What temp do you set your a/c at in the hot months?

[asphaltgambler]

74 during the day, 72 when we get home. Virginia has a lot of humidity, so it's really uncomfortable in the Summer

[p911dad]

We raised it to 77 day and 74 night after our electric bill from Duke Energy went up to $105 per month budget for our 2800 SF. They are talking about more rate hikes. We are lucky in NC to have a good mix of energy; solar, wind, nuke, gas and coal.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by Sooner or later

I use an amazingly small amount of electricity.

270 KWH here bub. 1400sq. I have to run the A/C a couple times a year to keep the seals plump but it's all LED, fans, or open windows usually unless it gets over 90. The second floor ceiling is well insulated. 77 deg or 75 is the lowest I usually go.

[A930Rocket]

I keep our house at 78°. I use a fan in the family room and a ceiling fan with my new window air conditioner set at 61° in the owners bedroom upstairs at night.

When I leave in the morning, I turn off the window AC, and when I open the bedroom door and it’s like walking into a oven in the rest of the house. With nobody home all day, no point in keeping it cold.

I average $139 per month for gas and power. $177 last month.

Edit: when I’m on vacation, I lower the hotel room as low as it will go and when I leave I raise it back up each day.

[frosty2]

Jcwade, the ductless is a great juice for anyone that does not have a ducted heating system. If you have a furnace with ductwork I would go with the conventional system with the evaporator in the furnace plenum.
The advantage of the ductless is you can have a single outdoor condensing unit that can be controlling multiple indoor evaporators located in different rooms and have them all set at different temperatures.
Thanks
Mike

[Sooner or later]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

Wow! Anybody using that high level of electricity would be paying big $ here.
Our three tier rate structure for SDG&E is:
Tier one: 0-to-374 kilowatts of energy used = $0.27/kilowatt.
Tier two: 375-to-1152 kilowatts of energy used = $0.48/kilowatt
Tier three: 1153 kilowatts and more is considered “high usage,” which is $0.55/kilowatt.

That average high usage of 2,307 kWh amounts to the following. Tier 1 = $100.98, Tier 2 = $374.40, Tier 3 = $635.25. That's a grand total of $1,109.73. Even your 544 kWh would cost $182.58.

My 544 kwh was $85.36.

I'm in SW Oklahoma so we can get toasty warm. Over that billing cycle the avg high was 97. Max high was 107.

I have gas heat/water so my winter bills are the highest (gas high/elec low). For the last 12 months I spent $732 on electricity and $924 on gas. $1656 total or $138 per month.

2500 s/f

[rattlsnak]

I usually run 75/76 during the day and 72 at night…. My GF won’t come over unless I put it on 68, like her house.. !

[GH85Carrera]

When I was single, and the master of my thermostat, it was at 68 all summer, and 70 in the winter. My wife has what I call "the cold hand of death" when she is cold and her hands get cold. Even worse is her feet, I do NOT want her putting those blocks of ice on me at night as we go to bed. She insists we keep it at 78. In my home office I have the ceiling fan running all summer, and I put a floor fan out in the hall to blow air into my room.

When I work in my garage in summer I crank on the AC. Usually if I walk into the house it feels hot, and my garage is nice and cool. I have two ceiling fans, and a large floor fan blowing on my work area, so I stay cool.

We have a Koi pong with a large pump running 24/7/365 and a 40 gallon tropical fish tank that is always on. Those use a continuous draw of electricity.

[stevej37]

[QUOTE=GH85Carrera;11799490]When I was single, and the master of my thermostat, it was at 68 all summer, and 70 in the winter.


When it gets to 68 in the summer...I'm looking to start the furnace.
I set mine in the winter to 72

Maybe the two guys in the OP have a case?

[masraum]

Originally Posted by jcwade

I don't have AC at either house.
But one is near the ocean and was built in 1910 so is optimized for flow thru cooling.
The other is in the mountains and tends to stay cool due to the great insulation.

That being said, I have been looking at ductless AC units.
That being said, does anyone here have any experience with ductless?

There has been a fair amount of talk about ductless here. I think I may have even started a thread talking about it (we need to replace the AC in our home).

New AC - air handler length, ductless for residential

apparently, minisplits need to be periodically cleaned.
Cleaning Ductless Heat Pump

Split (ductless) AC unit for bedroom

If you have a home that does not have central HVAC (heat or AC, no ducts installed) then I think ductless would be a cheaper easier way to go because you would not have to get ducting installed.

I recently had a plumber out who is building a new home. His new place is 4000sqft on the main floor and then the top floor is another 1500 or 2000 or something. He told me that he got quotes for AC in the new place.

His first plan/quote was 3 or 4 traditional units with ductwork for $65k. He said that the ductwork was $21k out of that total

What he went with was, IIRC, 7 mini splits. He said that the parts (I think he was able to buy/order them himself) was $20k. So the mini splits were cheaper than the duct work for the traditional setup.

That's what I was told. He didn't seem like he was trying to show off or sell me anything. $65k seems insane, but maybe 3-4 entire systems in a big house with a crap-ton of ducts could be that much.

[Fast Freddy 944]

Since the commie-rat-pukes have taken over, they said we will be paying out the yang-yang, for everything under the sun, that includes energy. This criminal racket has been screwing us patriots too long, isn't it about time we did something? FJB

[masraum]

Originally Posted by asphaltgambler

74 during the day, 72 when we get home. Virginia has a lot of humidity, so it's really uncomfortable in the Summer

Right, it's not the heat that's a killer here, it's the humidity. I've been in the Houston area since 1995. I don't think there's more than a handful of days per year when either the AC or heat is not running. It's not to cool things off, it's to suck the moisture out of the air.

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

When I was single, and the master of my thermostat, it was at 68 all summer, and 70 in the winter. My wife has what I call "the cold hand of death" when she is cold and her hands get cold. Even worse is her feet, I do NOT want her putting those blocks of ice on me at night as we go to bed. She insists we keep it at 78. In my home office I have the ceiling fan running all summer, and I put a floor fan out in the hall to blow air into my room.

When I work in my garage in summer I crank on the AC. Usually if I walk into the house it feels hot, and my garage is nice and cool. I have two ceiling fans, and a large floor fan blowing on my work area, so I stay cool.

It sounds like you should get a window unit or mini-split installed in your office so you can be comfortable.

Maybe you or the missus should try the embr wave. I'm not trying to be funny. It was developed by people at MIT. It was not originally marketed towards women going through the change. I think it can be used by anyone that's hot or cold. I had wanted one years ago, but at the time the cost was higher. Now I don't need it.
https://embrlabs.com/products/embr-wave-2

[craigster59]

Ours is set at 72, the Wife went through "the change" and hasn't cooled down yet. I've been cold for the last few years. She even likes the ceiling fans and floor fans on but I personally can't stand "wind" blowing on me indoors.

Our electric bill runs $500-600 a month in Summer.

Could be worse, my niece likes to keep her thermostat at 62. You could hang meat in her house, don't know how her family stands it.

[pavulon]

69 for summer. Last month shows $78.05 for electricity on a GeoThermal system. Would be significantly less with out 24/7 dehumidifying the garage.

[David]

68-69 at night, 72-74 during the day and 78 when not home. The URI freeze a couple years ago seemed to reset our comfort level down 1-2 degrees.

[Eric 951]

68 in summer 70 in winter

[dw1]

I set my A/C at 76°F (24°C) and heat at 68°F (20°C).

I have never had a reason to set the a/c lower, especially since the human body responds more to high humidity than temperature differences between 74 and 76°F.

To help manage humidity, I have dehumidifiers in my basement and garage. They don't turn on all that often, but in very humid weather they are quite helpful, and they help keep my tools and other things from getting rusty and/or moldy.

Notably, OSHA Policy on "Indoor Air Quality: Office Temperature/Humidity..." lists recommendations of temperature 68-76°F and humidity 20%-60% RH.

[red-beard]

The A/C is two stage with 5 fan speeds. In addition to temp control, it can also dehumidify. We have upstairs and downstairs units.

Downstairs, settings are 75F and 40% humidity during the day (6AM to 10PM). During the night, Mrs. Beard prefers it cool. We have it set to 73F and run the ceiling fan. I think we could get away with 74F and ceiling fan, but I yet to run the experiment.

Upstairs, setting is 75F and 40% humidity 6AM to 6PM and 78F the rest of the time. My office has a ceiling fan and I use it, as it is small and has all of the computer servers, etc.

With the price of electricity up (13.75 cents per kWh), I'm being a lot more careful these days.

[Flat Six]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

Wow! Anybody using that high level of electricity would be paying big $ here.

. . . snip . . .

That average high usage of 2,307 kWh amounts to the following. Tier 1 = $100.98, Tier 2 = $374.40, Tier 3 = $635.25. That's a grand total of $1,109.73. Even your 544 kWh would cost $182.58.

Ouch, Marv. I grew up in North County but that was a long time ago. The same 2,307 kWh here in Las Vegas would be $287.52 ($0.11921/kWh flat rate + $12.50 monthly basic service charge). 18 months ago would have been $250.42 ($0.10313/kWh flat rate + $12.50 monthly basic service charge).

[Por_sha911]

The same as Al Gore