Let's compare monthly electric bills (Tempe, Maricopa: apartment, rentals, new house)

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by ScottsdaleMark

I had a roommate years ago whose dad was an HVAC instructor at a trade school and he said it was better to leave it set at a constant temperature all day rather than make it work extra hard to cool down a hot house. Just as it's easier to let a car drive a constant speed than it is to stop and go, stop and go, stop and go. But the SRP easy 3 plan and others seem to fly in the face of this idea.

I do know that it depends a LOT on how much square footage you're cooling versus what ton unit(s) you have. In *many* houses, if you let that house get up to 88 degrees and it's 115 outside...it will literally take hours for the unit(s) to cool the house back down below 80. This is because, understandably, both homeowners and landlords tend to just purchase "enough" HVAC power for the house they have, which means in our extreme summer heat, a lot of people have their HVAC units running for many hours out of the day...you don't see too many people paying extra to install a larger HVAC unit that is rated for a much larger space than they have.

According to my Netatmo, my home AC has kicked on 11 times since midnight, for about 15 or 20 minutes each time it looks like. It cools the home about a degree to a degree and a half and it kicks off. So I've already run my AC for about four hours total today. It drives me nuts because during fall/spring it may only have to kick on a few times a day. But when it's so hot out, it seems like it's always coming on again. I wonder if it would be any different to set wider intervals and have it run for longer periods, less times a day...I guess it probably doesn't matter if the total time running is the same.

Was this an HVAC guy here or someplace else in the country?

My neighbor was an HVAC guy back in the Midwest, and he said the same thing which made perfect sense there with high humidity. He ran his AC every day whether it was 100 or 65 degrees for that reason; it was more efficient to just keep it the same all the time.

But here, those I have spoken to agree it seems to make more sense to actively cool the house during the non-daylight hours (also lower electric rate plan times, usually) and back it off during the day. Anyone else hear that?

[ScottsdaleMark]

That's a good point, I hadn't thought about the humidity aspect of it. It was in California (Riverside), but I do wonder if it might be easier to cool down air that wasn't carrying too much moisture in it. Of course, during monsoon season, it's fairly humid inside my house since that moist air cools down inside and ends up with a 50-55% humidity most of the time. I just checked and I am running at 55% humidity inside at 76 degrees, for a 58 dewpoint, and outside ride now is 101 degrees and 31%, for a 65 dewpoint. So it's a little drier inside but not a whole lot.

Edit: Does anyone here use humidifiers or dehumidifiers? I know in other climates, both can be common depending on the season.

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by ScottsdaleMark

That's a good point, I hadn't thought about the humidity aspect of it. It was in California (Riverside), but I do wonder if it might be easier to cool down air that wasn't carrying too much moisture in it. Of course, during monsoon season, it's fairly humid inside my house since that moist air cools down inside and ends up with a 50-55% humidity most of the time. I just checked and I am running at 55% humidity inside at 76 degrees, for a 58 dewpoint, and outside ride now is 101 degrees and 31%, for a 65 dewpoint. So it's a little drier inside but not a whole lot.

Edit: Does anyone here use humidifiers or dehumidifiers? I know in other climates, both can be common depending on the season.

I run a small vaporizer in my bedroom, but not in the whole house.

Back where I used to live, you needed the AC most of the time during the summer because the humidity was so bad everything would literally feel just wet. Carpet, etc. And any papers you had laying around would be damp and limp. Trying to sleep was impossible. It could get pretty gross. So, turning the AC off there and back on like we do here would run the crap out of your system for sure.

[LBTRS]

Originally Posted by ScottsdaleMark

I had a roommate years ago whose dad was an HVAC instructor at a trade school and he said it was better to leave it set at a constant temperature all day rather than make it work extra hard to cool down a hot house. Just as it's easier to let a car drive a constant speed than it is to stop and go, stop and go, stop and go. But the SRP easy 3 plan and others seem to fly in the face of this idea.

I do know that it depends a LOT on how much square footage you're cooling versus what ton unit(s) you have. In *many* houses, if you let that house get up to 88 degrees and it's 115 outside...it will literally take hours for the unit(s) to cool the house back down below 80. This is because, understandably, both homeowners and landlords tend to just purchase "enough" HVAC power for the house they have, which means in our extreme summer heat, a lot of people have their HVAC units running for many hours out of the day...you don't see too many people paying extra to install a larger HVAC unit that is rated for a much larger space than they have.

According to my Netatmo, my home AC has kicked on 11 times since midnight, for about 15 or 20 minutes each time it looks like. It cools the home about a degree to a degree and a half and it kicks off. So I've already run my AC for about four hours total today. It drives me nuts because during fall/spring it may only have to kick on a few times a day. But when it's so hot out, it seems like it's always coming on again. I wonder if it would be any different to set wider intervals and have it run for longer periods, less times a day...I guess it probably doesn't matter if the total time running is the same.

Turning it up during the day isn't to make it easier or harder on the unit. It is simply due to the cost of electricity being so much higher during the day. It would cost a fortune if I tried to cool my house to my nighttime temp of 76 during the day.

[PsychNurse]

We are on APS combined advantage. My August bill was $225. We have a pool, sunscreens, and 4 bedrooms. We keep it freezer temps during off-peak.

[JGMotorsport64]

$65-171 with 171 being last month. I use SRP I have a 2be2ba of decent construction. I do the peak hours plan so I don't run my AC or really do anything at all from 3-6 during the week.

[stevek64]

Originally Posted by ScottsdaleMark

Edit: Does anyone here use humidifiers or dehumidifiers? I know in other climates, both can be common depending on the season.

I use a cool mist vaporizer under my grand piano so it doesn't turn into a untunable/unplayable piano shaped object. Mostly I have to run it during the drier months. I don't run it often in the summer as even with the A/C on, the humidity stays up around 35-40% in our house for the most part.

As for running a dehumidifier, I think the valley is pretty much one big natural dehumidifier for most of the year.

[Wally Sconce]

Mine was 36 bucks in July.

[Disabledveteran1]

Originally Posted by Wally Sconce

Mine was 36 bucks in July.

lucky you! let me guess... solar?

[Heath V]

Originally Posted by Disabledveteran1

Hello,

I've moved to Maricopa city about 6 months ago and the only reason I decided to rent here was because I ran out of time and I needed a house right away. Well I've been here several months and I completely regret it. I wish I would have looked in Queen creek or east Mesa. Anyways, my monthly electric bills have been really high and I'm not sure if this is the average. Last month's bill was $578 for a single story 2000 sqft house built in 2005, well insulated. I keep my thermostat at 79 during the day and 77 at night. I keep all doors closed to conserve AC and no matter what I do, my electric bill stays in the high $500s. I've been all over the U.S. and overseas and I can tell you I have never paid this much for electricity, so I ask: Is it like this everywhere or is it just Maricopa?

Tell me what your electric bill is like?

That's too much. I'm in Maricopa too and I have a 2 story 3400sf house with 2 units that we keep set to 78 degrees and my last bill was around 400 dollars. You need to look into why yours is so high. Good luck!