A/C operations when not at home

[ControlJohnsons]

Originally Posted by WMak70

When we moved to Florida from up north, we would shut our ac off when we went to work in the morning and turn it on when we got home after work. Our electric bills went through the roof. I called the local electric company and they sent a guy out and he said NOT to turn it off completely because everything in the house heats up.......the walls, the furniture, the carpets, etc, etc. Then, when you turn it back on, it takes a long time of constant running to cool everything back down, working the ac really hard.

We followed his advice and turned it up to 79 when we left home and back to 74 when we got home and left it there till the next morning. Our electric bills dropped to a reasonable level.

But in our present home, we just leave it on 74 all the time and our bills do not seem terribly out of line.

+1.

it depends on how much airconditioning one has. we have an avg sized central air system, we keep our AC at 72 degrees when home and 80 degrees when out. our home gets a lot of direct sunlight during the summer and temps reach 95-100 regularly in the summer.

the time we decided to turn it off when on vacation, it was a sauna when we came home. it had difficulty getting back to 72 and the ac was blowing continuously 24/7 for days. that said, i'm sure if one has a much larger unit, it wouldn't take as long.

[imagineAA]

Originally Posted by Nonesuch

Part of the disconnect here is conflating "turning everything off" with "use a relatively high setback value, at least 8°F"

Thanks.

I was referring to turning lights off when you don't need them, and keeping AC set to a higher temp when you're not home.

[Gunluvver2]

I hate air conditioning. And I am saying that sitting inside my house when it reached 97 to 100 today. My house is about 1,000 sq/ft two bedroom on a concrete slab. I have A/C but I prefer not using it. I have windows on all four sides of my house open. I have nice shade trees on three sides of the house. The South side of the house gets direct sun from around 11 AM to 3 PM. I have three 12 inch fans (250 Watts each on Max) running 24/7 when the temps are above 85. As long as I have a nice breeze on me I am comfortable even on these extremely hot days. Earlier I had to go to the local Home Depot to get some PVC pipe for a project. I hadn't broke a sweat all day long until I walked in to the huge Home Depot building. I thought I had walked into a meat locker. I almost started shivering it seemed so cold. (actually temp was 74 according to thermometers). I headed home in my pickup with the A/C off but windows open. I felt more comfortable out in my garage with nothing but one oscillating fan than I did at Home Depot.

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by meanieme

Sounds like there is no consensus, which makes me feel better that I didn't ask a stupid question. Maybe the best middle ground is to turn it up higher maybe to the midpoint temp, between normal stay at home temp vs. what it will settle at if AC turned off completely when not at home. LOL

This is not a stupid question. In my first apartment with central air conditioning I tried an experiment. One week I ran the AC while at work for a week, another week I shut off the AC while a t work and another just turning it up 5 degrees. I monitored the meter to see the difference e. I was surprised that turning it off did not save anything. It only meant I came home to a hot apartment and the AC had to run almost the entire night. Turning up the AC saved a bit of money but not enough to make me worry to turn it up every time I left. I did not have a programmable thermostat but do now and I set it to go up 5 degrees after we leave and back down before we come home. Jay.