keeping a house at 68F when it is 20F outside (delta 48F) versus keeping a house 78F when it is 98F outside. Finally, I think you can't put glass coatings (dark shaded film) on double pane glass.

[DowntownVentura]

There are quiet cool fans. We have some of this product http://www.quietcoolfan.com/

They are fantastic, we run them all night most of the year just to bring in nice fresh air. They are a lot more expensive than the single large whole house fan (which is designed to be run just a few minutes each evening), in fact, it will take a few years to recover the installation expense. But for fresh air, there is nothing like it.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by DowntownVentura

There are quiet cool fans. We have some of this product Quiet Cool Whole House Fans - Installs in your attic

They are fantastic, we run them all night most of the year just to bring in nice fresh air. They are a lot more expensive than the single large whole house fan (which is designed to be run just a few minutes each evening), in fact, it will take a few years to recover the installation expense. But for fresh air, there is nothing like it.

One other thing is, especially in southern California, about the same time the temperatures go down, the breezes pick up. In most cases, simply opening windows on opposite sides of the house will provide enough cross ventilation to complete an air exchange.

[timelesschild]

JerZ,

We just moved houses - our previous house was costing us upwards of $200 on the electric bill in the summer (the worst month was last summer at $463). Our new place is costing only $50 on the electric bill. Same people, same habits, same size place. The new house has better construction, and is in the shade. Amazing the difference... I don't necessarily recommend moving, though, just to save on the electric bill.... but I wish we had done it sooner.

Also, you might try running the AC just in the afternoon. We run ours from about lunch to 8:00 pm, and then open all the windows. The evening air is cooler than AC - and a fan will bring it right into the house, especially if you do like Charles says and set up a cross-breeze.

[SandyCo]

JerZ, my first power bill in my new apartment for a little over two months was $190!!! That's $80 a month, and it's 1,000 sq. ft. What I started doing was leaving the air on during the day, but turning it completely off at night. Why do you need cool air when you're asleep? That's when a fan should do the trick.

That was before the fires, though. I've had the air on for a week straight and all the windows closed up. I felt like I was on house arrest last weekend! The smoke, though, gives me a headache. I can't imagine it's any better out in Glendora. Breathing in smoke (in addition to the regular smog Glendora gets) can't be healthy for you or your family. Using the a/c is required during certain occasions. I'd say this qualifies!

Ok, now you cheap people can get back to your discussion.

[jc76]

We have a 2200 sq. ft. ranch style 3 br. home and keep it on 24/7 at 70 degrees and pay around $120-140 a month. Maybe electricity costs more in CA, I don't know.
We also have a brand spankin' new $7500. heating and duct system, but our central air is about 10 years old so I don't think it's the new system helping our cost, I think it's my crazy uncle who did our new siding and put several layers of insulation underneath. Even in the -20 degree winters our home stays pretty warm using minimal heat.
We are very cheap and I have noticed that if you turn the A/C on and off it makes the bill higher. Once we started to leave it on nonstop at 70 our bill dropped about $80. bucks.
Just something to think about.

[JerZ]

Hi, folks. We do have a whole house fan but as people are pointing out, when it's 100 degrees and up outside (which is quite frequent out here), that doesn't do much.

I have been BEGGGING my husband to grow more trees but he doesn't want to because they interfere with our DirectTV dish thingie and all that.

It is so much cooler on the side of the house that has trees.

I miss trees so much. I guess I wish my husband would work with me on ANY of this. The AC doesn't work in my car, either (it hasn't for three years) and although it's not like he doesn't suffer in general, especially since he commutes, he commutes in an air conditioned car, to an air conditioned office. When he's home he DIES in the heat and ends up turning on the air earlier than I ever would--which means I then have to scrimp even more on it when the kids and I are in here, which is the majority of the time.

I've started sleeping 12 hours a day and it's really weird. I went to my doctor to see about my thyroid (I'm on medication) but it's holding steady. Then I was reading that heat for a long period of time can cause exhaustion.

I guess I just can't envision one more year like this. I think I'm going to tell my husband that since he doesn't like any of my ideas, next year, I'll get on that SoCalEdison plan BUT I WILL run the AC and that's my final word. If we can't afford to keep us cool enough in here not to get sick, then we can't afford to live here. Period.

I have had it.

[JerZ]

Also, last night I wanted to bake a cheesecake and he got mad at me because I turned on the oven while the A/C was on. He turned off the A/C until the cake was done (one hour). He acted like only a moron would think it was ok to run A/C while the oven was on. Does this make sense to anyone else? He wouldn't explain it to me, he was too angry with me over it.

At that point the inside temp went up to 87 degrees from 85 degrees, which it had been all day. It was pretty unbearable. I almost cried. I yelled at him, "I can't just NOT cook for three months out of every year!" and he left the room. It was pretty horrible.

[Peony321]

Trade him in for a better model. Or more powérful a/c!