I had coffee this morning with a friend of mine that is manager of the local utility company.
Subject came up about home A/C. Both central and windows.
He said that one of the biggest mistakes people make is shutting their A/C off and opening windows at night.
It usually takes them over an hour to remove humidity from your home, before it really starts cooling and they have to work harder and use more electricity.
Unless it really cools down a lot leave the A/C on.

i always wondered about that Jim. Thanks for the advice.

Interesting.......we too have opened our windows at night. Thanks Jim

For us, in Southern California, that is not an issue - we live in the desert - low humidity already. Actually the guys who were here in the office said to leave the AC off for some of the time and give it a rest at night! If it runs constantly and you make the thermostat too cold you can burn out the compressor.

My AC guy tells us the opposite. He says it takes so long to cool down everything in the house, the furniture, walls, etc. that the unit has to work extra hard to catch up. Even with these 100 degree days, it goes off all the time.

I never turn mine off at night and open the windows, if I do the crickets make such a racket that I would never fall asleep!

Editing to add, now that I think about it, maybe that was the furnace that the HVAC guy said takes more energy to rewarm the things in your house.

You are correct Karen. He also mentioned that.
Actually if your air conditioner does get overheated, or freezes up the breaker is suppose to blow so you don't burn up the compressor.
I live in low humidity area too, but it is very interesting when we have opened up the house how you can feel the difference.
When and if it gets back down to the lower 60's at night I will be opening the windows and turning on the whole house fan.

We have our a/c set on 78 and it stays there until it is time to turn it off in fall. We never turn it on/off as we were told you use more energy. Even in the 90 to 100 degree heat we've been having lately it doesn't run constantly it shuts off every now and then.

In winter we do the same thing with our heat; we set it at 70 and it stays there unless we have our parents over and then we turn it up a few degrees until they leave. We also keep our bedroom windows open all winter long to let in fresh air.

Our a/c runs from mid May till late September set at 76 - all windows shut. That is what we get for living in hot & humid Florida - BUT October till May are very nice- open those windows!!

The best AC is in the car - nice and cold at the flick of a knob. Too bad we can't leave it on 24/7! Gotta go out and see a client in 109 degrees. HOT HOT HOT

Oh my, I set my a/c at 65 and my heat at 65, lol. Even with the temps in the 90's and high humidity, it still turns off all the time. I am knocking on wood right now, I would hate for the outdoor thing to burn out!

Joanna- you set yours to 76- you are good.

I agree with Karen- I guess we don't like the humidity up here. I set it at 74 when I leave to go to work, and at night it goes down to 70. I was told not to get it lower than 68- or it would freeze it up- can't have that!!!

With the heat in the wintertime- I can't stand it- it goes at 68. Maybe because at work it is so hot there and just want to be cool when I get home.

Very informative thread Jim.
Jan

Jan: 76 seems to work for us - and I can't stand the heat - we live on our glassed in porch and have separate unit out there so it is cool - bedroom? overhead fan and another oscillating fan that is directed at my face!!

Hi, very intersting topic. My husband is terrible about the ac/refuses to use it. We live in southern Oregon. Has been in the 100 degree range for over a week now. He opens all the windows at night then closes them in the morning. I have a fan in the bedroom. It does cool down at night, usually. Low humidity. Would you mind sharing the cost of your electric/gas bills when you are using the ac? Our home is two stories/ 3000plus sq. ft. Thanks. Jeanine. Hope you all stay cool during this heat!!.

We run a/c 24/7. Humidity is too great not to do so. Even in a power outage, we are better off not to open windows because the heat is stifling.

Our house is 2400 sq feet a ranch (old ranch with poor insulation) - $400-500 a month for a/c ouch!! we do much better in Florida's winter - we live in northern Fl so have cold spells, use fireplace and just bundle up - the heat makes me insane so a/c has to work!!!!

Geez Joanna, you must be leaking like a sieve to have those electric bills! Our house is about 4000 sq feet and our bill for last month was $70 but we are an all electric "Good Sense" house and we get a special rate. Our A/C and heat both come from our electric heat pump.

This months bill will probably be around $100 (knock on wood again!) Our highest monthly bill has been $200 but that was in the middle of winter when the temps dropped to 0 for a week.

Editing to add, Joanna, I wonder if your swimming pool causes your elec to be so costly, too?

No problems here. You can never turn off your AC here in Texas. You would die in the summer. We keep ours at 76 during the day downstairs, but down to 73 to sleep at night. We leave the AC in the 80's upstairs, unless one of the kids are back home. In which case we raise it to 90! LOL

In this summer heat, what we are facing here is a severe drought! We can only run sprinklers or water one day per week. If we do not get rain this week, we will hit level four water restriction and cannot water at all. The landscaping is already dying as it is. This will do it in for sure.

We have had high bills past 5 ys - PV changed to new company - last month $433 - this month $488 - we do not have heat pump on pool - so I think that cost of pump, of course, is minimal - just told "cranky" what you pay - he is going to give me an argument "well they don't have the heat we have blah blah" - let's not go there - our house is 52 yrs old? Yes you can fly geese through the cracks in this house - BUT we ask friends and neighbors and they pay same thing... except if you have mega house - 4 thous sq feet a/c here would be $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ YIKES!!!

