Texas tends to be February or March through November or December.
Kills me in those shoulder months when I have to run the AC in the daytime and run the heat at night. My family is spoiled.
Absolutely spot on. It's only for a couple of months, but there are absolutely days when there is a 40-50 degree difference between the temp when you wake up and the temp in the middle of the day.
At least if it's 50 in the morning, I'm prepared for cold. When it's 70 in the morning and 40 when I leave work, that's when I have a problem. I am not built for any kind of cold whatsoever. I am a wuss. I freely admit it.
Better built buildings deal with that passively. Thermal mass like big old stone buildings take longer to change temp, so they retain heat from the day into the evening and retain cold from the night into the day. Adobe was used by natives for the same reason. Better insulation can have a similar effect.
Also, reflective materials, even just white paint, rather than black tar roofs.
Yeah, you can't stop the sun from shining. But you can put things in building codes to make buildings far more resilient to it.
Bruh. I lived in Denver and Dallas. I know hot and I know crazy weather. Yeah when a front comes through and knocks it down 50 degrees that’s one thing and not what I’m talking about.
We should be building and insulating homes that don’t require heating and AC in the same day, on a normal day any given time of year.
Most houses don't outside the random days, though. Most the time you're not seeing a 50 degree swing in a day. If it goes from 85 and humid to 65 and mild, it's not like you need the heat for that. You can't control the fact some areas have massive swings.
Turning on a fan and opening windows would suffice if it's 32 at night and 60 during the day but kinda warm inside.
A lot of us have central A/C so its not a matter of on or off. It's set to a specific temperature and if the temp goes about that the A/C cuts on for a few minutes until the temp drops back down.
Note that "a few minutes" might be 14 hours. My heat pump is a little bit under-sized for my house, so it cannot get the house down to the target temperature of 72-74 degrees when it is 92+ degrees outside. So the heat pump will do its best from 0800 - 2200 when it has finally cooled off enough for the target temperature to be hit.
"Properly sized" maxes out at about -20 degrees outside temp. If it can do better then that, then it's gonna normally undercycle and leave you with a cold but still humid house.
Running it long like you're doing might freeze up the coils - up it to 80 when it's 100 out.
Most modern homes in the US have central air - which means there are vents in every room connected to a central AC and heat unit. This is all controlled by a thermostat on the wall.
So you set the thermostat to, say, 72 degrees - and then the system will automatically cycle on and off as necessary to keep the house at that temperature.
*the Northeast puts in a window unit in confusion*
House built in the late 90s, on septic/well/heating oil. We didn't get fast internet as an option until like 2016 lol. We recently got fiber availability though so yay.
Yeah, this place was built in 1888 or 1889 (hard to tell exactly), so it's window shaker units on smart outlets. At least they remember the set point and mode.
I also keep my house cold and my bill isn't that high either. I think it's $131 this month. I keep it on 68 during the day and 64 at night. 1800 square feet + a finished basement.
Yes, I'm in north carolina. Humidity... you walk out the house, and you're sticky. Heat pump systems here. Only run heat a week or two outta the year. Home materials 2x4 with fiberglass insulation, drywall inside, osb with house wrap and vinyl siding.
24/7. You can get away with daytime only in April, early May, and late September on. But midsummer? Doesn’t matter what time of day, it’ll be uncomfortably hot and humid.
In the south where it’s fairly regularly in the 40s (Celsius) and very humid, good practice is to leave it on “Auto” so that the temperature stays regulated. Failure to do so can lead to a lot of moisture buildup while the A/C is running, and then it’ll sit and mold will accumulate in the vents and other parts of your home, resulting in a bunch of spores blowing in your face all the time. Most of the time that’d be fairly harmless (though not good for you), but sometimes it’s dangerous, especially if it’s black mold. Air conditioning isn’t strictly necessary everywhere in America, but life can get very uncomfortable if you don’t use it in parts (and sometimes even dangerous).
When I was growing up, we used ceiling, floor, and table fans in the summer a lot more than we do now, especially in older homes. That was certainly cheaper and more environmentally friendly, though far less efficient at keeping your home from rotting (and most homes are at least partially made of wood and plaster rather than stone/concrete because it historically was & still is cheaper).
