Do you have any schedule or rules regarding your air conditioning use?

I am, for the first time in my life, living in an AC compromised situation.
It can get very hot here, 100+ at times, but it is a dry heat and usually doesn’t last more than a few days, if you’re lucky. I now have several nice fans and a portable AC unit that also doubles as a fan and evaporative cooler. It doesn’t really work once it is over 90+ but I am making do. I just lay low in the worst heat of the late afternoon, take cool showers and drink plenty of water, eat cold fruit and popcicles. haha

Even if I had better AC at this time I simply can not afford the electric bills anymore after my fall from financial comfort in the recession. No way could I swing a $400—$500 or more a month AC bill to stay in a really comfortable state. It is what it is and while it is not fun at times people did survive without AC for eons. I do have access to an in ground pool and used to keep my hot tub cold all summer. Nothing better than immersing yourself in cool water to take down your core body temp.

My rule: over 85 in the house, the AC goes on the rest of the day. (I have it set to 78).

Heat – very seldom goes on, even in winter. I have blankets. And a heated waterbed.

Kids are not to touch the thermostat.

I live in an apartment that doesn’t fluctuate in temps too much, so the AC doesn’t kick on until it is above 95 outside. But I have it set at 78, and it only has at most a couple degrees to go.

I have asthma as well as a pretty severe allergy to molds (according to the testing done in an Allergist ‘s office) so for me it’s as much about dehumidifying as anything else.

So, it’s a lot more money saving for me to NOT skimp on the AC and have less medical bills.

I’m very frugal about other electric usage like always turning off lights etc. and I’m frugal in most other parts of my life (thrift store clothes and used items in general)

But skimping on AC, for me personally, is being penny wise and pound foolish because it compromises my health too much.

So, I’d rather pay the electric company rather than big Pharma (some asthma meds are really really expensive) and not spend the hot weather with sinus congestion in addition to being hot.

It took me many years of foolishly toughing it out in sweltering weather to learn this simple lesson.

@elbanditoroso I agree with the heat, at least at night. (We have to have it on during most of the winter or the pipes will freeze.) We also have a heated waterbed. We get into disagreements over it. He wants is comfortably warm if he should get up in the night to use the bathroom. >_<.

@Coloma my son and his wife have a 4’ pool. It is SO AWESOME! On the weekends, they spend most of every day in it. My son has Indonesian genes, his wife has Native American genes and the kids are getting so brown….a beautiful, cinnamon brown. (In that picture my son had the pool to himself for a moment. He put his feet up to relax…and along came a kid and JUMPED on him!!)

I’m glad they have a pool because the kids are learning how to swim. Kids that don’t know how to swim scare me.

We avoid using AC whenever we can… Since we live in a mild climate, that’s most of the time. We’re also lucky to live in a place that cools off almost every evening, even in the summer. So, our strategy was insulation: during our remodel we tore down our drywall and replaced the old insulation with new (I do mean we replaced it. We DIY most projects). We leave the windows open during nights and then chase each other around the house to make sure everything is being kept closed during hot days. We’ll put on the AC to counter unusually hot days and/or unusually hot nights.

None. When we need it (mostly to dehumidify) we use it.

I should have asked you to tell me where you guys live.

North Carolina – - We have a set-back thermostat basically we have A/C set to 76 during the day and at night it drops to 70. Heat is set at 72 during the day and 68 at night.

1) precool the house overnight. Close all windows n the morning, when it gets over 74.
2) set the thermostat to 78.
3) everyone wear shorts.
4) vent the house with the whole house fan when the outside temp is less than 78.

I WILL NOT SWEAT IN MY OWN HOME OR CARS.

Well, if you’ve got the money to back that up, there is no reason you should @SecondHandStoke.

@Dutchess_III Just outside Washington DC.

My house does not have central AC. I have window units but this summer, so far, have not put them in. I live in southern NY. I have a ceiling fan in my bedroom and with the windows open, that’s usually good enough. When we have a bad heat wave, I’ll have someone put the window unit in.

I had an aunt in Jacksonville Florida who was very frugal, even though she was not poor. She used to put the AC on for two hours per day (yes, two hours) from 5 pm to 7 pm “to cool the house down” as she termed it. Then the AC would go off and it would be sweltering. SWELTERING. But she was frugal and she got by.

Thanks @marinelife.

Air conditioners aren’t a big thing in the Willamette valley. I survived 37 years without one. But were I lived last summer I snapped. Unfortunately we lived on the second story and were not allowed to install one in the window. So I finally broke and dropped 300 on one that has a hose and vents out the window. It is actually terrible and will cool only a room about 12’X12’ but it does the job.

