I know they consume a lot of electricity, no wonder my parents never thought of getting one. I also would not buy one myself if ever I had money to burn. So I'm wondering about those of you who have aircons, how often do you use them? Or have you already stopped using them and you just opted to use an electric fan so that you can save on electricity?
I use mine 24/7 during the warmer months, and sometimes even during the fall and winter months as well on warmer days. However I kind of offset my heavy AC use by the fact that I seldom use my heat during the colder months, since my place of residence is often plenty hot enough naturally. So my electric bills may be high most months, but my gas bills are next to nothing in the colder months. Right now, my current residence doesn't have central AC, so I keep my window unit on in my bedroom and office 24/7. I am absolutely miserable without AC and literally can't get anything done. Northeast Ohio gets miserably humid during the spring and summer months to the point where you feel like you need a shower just moments after taking one and walking out of your house. I have no choice but to use fans in other areas of our house such as the kitchen and bathrooms, but they don't cut it for me at all. Other members of my household don't seem to mind though.
Everyone here has one as it is necessary because we live in a country with warm climate almost year round. We have it turned on during the night time when we are relaxing and about to sleep but we try and keep disciplined and only turn it on during that time, even when it's hottest in the afternoons because night time is the more important part since it's very uncomfortable to sleep when it's hot, and keeping it on all day would be too costly.
I also live in a warm country, but it seems that the heat is tolerable? It only becomes extremely hot during the summer months, while the rest of the year the heat is not seriously stifling. I have lived my whole life without aircon, only using electric fans. It helps that I'm not the type that sweats easily as well.
It gets very HOT and sticky where I live, but I never use the Aircon because it uses up so much energy and leads to a hideously extortionate bill that I'd rather avoid. We have Aircon in all the rooms except the bathrooms and kitchen, but we use the fan instead as it's way cheaper and works just as well
Here in the UK, things are the opposite way. We don't really need air conditioning here but it's easy to spend a fair chunk on heating during the colder months. So I'm more used to keeping the house warm on a budget rather than keeping it cool.
Even though I live in a country where summer temperatures generally hover around the 48 - 50 degree centigrade mark and nights rarely go much cooler than 30 C - as the cost of our electricity is extremely high - I also don't use AC much - in fact hardly ever. As its significantly cheaper - to keep the windows closed during the hottest part of the day, block out the sun by making sure shutters or blinds are closed when the sun is shining directly on them, as well as wear small clothes and have a few fans running throughout the day - than it would be to use the AC for a couple of hours.
I use the air conditioner in the summer months. Where I live the summers are hot and humid so it's a necessity. The school I teach is isn't air conditioned and in June you are sweating from the moment you walk into the classroom. It's just too hot. To save money I turn the thermostat up a few degrees and during the day I set it pretty high when no one is home. At night I have it set the lowest so you can sleep at night. We just replaced our air conditioner and am looking forward to some energy savings with the new energystar air conditioner. My old air conditioner was at least 30 years old. It worked great, just a huge juice sucker.
Many people here in Southeast Texas are like @ohiotom76 and keep the Air conditioning on 24/7 in the Summer months. I keep my thermostat on 77 usually in the Summer months, which is a lot warmer than most here, but the bills are still higher than i'd like. I'm really looking forward to the bills going down a little in a month or two.
I live in a tropical country and the heat is unbearable during summer. WE have to use the aircon for the sake of my son. Many people here have died already because of heat stroke. During these months though, the heat is bearable. We only use the aircon at night so my son can sleep well. Then the whole day, the cold air will be trapped so it is really coolish then.
