I just turned my AC on for the first time this week, and I've been trying to only keep it on at night, because I hate getting hot when I sleep. I realize that I'll probably have to start turning it on during the daytime soon, but I'm just wondering how you guys save money with your AC. Here's a few ways I do: 1. I turn it off when I'm not home unless I have to leave my dogs home alone. (I often take them to my parents' house, so they don't get hot.) 2. I turn it off when I first wake up in the morning. The House is cool from it being on all night, and the temps outside are usually at their coolest. It may only stay off for an hour or so, but I figure every little bit helps. 3. I close vents in rooms I rarely go in and close the doors to those rooms. Not sure if that helps, but I'd like to think it does. 4. If I get home late, I do everything I need to do to get ready for bed (shower, brush teeth, get food or clothes ready for the next day, etc.) before turning it on. My bedroom may be hot when I first get in bed but I do keep a fan beside for this reason. What do you do to save money during AC season?
We live in a home that is 112 years old. It's very hard to keep it cool since the structure isn't that great. What we do is keep the A/C on low and just run the ceiling fan and floor fan since both of those together cost less to run than the A/C on high. I also have a heavy drape across the doorway of the living room so that it stays cool in there since it is also my home office. I keep the curtains over the windows during the day to keep the sun out as much as possible so that the heat does not get in through the windows. Overnight I open all of the windows wide open and have the ceiling fans going to keep the cool air circulating and close the windows in the morning when we get up. It keeps it cool in the house until at least 1 in the afternoon then, the A/C goes on. It does actually cost us about $20 less per month than last year with this new method.
I have an insulated house, so it keeps the house cold. I don't run the AC all the time only when I really need it. I have trained myself to sleep with it off, so I can save money. It's not the smartest decision, but I don't want to run it all day long. I use the ceiling fan in my room to provide some air, and that works just as good as the AC.
My method is pretty similar to yours. We use it sparingly (if at all) during the day, and we do use it at night because, like you said, we don't like to be hot while we sleep and I for sure don't want the kids to be uncomfortable. We can usually manage without it during the day as long as the temps don't get up in the '90s, and if it happens to rain even better! That cools things down a lot.
I use hand fans whenever possible and I try to spend a lot of time in public places where the AC is on anyway or I go to a friend's house if they leave the AC on all day (Hey, no use to let it go to waste). Sometimes though, I just have to suck it up, remove as many clothes as possible and drink plenty of water.
I have two little ones, so I have to make sure the house doesn't get too warm. We used to keep the house at 67, but have slowly increased the temperature to 73. When we leave, we turn the AC up to 78 degrees. This has helped decrease our bill by about $15 a month. We just installed a new AC unit and that has helped with our bills too. We live in a condo, so one whole side of our house is shared by the next condo, which really helps with insulation.
Where I'm at currently, its a small place so it cools down relatively easy. That being said, my Aunt, whom I'm staying with right now, keeps hers at about 68, but on an economy mode. It doesn't run the bill very high, but as I said this is a fairly small place and we also have a lot of Trees for shade cover. I do like some of the tips ive read here for keeping the cost down though. Will let her know some of these to save a few bucks. Every little bit helps!
We live in Vegas where July and August are around 115, so this is a big topic around here. We have ceiling fans in every room which makes a difference, but they cool your body, not the air, so running them in an empty room is a waste of electricity. I try not to use the oven except early in the day or late in the evening. We also try not to touch the thermostat since constant alteration isn't good for the a/c bill.
We usually just use it when it's pretty hot like at noons. At nights, it's turned on until midnight only then it's just the ceiling fan after that. If it's very hot, we usually just stay in the bedroom. Because it's smaller than the living/dining area, it doesn't take too long to cool down.
This is a habit that I have been trying to implement more. The front part of our house, where our kitchen is located, gets really warm during the day. Add to this a hot oven and it can be almost unbearable! I have not been cooking in the mornings long enough to know how it affects our electric bill, but I know that it makes cooking much more pleasant.
We actually found that by adjusting the temperature frequently it pushed our bill up higher. This is also what the HVAC technician told us. We set our temperature at 78 and never touch it. By keeping the window shades drawn (we have the "energy efficient" ones), keeping doors to each room shut and checking to make sure there are no insulation issues with our windows we are able to keep our bill pretty low. I also do little things like avoiding cooking inside when it's very hot. We grill a lot of veggies and meat outside during the summer months so that we don't heat up the house with the crockpot or oven.
We save by going outside in the evenings when things get a little cooler. Around 6, things start to get cooler, but we don't realize it without cracking open a window. Turning it off after cooking dinner usually save me a lot and I try not to turn it on too early in the day. I'm really cheap!