Don't feel bad, Joanna. We just received a $700 elec. bill. We have 4,000 sq.ft. plus pool. Now that our house is chopped in half & half is "open to the air" during the remodel (in this horrid heat), we'll celebrate the next bill. Meanwhile, carpenters & rest of crew are jumping in the pool in order to keep working. - Michele

Don't feel bad, Joanna. We just received a $700 elec. bill.

4 thou sq foot houses here running one thou per month for a/c - Michele you feel our pain but our house is small - :mad: :mad: :mad:

We have small (2200 sq ft) but tall (10 ft ceilings) old old house. No central air yet - we're waiting for the furnace to go out which the furnace guy says will happen pretty soon - so we have 3 window units. Highest bill so far was $250. We have timers so they turn off when we go to work but come back on at noon or so so the house doesn't have a chance to heat up too much. With the humidity here no way we could turn them off longer. We set them on high and hope for the best - we average mid-upper 60's. In winter we set heat at 60 and turn down at night - we cannot sleep in a hot room! So what we pay in the summer we save in the winter....

High humidity is the name of our city! :eek: :D
We are on a plan for our electricity and we pay $200/month year round and our house is 2400 sq ft and we have a sun room that is not heated/cooled with our house.

Our gas bill from April through October is about $30/month and then the winter months is about $100 as we use the fireplace (gas light with real logs) and the furnace runs.

We feel our bills are quite low compared to most in our city.

Karen; my son just had a home built and it has a heat pump for his heat/air and I never even hear it running yet his house is always so very comfortable when I am there.

Another nice thing about not opening the windows, Jim, is that the house stays cleaner! I do open the windows when the humidity is low and the overnight temperature is going down below 65.

Our condo (built in 1998) is a ranch with 1860 sq ft on the main level and an equal # of sq ft on the finished lower level with walk-out. The ceilings are 9' (and higher where the great room has a cathedral ceiling). Fortunately the majority of the windows face east and none face north. We keep the ac at 76 degrees (we have ceiling fans in the great room and master bedroom) and the heat at 66 overnight and 70 daytime. While so many of you have been enduring 100+ highs we've only been in the low 90's. So far this summer our energy bills have been $114 in June and $112 in July but the next one will show a big jump. (Last summer our highest was $168.)We get hit harder with heat costs. Our all-time high was last January when our bill was $339. Natural gas used to be the most cost efficient way of heating homes in Michigan but that is no longer the case.

We have a 3,500 sq ft home. Three furnaces/two Central airs. We do average billing and it is about $190.00 monthly average for electricity & natural gas.
In the summer I electric gets very high and winter it is the gas.

Our a/c cost and that of our neighbors has doubled this summer. I don't know if it is the heat or the fact that it is higher due to the impact on the electric company dealing the last two years with hurricanes. By the way, is it a savings to cut off the a/c at night and just run the bedroom ceiling fans (with the windows closed?) I've wondered about doing this.

I agree with cruisinsince75, you can never turn off your A/C here in Texas. Ours goes on in April or May (March this year, our first 100 degree day!) and off in late September if we're lucky. That coupled with no rain, watering restrictions and very hot temps have turned my lawn and garden crispy. On the bright side we don't have to mow it as much!

Our A/C bill went up significantly this summer even though we used the same amount of electricity, the rates have simply jumped. So it's 78 day and night, thank goodness for ceiling fans.

Florida's rates have really gone up this year - last summer we used more KWH in June but this year's bill was more than $80 higher. We have 2800 sq ft under air and our bill was $350 this month. Tom started to complain until I showed him our "history" of usage - the Hurricanes are costing us money right and left!

Exact same thing Tony said Margo - ours have gone up steadily past 5 yrs but past yr big jump!!! I also think ours jumped after we put in the second unit on porch - all glass, it gets hot, and we keep that a/c at 72!!

And don't forget homeowners' insurance rates (we'll all be paying for also because of hurricanes!) Ours just went up $100. for the year.

Also just recently had an electric rate increase but bite my tongue as I don't like heat either (grew up in Miami with no AC,) but I 've adapted to 78 once we got the freon recharged. Didn't realize it was low until Memorial Day weekend when the temp was 95!

Compared to many other places in the US however, I guess it's all tolerable!

Oh another nightmare $$$$$ - flood insurance and homeowners insurance- we live across the street from the ocean - another vast increase in both past 5 yrs - and DO NOT put in a claim!!

Joanna,

DON'T put in a claim; then they'll CANCEL you! 16 yrs ago, before all this insurance insanity, we put in a claim, first time after paying this co. for 20+ yrs. The next year, we were flat-out cancelled! It all worked out well, though, as our premiums are just now approaching what we were paying that long ago!!

I'm married to a fresh air freak so we sleep with windows open most nights. Luckily humidity is very low. I will never be able to convince him that it's better to keep AC running all the time. We keep thermostat set at 78 in summer and 68 in winter. I'm either burning up or freezing!