Apartment Air Conditioning (apartments, house, living)

[BobLeeVegas]

I know air is a must in AZ.

I have seen a lot of apartments advertise " central air ". Not sure how

this works, does this mean the resident has no control over the AC?

I would like to be able to control mine.

If I had a couple of AC's, say in the living room and Bedroom, would'nt
it be feasible to leave them off while at work? And maybe during sleep only run the bedroom?

I know these questions sound simple, but I have not lived in a desert!

[BillyBaroo]

Whatever you do, just make sure it's real air-conditioning and not evaporative cooling.

Evaporative cooler - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This gets more first timers than anything. My first summer was in an apartment with a swamp cooler. Although I did lose a lot of weight that first summer.

[HX_Guy]

Central air just means air conditioning. It doesn't mean a central unit for the whole complex, just a central unit for your own apartments, not individual units in each room like you might see in older buildings where A/C was retrofitted later.

[ji603]

Central air is a thermostat in your apt and many vents in each room. You set the thermostat at the temp you want and the entire place is kept at that temp. No window units in apartments here for the most part.

[mortimer]

ji603 confirmed:

> Central air is a thermostat in your apt and many vents in each room.
> ... entire place is kept at that temp.

but BobLeeVegas asked:

> ... AC's, ... would'nt it be feasible to leave them off while at work?

Yes, it would be feasible and smart.

[HX_Guy]

The best thing would be to have a programmable thermostat so you could have the AC turn on say 30 minutes before you got home and cool the place down, they aren't very expensive ($50?) and easy to install.

[chicagocarol]

My son purchased a programmable thermostate as suggested above. He also purchased a ceiling fan with the light fixture to replace the existing light fixture in the dinette/kitchen area. Of course, he has stored that light fixture and will put it back in before he moves.

[mortimer]

HX_Guy suggested and added:

> The best thing would be to have a programmable thermostat ....

With a programmable thermostat and Time-of-Use billing, you can really maximize your savings.

In a house, you can practically freeze your house up right to when the billing rate changes and let the system 'coast' from there.

In an apartment, that won't work very well, but at least, you can come home to a pre-cooled apartment.

[Sunvixen]

Originally Posted by BillyBaroo

Whatever you do, just make sure it's real air-conditioning and not evaporative cooling.

Evaporative cooler - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This gets more first timers than anything. My first summer was in an apartment with a swamp cooler. Although I did lose a lot of weight that first summer.

What is the deal with the Swamp coolers? I stayed at a very nice home that had a swamp cooler AND central air. I was there during June and we never turned the air on and it was perfect. Yet I hear all kinds of bad stories about them. What gives?

[BillyBaroo]

Originally Posted by Sunvixen

What is the deal with the Swamp coolers? I stayed at a very nice home that had a swamp cooler AND central air. I was there during June and we never turned the air on and it was perfect. Yet I hear all kinds of bad stories about them. What gives?

I think that would be ideal to have both. The swamp cooler works fine when humidity is low. The problem with them is they don't work well when the humidity gets high during July and especially August. That's because they work by introducing cool and moist air into the environment and since the air is already moist because of the high humidity, they don't work. So the air-conditioning is really only neccessary about two months out of the year.