A/C Question

[herpsky]

hey

my roommate always turns off the A/C when he leaves the house to "save energy"

but the electric bill for the past month came out to be 160 (which is 60 dollars higher than what we paid for july of 2005 and that's when the A/C was set to ON 24/7)

would it be cheaper to leave the A/C on 24/7

i wanna prove him wrong

[denimdestroyedmylife]

i dunno, man. utilities have gone up across the board, that may be what you are looking at...

make sure you pull the blinds before you leave to keep the sun out.

[greentea]

just close the blinds all day. and blow the fan out towards the window to blow the hot air out.

[englandmj7]

hey

my roommate always turns off the A/C when he leaves the house to "save energy"

but the electric bill for the past month came out to be 160 (which is 60 dollars higher than what we paid for july of 2005 and that's when the A/C was set to ON 24/7)

would it be cheaper to leave the A/C on 24/7

i wanna prove him wrong

Not to be a jerk my dude, but that is absurd. A/C is the single highest consumer of your electricity of any appliance. The reason why we are having a small power crisis across the country right now is that our electricity delivery infrastructure is facing an immense overload due to the continuous sweltering heat. To keep his house air conditioned my dad spends about $400 a month, which is about $300 higher than his normal power bill. Your roommate is absolutely right.

The reason why your power bill may have been higher when you had A/C off is because either you didn't realize how long it was actually running for, or your roommates watched a shitload more TV/used the dishwasher alot, etc. etc. You would be very surprised by the amounts of energy fucking roommates can consume. I remember this from the days of having 5 roommates in college.......$200 a month bills were the norm

[damnIam]

I beg to differ, an air conditioner does more than just cool. It takes out the water from the air (humidity) and then redconditions the air, constantly recirculating and recooling it. If you turn it off for half a day then it must dehumidify the air again and recool all the surfaces in the home. If you have central air it is most definately cheaper to turn the thermostat down when not in the home but do not turn it off, or down so much that it remain off. This will incur a higher bill because when you do come home and turn it on it will have to recool and dehumidify the entire home and will run constantly at full capacity for many hours. If you have window units then things can be different especially if they are older an do not have thermostats on them that cut them off at certain temps. My advice is too cover all your windows with blankets and close off rooms that you don't frequently use (bathroom, laundry room, closets, and turn you thermo down about 6-8 degress when leaving. Also, turn your refrigerator and hot water heater down as well, I have a timer on my hotwater heater and it basically only heat up the water about an hour before I get up in the morning before I shower and cuts off after after I leave for work. It all adds up.

When a power grid fails it is not generally because there is not enough energy to go around, it is because of a spike in demand that occurs all at once. Like at 5:00 when everybody comes home from work and turn on the A/C when it has been turned off all day. Of course when I say turn the thermo "down" i mean to say "up". If you keep it at say 78 degrees whenyou are home turn it up to 81 or 83 when leaving.

[Cue]

kinda different, but i reckon it's better to leave the central heating on low all day and retain the heat.

but then heat is retained by your home's insulation. is it that same with a/c?

(never had an a/c house - never needed one)

nb: tumble dryers are the biggest power suckers in UK homes - read it t'other day

[rome1]

Turn it off during the day and like Dam said just make sure the blinds are closed and the room is left dark, it helps it stay cooler.

[Shorty Long]

if you have central air and leave it off for a while so the temp. gets high, it might very well consume more energy to get the temp back down when you turn the a/c on.

say you leave the thermostat on 70...if you turn the a/c off during the day when you leave, after 6 or 7 hours (depending on outside temp) it might be pushing 80 when you get back...when you turn the a/c back on, it's going to have to work its ass off to get it back down.

i would suggest leaving it on when you leave, but maybe set the thermostat up a degree or two (if you have it at 70 when you're home, set it at 72 while you're gone)...plus close the blinds and such

[herpsky]

yeah, i figured if i have to turn the AC on to cool the house down from 80 to 70 every day, that would consume a shit load of energy

if somebody could post a link to a power company's website that says "hey gotta keep the AC on all the time), that would be great

[LIVENUDEGIRLS]

I think leaving it on, or at the same tempature, is cheaper. I just recently moved into a new 1br apartment. My first month I kept it freezing as hell and my bill was 170. I decided I would try to bring it down some by raising the thermostat temp when I left the house and lowering it when I got home. This month it came to $200. It would have probably come out to more, but my energy provider lowered their rates in the middle of my billing cycle. Either way its fucking insane that it cost that much. I live alone and am hardly ever at home.

[6MT]

man, i live thru 6 summer without A/C....i forgot how nice to have A/C

[sam113]

Dam is definitely right on this. I have central air in my home, and a programmable thermostat. I set it keep the house at 74 when i'm home and 78 when i'm not. This method made a noticable difference in my utility bill.

Another sweet move is to set the fan function on "on" instead of "auto". This way the fan runs constantly even when the air conditioning is not running. In older homes such as mine the first floor stays the coolest(where the thermostat is) so it can be several degrees hotter upstairs than the A/C setting but it wont kick in because because its cool downstairs. Since all the cold air returns are in the first floor the fan will circulate the cooler air to the upper floors and keep them cooler without actually running the A/C. This is especially effective at nite, allowing you to keep the thermostat at a slightly higher temp, thus saving a bit of money and letting you sleep in comfort.

[red]

i think just about everything has been discussed on superfuture. except toilet cleaners.

by the way, what toilet cleaner do you use? i use: