[MediocreButArrogant]

Originally Posted by Camaro5

You can get a nice Honeywell programmable thermostat at Lowe's or Home Depot for $30. Might be something to consider if you're leaving pets at home while you're gone.

How does this help the OP, who is worried about the A/C going out? A programmable thermostat isn't going to change anything.

A WiFi thermostat will at least notify him, either by the alarm feature in the app, if it has one, or the temp going a couple degree above the setpoint.

[MediocreButArrogant]

This is what the temperature looks like inside a Las Vegas house when the A/C doesn't run. First pic is yesterday, when it never got hot enough for the A/C to run (away temp for upstairs is set to 88F). Second pic is a week ago yesterday, when I presume it was hotter. The vertical bars are the upstairs A/C unit running, starting around 4PM. Sorry for the large size, too lazy to resize.





This house was built in 1988 of typical tract home construction, and really has had nothing done to improve energy efficiency other than solar screens on west and south facing windows.

[BWNLV]

A little off topic but is anyone prepared if the electric grid went down for a few days? Or a week or two or even longer? I'm not a survivalist but I have given some thought to the grid going dark. I have some supplies and equipment I think I would need to get by - uncomfortable for sure in this summer heat - but I think I would make out ok.

I think it is only wise to give the idea some thought. There have been reports in the news over the past few years of cyber attacks on our utilities and electric companies. The government could only do so much especially if it was wide spread outage covering the entire west coast and Rocky Mountain region.

[JonathanLB]

Hmm, hadn't thought of that BWNLV. I wonder if it's worthwhile to have a backup generator, I know it would still not matter if someone cut the gas line or if there was an issue with that, but I think that's less likely because earthquakes in Vegas are much less likely than in Reno or the West / central part of the state.

What's a safe temperature to keep a home when you're gone on vacation during the summer do you think? I don't know if I'd want my house getting much above 80, I feel like there are a number of things that aren't supposed to be stored at temperatures too high.

[Camaro5]

I have a generator that we used to use in Illinois when the thunderstorms would knock out the power, sometimes for days. It has enough wattage to run a refrigerator and some other things (like fans) but not an AC unit. I also have a power cleaner/ regulator for using anything electronic since you can fry your stuff running it straight off a generator. I thought about selling it, but probably won't. You just never know.

We have friends that have a complete Kohler back-up system that runs the whole house, including AC, if the power goes out. There is a transfer switch that kicks it on automatically. I think they paid around $5K for it.

[JonathanLB]

Not a bad deal, I had an estimate for a Koehler system myself and it was about $7,800. I had already spent so much on other home stuff and my budget was beyond strapped but I would consider it for my next house. I was more annoyed by the supposed $200/year maintenance or so. Just because I felt like at that rate for us we could go stay at a hotel if anything happened right here. But that wasn’t considering a full city failure just a local area one.

Now I would probably look into the Tesla wall batteries that can tie into your solar system. They seem pretty sweet and I definitely plan to install solar again (I like it where I am, fun to track too).

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by JonathanLB

What's a safe temperature to keep a home when you're gone on vacation during the summer do you think? I don't know if I'd want my house getting much above 80, I feel like there are a number of things that aren't supposed to be stored at temperatures too high.

I usually set mine at about 82 when I am away. The cats can tolerate that temp just fine, it doesn't get TOO hot in the house, but the AC doesn't run non stop when I am away.

[airics]

Get the time of use plan. Program the thermostats by your phone to run 78 degrees between 7pm-1pm

[lvmensch]

Make sure what you are dealing with. In 22 years we have had a half dozen power outages. One unscheduled that took 8 hours (Underground Cable burned out). One scheduled that took 5 hours or so. The others were all less than an hour. So how much is it worth to avoid these?

[MediocreButArrogant]

Originally Posted by JonathanLB

What's a safe temperature to keep a home when you're gone on vacation during the summer do you think? I don't know if I'd want my house getting much above 80, I feel like there are a number of things that aren't supposed to be stored at temperatures too high.

If you're only going to be gone for a couple weeks, I wouldn't even bother touching the thermostat.

#1 on my list of concerns would be medications, which can't be stored in the fridge, and degrade at temps much above 80F. Chocolate bars will bloom or turn soft if it gets really hot inside.

We leave our house in Las Vegas empty for 3-9 months at a time, including most summers. I vacuum bag dry goods like rice and quinoa and throw them in the fridge before we leave. Vegetable oils get put in the fridge too. Downstairs thermostat is set at 85F when the house is empty during the summer.

If you had a vinyl record collection, or magnetic tape, I'd want to know the safe temps for long-term storage. I don't have any concerns like these, everything of value is in our CA home.