It is funny. The first month I used it full time (my roommates hated me since I had one and they were suffering) I woke up to Lucy knocking on my door flipping out about the electricity bill. It had went from 90 bucks to 190. I was kinda shocked that the A/C was 100 a month to run. I said I would pay and then looked more closely at the bill. Her dipshit boyfriend (my nephew) didn’t pay the previous months bill. So it only added ten bucks to the bill.

So I don’t even worry about running it full blast whenever I want.

If I was trying to cool a entire house I would have rules. But I spend 95% of the time in my room so that is all I am concerned with.

WE like keeping the house very cool in the hot weather makes sleeping great, and only seems to jack up the bill about an extra $40 a month well worth it not to sweat and sleep well both the wife and I are shift workers so we sleep during the day a lot.
and I mean we like it around 65f.

Mmmmm…well, I keep it at 78 during the day…..but 72 at night. I justify it by reasoning that there is very little air movement, and doors aren’t being open and closed during the night. I guess my next bill might blow that justification to smithereens.

If it gets hot or humid I turn the a/c on, that’s my only rule. Higher utility bills suck, but I can handle it and within my own home my comfort takes precedence over the money.

Here where I live, it’s usually only very hot (or has potential for being very hot) in July and August. If we’re lucky, we get through July, as we are now, without it being too hot. Then that means only about a month of air conditioning, or maybe a month and a half.

I’m at work all day, too, which is good. I call it “using their free air conditioning.” I can turn my unit on and off at work, and it often gets so cold I’ll turn it off for a few hours. At home, on a work day, when it is hot enough to put the AC on, it’s only going to be on from around 7 pm to around 8 am.

I live near a lake, which is another reason why it’s not too hot here.

I think my housemates overuse it. I would prefer to open doors and windows when the weather cools off, and my tolerance for heat is higher than theirs. I have been waiting nearly three years now for my grandson to get a job stable enough to get their own apartment.

Mmmm. Been there.

If you only have a small window unit, keep it on “low” 24/7. Be sure to seal the window where the sashes normally meet!!!

If I am sweating, it goes on. I’m not gonna be a sweaty mess in my own home.

Each spring I delay turning it on as late as possible, and as summer rolls on, I try to set it high enough to keep it from constantly kicking on and on—except on REALLY hot, humid days.

Alas—this year I broke both habits quite quickly.

South Florida. The AC is always on. I have a portable one in the closet in case the central should fail; I would have AC in one room until repair or replace happens. I have no rule. Sometimes I am comfortable at 77 and sometimes 75. It is set somewhere between. Right before I get into the shower I always turn it down one degree to ensure it runs the whole time I’m getting showered and dressed.

I’m in Texas, very hot here right now. I’ve had a Nest thermostat for the past year years and swear by it. I can program the schedule and do lots of other stuff both on the wall unit and via a handy mobile app, and there’s a great feature called AWAY that automatically raises the temp a few degrees the minute I walk out the door. When I’m on my way home on a hot day, I can lower the temp on my app so that my house is comfy when i get home. Because of the devices efficiency, it has definitely saved me money.

First, find all the cracks where air can leak to or from the outside and tape or glue them. Get insulators for switches and outlets on the outside walls. Any hardware store has them. Go to any lumber yard and get ¾” Styrofoam sheets and cut them to fit windows. They will fit by friction, but it’s ok to use clear packing tape. You might want a layer of foam on the door, too.

Now you are ready to talk about using a cooler or heater. I live in a house that is much larger than I need, so I use a shower curtain to isolate the part I don’t want to cool. On hot days there is a 10 degree F difference from one side to the other. All the above has cut my electric bill in half, compared to last summer.

If you want something cheaper than Styrofoam, get a roll of bubble wrap and stick it to the windows with sprayed water. Fifteen bux will insulate every window in the house.

Yuma, AZ – Thermal, CA – Indio, CA – One of those three will be the hottest place in the nation every day through the summer. 110F to 120F is normal. I live near Yuma, AZ. In the fifties, home air conditioning was possible but you had to be pretty well off to get it. For one thing, it involved a large amount of copper pipe to form a cooling tower ten feet tall which was showered with water. That was the condenser part of the ac system. Working people just dragged their beds into the yard because the house was too hot to sleep. To drive a car you used a Kool-Kushion so your shirt wouldn’t be soaked with sweat. I carried one to class in high school.

So my rule is “I like to be warm, but not sweaty. When I start to sweat, the cooler goes on.”

Dayum. I need to turn on the heat for a minute today. It’s freaking cold out there. Trying to remember the last time I wore a sweat shirt in July.

@Dutchess_III I would just put on a sweater now, and wait for the day to warm up,then you will have less cooling to get the house where you want it tonight.

I have on my fall gear (as my daughter once said, “All ghetto layered like you usually are, Mom.”) The day is not getting any warmer. It’s 3:30, wet, rainy, and colder now than it was when I got up. The AC is not running, obviously, and it won’t be running until tomorrow afternoon….or not. Not if it’s like this again tomorrow.