It's Summer - how do you set your air?

While Danny and I live in the same general area, he's a much cooler guy.

The apartment is set at 80, and the car is 78 unless that isn't much lower than the morning temperature, at which point I adjust it to 6 degrees below the supposed outside temp.

78 *seemed* to bring better mileage, and feels cool enough when I'm told the air outside the car is 93+...

 

I'm no help to you. Living in Seattle, we rarely get above the mid-80s, and the sea breeze is often here. (At least until Global Warming sets in. ) So we use screens in the house, and put down our insulated shades in the afternoon, and that pretty much does it.

But you and Evan remind me of what it was like to live in Maryland or Iowa during the summer. No, thanks; I really, really dislike humid, scorching summers.

 

Danny, are you interested in a really good dehumidification unit. It's amazing what an improvement it makes in indoor air quality, especially in the times when the AC doesn't run much but it's still muggy like at night and spring and fall and when it's raining outside. Dry air feels so much better. I'm not a dealer but I am a building science geek so I can point you in the right direction.

 

The name of the game in southern climates is to get a single story house if possible. I lived in a two story condo for about 6 months. During the summer months, I eventually gave up on doing anything upstairs. The A/C simply couldn't keep up with the house. Beyond that, I keep the drapes and blinds closed, and have one of those programmable thermometers. The old HVAC unit in my house was undersized to begin with. To add insult to injury, the evaporator was over 90% blocked. I was in much the same condition as you were, and that poor system ran almost constantly to keep the place barely tolearable. It finally gave up the ghost on a stretch of 100 degree days (of course.)

Anyway, when you are looking for a house, find out how large the system is in tons. For example, my previous system was a 2.5 ton unit, and I upgraded it to a 3.5 ton unit. Too small, and the system will not be able to keep up with the demand of the house. A good rule of thumb is 1 ton for every 600 square feet. If you do buy a multi story house, I've seen more and more of them have a second, smaller system installed to deal with the added heat upstairs. Contrary to conventional thought, the power bills acutally drop with this addition.

As for how I set my A/C at home, I pretty much shut it down when I'm gone by setting the thermostat to 90 during the day. I'll have it come on, and start bringing the house down to 72 about an hour before I get off of work. Around 8pm, I have it bring on the arctic front, and pull the house down to 66. I hate running it that hard, but the house has to be COLD for me to sleep. Since I'm supposed to be up by 5am, and get ready for work, the thermostat goes into that "away" mode of 90 degrees, and depends on the stored cool air to keep me "comfortable" while I prep for work.

Weekends, it runs 72 all day, and 66 at night, cutting off of the lower temp by 8am.

 

Ours is set around 75 most of the time. We do have a thermostat that lets us have 4 different time of day settings. I make good use of this year round. We have a 3 year old heat pump that gets regular service. I do try to close shades on the sunny side of the house. Our house is well insulated. I hate going into places that are so cold that I have to put a sweater on. I keep mine so that seasonal dress is appropriate. We also have ceiling fans in all the bedrooms and living/dining room.

 

I haven't had to turn mine on this year yet. And it CAN get hot here is SE Minnesota (105+ F with 99% humidity). But not this year.
My house is decently shaded, so it generally stays cool.

Last summer, I generally had it off when I wasn't home, and set it at 87 or 90F (just enough to take the edge off) when I was home.

If it wasn't too warm/humid, I'd turn it off at night.

Brian.

 

two words--attic fan

Danny,
Hot air floats to the top and attics are notorious for storing hot air long into the night. The dark colored roof collects solar radiation and in turn heats the air in the attic even higher than outside air temperatures. My attic temperature can get up to 140 degrees fahrenheit. The hot air stored in the attic continues to "heat" your ceiling which in effect counteracts the effect of your air. If you want to lower your energy bill, turn the attic fan on anytime the air temperature in the attic exceeds the temperature outside. You will be exchanging the hot air in your attic with the warm air outside.

I hope that helps.

Dave

 

I'm in Orlando where Summer starts in late April and our first cold front doesn't usually make it here till mid-October sometimes mid -November.
It usually rains most afternoons so it cools us down but it's the humidity that kills you. When it's real muggy I keep my air at 78 during the day. and turn it down to 76 at night. I also sleep better when it's cooler. I had to replace the complete unit last June and have seen a huge savings in the size of my electric bills of $30-50.

 

I live in a top-floor apartment, and I have a window air conditioner with a thermostat that goes from High to Low but without calibrated temps. I turn it on when the indoor temp goes above 80, and try to keep it at around 80. I have an exhaust fan in the bathroom, so once the outside temp drops I can open a window and use the fan to suck in outside air.

Between about 75 and 80 degrees I use a floor fan. But to answer your question, 80 is about the top of my comfort zone.

People lived without air conditioning for milennia. Most of the world's population still live without it, including in harsher climates than most of us have to endure. But we think we can't live without it. Including me.

 

I go 77 degrees in the car and 77 at home. Before i power down the prius i usually shut the a/c and radio off.

 

i live without air conditioning since it would generally only be used a few weeks a year in Western WA.

however, this year has been an exception and we are looking at 95º for the next 3 days...

now that might not seem severe to some, but when the average summertime temp is 77º it is unbearable.

as far as my car goes, i have it at 72º and love it. i dont really know how the gas mileage is affected because i havent really noticed any difference in my mileage.

i guess if i do any major driving in the next few days, i will find out probably.

with it being as hot as its gonna be, i may just go joyriding just to cool off.

 

i don't like the heat. ours stays at 75. i guess part of the issue is that here on long island, the humidity is usually also pretty high, making it uncomfortable.

 

In the Netherlands it's not very common to have aircon in homes. Many stores and office buildings do have aircon however.

I'm in the market for some home aircon (bedroom). Even though the lower floor of my house stays cool enough (25 sometimes 28 degrees C => 77 to 82 F), but the bedroom can get as hot as 95F. I hate sleeping in hot, humid conditions.

 

* makes notes *

Got it!