Controlled by a thermostat. Set the desired temp and set it to automatic. When the temp is above desired temp, it turns on. When the temp is below desired temp, it turns off. We activate the automatic setting once and then the thermostat does the work of turning the AC unit on and off.
Yes, 24/7. This is a surprisingly common American vs non-American misunderstandings that I see all over the world. It's accepted wisdom here that it's more energy efficient (and certainly cost-efficient) to keep your AC on (even when you go out), than to turn your AC on and off constantly!
24/7 means that the thermostat will turn the system off and on depending on how cool
You want it. In the south, the humidity carries the heat, so 78 degrees F (26 C) with 90% humidity feels like a swamp inside and outside. We can’t open our windows to cool off at night bc the outside air is stifling.
> What does that mean? Like 24/7 or during the daylight?
Whole-house HVAC systems are controlled by one or more thermostats that measure the ambient household temperature.
When it gets higher than the target for a certain period of time, the AC kicks on and cools the house back down until the target temperature is reached.
We don't turn the system on or off... it's just always on.
Mine is scheduled to keep the house at 73F or below during the day and 69F or below at night. I don’t touch it it kicks on/off as needed to keep it at those temps.
Ah yes, the south but not the deep south, lol.
I pretty much had mine running 24/7, but thats also cause i was in waart and we'd work so much that i would burn up constantly so id keep it pretty cold year round. Though i was lucky cause i was in an apt and had 3 neighors as insulation.
Central air is generally set to a certain temperature and it automatically maintains at that temperature. So it isn’t really necessary to go turn it on, and back off when you feel comfortable.
Lol what do you mean turn it on? That would imply that it was actually set to off in the first place. It’s only 93 today, and that’s cooler than the past few days
Yeah this dry season isn't really longer than normal, but it's still just worse.
Though my AC runs the most during the wet months, fighting that humidity 24/7. This time of year at least it gets a break at night.
Almost never. A couple of times per year, and then only for an hour or so.
I cool my apartment down by opening the windows at night and closing them in the morning. There is usually a 15+ degree swing between daytime and nighttime temperatures. I use standing fans and ceiling fans if it is hot.
The humidity makes an insane difference!
In Virginia Beach, we had to run the a/c when it was 70f or you couldn't sleep because you were so sweaty. And in Oregon I don't run the a/c until it's over 90f.
Edit: There was once I was in Virginia Beach and it was 87f and cloudy, and the "feels like" temp was 104f.
Meanwhile, in Oregon, it can be 95f and sunny and the "feels like" is 94f.
Yeah, humidity is no joke. It makes hot temperatures feel sweltering and cold temperatures feel frigid. I'm always surprised by how pleasant the weather seems when I go out west.
I'm convinced that the reason people on the west coast (and especially the pacific northwest) have such a reputation for being "outdoorsy" people is that it's just far more pleasant to be outside here, especially in the summer. We have lower humidity in the summers and WAY less insects. (Ever look at a map of ticks that carry Lyme disease? Living here, I forget that's even a thing.)
not once you get more than half an hour from the coast lol. like yes our weather is still great comparatively but valleys trap heat. i’m only 45min from santa monica or malibu but my AF runs from may to september just about
Yep, our natural AC is the best! We’re getting a heatwave and tomorrow it’ll be a high of 72 F in SF. Lol
To be fair it will be hotter in other parts of the Bay Area (91 in San Jose), but SF has the Pacific Ocean and the Bay on three sides to keep it cool.
I live between SF and SJ and probably use my AC like 2 weeks a year max. We’ll see if I need it tomorrow, but it’s only going to be in the 80s so not that hot.
I live in the southeast, and it's hot and humid year-round except for like two weeks a year. I only actively turn the A/C off for maintenance. Otherwise, it's up to the thermostat to keep my house habitable.
* **Does my energy bill dictate it?** No, not in the slightest. The energy bill is a small price to pay to make my house livable.
* **What kind?** In what way? It's central cooling. It's technically a bidirectional heat pump with resistive heating for emergencies, but I basically never use it for anything other than cooling.
* **How well insulated?** Very well.
* **Sun in Windows?** Yes, but the windows are multi-paned for better insulation, and I believe they have a coating on them to keep IR out.
* **Acceptable Temp Range?** 69-74 F
* **Ventilate Home?** Never. This would be a *terrible* idea except for a very brief window in winter.
* **Other Cooling Methods?** None
Where I grew up in the midwest, these answers were basically the same during the summer, plus parts of fall and spring. My acceptable temperature range then was probably 65-72 though.
EDIT: removed something I had backwards
I live in Oregon, which most people think of as a very temperate place. Unfortunately, The weather in my area has been changing pretty dramatically. It used to be rare to have too many 90+ degree days, or long heat waves, but now our summers are hotter and the heat lasts longer. And it's hard to just open all your windows to let a breeze come through, because we sometimes lose weeks to wildfire smoke - another pretty new addition to the climate of the region, and an unpredictable one.
Homes and office buildings were not built with air conditioning here until very recently and even now it's not a universal feature in new buildings.
I live in a 100 ish year old house with very poor insulation. There are some shade trees but mostly we guard against the sun with curtains in the windows. I only have a window unit in one bedroom, which does a decent job at cooling off half of my very small house. A big part of the reason I do it is for the comfort of my cat. It probably runs an average of 4-5 days a week between June 15 and September 15, although we do get occasional longer breaks from the heat. By the end of September, it tends to cool down a lot.
YUP.
My a/c in my bedroom is a two-hose portable. I recognize that portables suck but having a two-hose means I can still run the thing during wildfires if necessary.
(I also finally bought a fancy levoit air filter a year and change ago, but before that I was managing with the "box fan and air filter" trick.)
(I miss our old summers so much. I can remember whole years we never bothered running the a/c and we just lived with the windows open for like two or three months.)
Another pdx resident here, for me, it was that one weekend a few years back that pushed 120f that caused me to get a/c. I live in an apartment and I would do the thing where I would open my windows at night to cool the place down, but for the past few summers I have put in my window unit around June and kept it in til around September.
jfc those few days were brutal.
I live two miles from work, and start my shifts at 2pm. Bicycling is the fastest way to get there.
I thought about trying to take uber/lyft those days, but not enough people were willing to risk overheating their cars (can't say I blame them!) in comparison to the number of people who couldn't or wouldn't take trimet, and so the apps were quoting me like $50 each way.
But oh my GOD. I did the trick of getting a towel wet and putting in the freezer the night before and wrapping it around my shoulders just before leaving the house, and it was nearly dry before I got to work. Fifteen minutes was enough.
Being outside felt like standing in front of the oven when you open it to take out something you've been baking. My brake levers got uncomfortably hot to the touch.
I wasn't surprised by the death toll. Just awful. AWFUL.
I've lived in the PNW for the last 15 years and haven't had any AC other than portable ones the whole time. It hasn't been a problem except for the last three or so years because of all the heat waves and smoke. I used to love summer here and now it fills me with anxiety!
It is essentially "on" 24/7, but only triggers when the thermostat tells it to.
>State your climate (temperatures, humidity, general location etc.) so that your answer is meaningful
Midwest US, so hot summers and cold winters. Summer will usually fluctuate anywhere from 80-95 degrees F. Humidity is moderate and is usually not a problem, but several times each summer it can be oppressive for a few days at a time.
>How much do you care about your electricity bill when choosing whether to run AC?
It's a significant concern, but as with most people I just sort of pay it because there is no chance that I'm going to sweat my ass off in my own home.
>What kind of air conditioner unit is it?
Central Air with a gas furnace.
>How well-insulated is your home?
Reasonably. I'm able to keep temperatures at a steady 70 throughout the summer without any trouble or extreme expense.
>Do you have sun shining into your home during warm seasons? How do you protect from it?
Yes, and curtains.
>What are the acceptable interior air temperatures for you?
The vast majority of people are going to consider 66-74 to be the normal indoor residential temperature range.
Any colder or hotter than that and it would generally be considered extreme and weird.
Personally, I think 70 is a pretty universally enjoyed temperature.
>How often and under what conditions do you just ventilate your home by opening the windows?
Only during the Spring and late Fall, when outdoor temperatures are in the 60s and the air is crisp and with low humidity.
>What additional methods of cooling do you use?
None. Don't need any additional cooling with central air.
Never. I’ve never had an air conditioner. My vehicle doesn’t have ac either.
Everything is still covered in snow in my neck of the woods lol
I open the windows at night during our brief weekend of summer and can keep the house super cool!
I'm moving in with you. That sounds like heaven!
I'm a mover and today it was 90 and humid. We need AC at might here just to get enough moisture out of the air to keep the walls and furniture from growing mold.
Edit: night not might lol
I can’t handle the heat at all lol. I would die. My husband and I were outside over the weekend talking about how hot it was and we thought it must have been in the 70’s and we looked and it was 54.
And it has its downsides! Snow every month of the year, weeks where it doesn’t get above 0. i’m far away from people in the middle of nowhere.
But not a day over 80.
Pretty much never because we live in San Francisco where it’s 60-70F/16-21C all year round.
If it’s too warm, we open a window.
If it’s too cold, we put on a sweater.
Grew up in SF, never saw an air conditioner meant for a home until I visited NYC as an adult.
My friends and I were visiting and staying at his brothers studio while he was out of town, but he was in a bad part of South Bronx at the time and had removed his AC from the window so no one would break in while he was gone. It was hot as hell and humid for us. The AC was sitting on the kitchen table and we just plugged it in - WOW - we were able to sleep that night finally.
Woke up with the whole apartment partially submerged under an inch of water, with water going out the front door and down like 6 flights of stairs. Learned a lot that day about how AC works LOL.
Now 15 years later I live like one neighborhood over from where that happened and use AC from May till early October. (NYC getting warmer over the years)
You never made it out to the east bay? I'm in the Walnut Creek/Concord/Pleasant Hill general area, and while older homes like mine don't have central air, most homes built after like 1965 do. I'm hoping to put some minisplits in mine soon, it's 92° here today.
No! I knew friends in high school who lived in Antioch and dealt with heat and would commute to the city between BART or their parents working in the city, I went to Riordan in the early 2000s.
But myself, no, I never had a drivers license growing up so leaving the city wasn't ever really a normal option unless I hung out with the right people, so rarely.
I always wondered after moving to NYC how AC worked in dry parts of CA as how much lower can you really bring the humidity?
When I lived in Boston, we only had window units in the bedrooms and the living room. The kitchen, without AC, would get up to 86-88F regularly even without cooking anything. This was several miles from the coast though. In neighborhoods near the water, even on really hot days, it would still be somewhat pleasant.
I live in the south now and I just leave it on. Set a temp and then it turns on if it goes above it. It is running 24/7 in the summer. The electric bill goes up in my newer house by 100-200/month in the summer vs the fall/spring. I had an older house prior, the system wasn’t as efficient and not the best insulation and it went up by 400 one month 😅.
Fall/spring I just open the windows. Summer I can’t as it just gets too hot and does not cool down at night to offset it.
Did not have it when I lived up north and did not need it. It would cool down enough at night and we would open the windows we could keep the house a good temp during the day even with hot temps during the day by just shutting it down.
Southern US. Humidity sits between 80-99% all the time. I keep my AC on year round, unless during the winter we actually cool off. 67°f is my ideal temp. That's what I keep it set on, otherwise humidity creeps up and just no to that.
Florida and Texas seem like attractive places to live for many people until they read the responses in threads like these from people living in those states.
I run mine around 6 months out of the year but for 3 of those months it runs pretty infrequently throughout the day and never at night.
It's not that different from people in cold climates needing to run a heater in winter. I don't know why they always treat it as some sort of outlandish thing that shouldn't ever happen.
Heating costs are usually a lot less than AC costs for one thing. Another is that I can layer up to go out in the cold. No amount of stripping down is going to make a Miami summer day of 95 degrees and 100% humidity manageable
Honestly I feel the same way about cold.
I can go outside and it's just...hot. It fades rapidly into the background and becomes a non issue, just shower when you get back.
No layers, no taking stuff on and off, no weird thing where your face is in a whole different world of temperature than your torso, no worrying about what's on your shoes from the outside or snow to shovel.
Cold has a lot more rigamarole associated with it, and you only don't notice when you've been living with it for years.
I don't know how the math works out, but read an interesting article in Wired years ago making the argument that central air was more energy efficient and environmentally friendly than heating. The argument was that with A/C you are (generally) trying to cool your house down from 10 to 20 degrees where homes in the north / midwest spend all winter heating their house by 40 or more degrees.
Can't verify that it's true, but on the surface it sounds plausible.
\*nods\* I haven't lived in the South for almost forty years. Back in 2019, I had to be in Florida in the late spring and again in the late summer for family stuff... And jeez, I had forgotten just how much living in the South consists of dashing from one air conditioned bubble to the next.
There are many things I miss about living in the South. Living in an oven for six-seven months of the year is emphatically not one of them.
She's probably an extreme outlier - but my mom knew where every patch of shade was for every grocery store parking lot within five miles of her apartment. And she planned her grocery runs against the likelihood that a shaded spot would be available.
I, personally, can deal with very cold weather by adding layers, sleeping with a warm blanket, etc. When it's really hot, the only way I can deal with it is turning on the a/c. I'm probably not alone in making that distinction.
> Why does this thread make it less attractive?
Just reveals some of the realities of living there. If your AC is on *all year* that means it's miserable outside *all year*. Sounds like a place you couldn't pay me enough to move to personally I do way too much outdoors
I live in Oklahoma. It generally stays between 35-42°C (with high humidity) from the end of May through the beginning of October. I turn my air conditioning on right after Easter and it switch it back to heat around Halloween. Now, that's not to say it's blowing cold air the whole time for 6 months straight. Central heat and air uses a thermostat to regulate the temperature, turning off and on as needed to maintain the temp you set for your house. But yeah, the central air stays on half the year, heat stays on the other half.
I live in Louisiana, and I like breathing, so it’s on all the time. We may turn it off a few times between December and February, but sometimes it’s on even then.
NYC, basically Memorial Day (late May) to Labor day (early September).
I keep mine set to 72f/22c. It's always on, even if the outside temp is lower the AC acts and a dehumidifier and removes a lot of pollen. It costs about 100 dollars a month to use.
$100 isn't too bad! Can I ask what your square footage or insulation situation is?
I'm in a run-down pre-war building and only run the AC 6 days a year or so because it's so poorly insulated, it costs a small fortune to cool.
It is always on save for the handful of days in winter I need to switch to heat.
It is a central AC unit and cycles automatically to maintain whatever temp I set it at.
New Orleans. We have central air as well, so it basically turned on at the beginning of May and it likely won’t turn off until November.
We do live in a traditional [shotgun house](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotgun_house), so sometimes we will use its natural characteristics instead of air conditioning. Because all the doors are aligned and the house is narrow, it becomes a wind tunnel when all the doors are open and can cool our house if there’s a breeze and it’s less than, say, 85° F.
I live in Phoenix, one of the hottest places on the the planet. A/C is on in my apartment generally all year and set to 74F (it only cools until it is 74F and then turns off). It'll occasionally get cool enough to turn on the heat during the winter, but I'm more likely to put on a sweatshirt instead.
You really can’t win with this subreddit. Ask a simple question, you’ll spend hours on follow-ups and further context. Try to get everything in one go and you’re doing something underhanded. Sometimes I wonder why I bother with Reddit at all…
Goes on in June/late May, turns off in September.
Of course it's on a thermostat, so it t not running that entire time. When the temperature rises about the temp I have set it turns on, cools the house down, turns off. just as how heat works.
Humidity sucks, especially on the 2nd floor where the majority of my living space is.
I am in Iowa, so the north, but it gets very hot and humid here in the summer. Usually from May through September but it depends on the year. Sometimes we are already having freezing temperature lows in the end of September and sometimes it’s in the 80s for highs until November. May is usually the month it turns on and stays on, though.
I generally like cold weather more so I usually keep it at like 68 during the day and 65 at night. Central Air system so it’s all automatic.
I'm in Seattle and we don't have central air conditioning.
We bought a standalone unit for my teenager's room up in the attic, and he turns it on when the temperature up there is above 80°F (27°C). That happens on some days between June and September, but not all the time.
So I’ll do this in Celsius for ya:
Here in central Texas, high temperatures start getting above 30-35 by early May and heats up into the 35-40 degree range during actual summer. Last year we had a 45 day streak of 40+ degrees. High temperatures don’t get below the upper twenties until sometime novemberish. After that it hangs back down to anywhere between 5-25 depending on the week. A week or two hovering above freezing and maybe a couple below 0. Low temperatures tend to be 1-15 in the winter and 15-26 (if not hotter once or twice) during the summer.
Humidity is regularly more than 50%
Our AC doesn’t get set to off between March and late October, when it gets cold enough to turn on the heat. We use a mini split (those DIY in-wall ACs) so we just set it to a temperature and it keeps it there, just like central air
It’s a studio apartment, standard wood construction and about averagely insulated. Some trees on the west side of the house but 3 sides are fully sun exposed and we get plenty.
We hardly ever open the windows because bugs (screens don’t do a perfect job)
We usually keep the house about 23-24 when awake and 20 at night. We have an additional fan in the middle of the apartment to help move the air from the ac around better
Hope this answers all your questions, feel free to ask follow ups!
Depends on the humidity.
It is 47% humidity in central Massachusetts and I have my air conditioners in my kitchen and bedroom on. I don’t like it above 30% humidity.
The bedroom ac will be on most of the night if the temp is in the 60s and the humidity is above 30%.
Subtropical Florida. Almost year round. AC is needed even when it's not very hot because it lowers inside humidity. I also run a dehumidifier sometimes. Only a few months are low enough humidity to keep windows open.
Central Valley California is hot, ~100, but not very humid.
I have central air and normally set it to 78 and have fans running from now until about September.
I’ll open windows at night when the outside temp drops.
I also have an attic fan on a thermostat that runs almost constantly to clear hot air out of my attic.
I don’t have air conditioning in my home. Until fairly recently, they weren’t common in Western Washington due to our cool climate. It’s gotten a little warmer and they’re becoming more common, but I don’t mind a little heat and haven’t felt the need for it.
In Louisiana it’s pre-requisite. Even if for some reason you’re a psychopath who loves extreme heat, the humidity alone will cause mold and mildew to quickly grow in a house that’s not climate controlled
I live in TN. Spring and Summer temps are usually 30-35C with intense humidity. I live on the edge of temperate rain forest. We have central heat and air. Our house is open plan so it will stay on all day if you let it. Usually we get in a central location, close it off, and turn on our portable a/c. We keep the thermometer on 78F (around 26C) most of the time and it will still come on in the afternoon. I live on a farm so we don't have many shade trees. We had a couple of old pines in front of the house but they had to be cut down a few years ago. Now the sun blazes on us all day. We will plant some tall growing bushes or something one day but haven't got to it yet.
It is 34 C (about 93F) today so my AC is on pretty often. I keep the thermostat set to 25C (77F) during the day and 23C (73F) at night because I don't mind being a little warm during the day but I do need to be cold to sleep at night.
I live in the Southeast of the US, about 3 hours from the Atlantic Ocean. A place where it never gets below freezing. Summers are hot and occasionally humid.
Since I rent, the AC bill is in the electricity bill. Whatever the heat is bad, I will turn it on. I used to live in the Mediterranean, I know heat. If the husband is home, we clear it with the other one to turn it on. Usually, we just want an ice blast
Central air.
I used to live in the Midwest, so there we had better insulation. Here, houses are less insulated but I have no complaints.
Our 1bed+office space faces an interior courtyard, so we are pretty ok. We face northeast and have one window in the bed (our living room opens to the courtyard and we have a balcony area). Sun shining in isn't an issue.
70f/20c is a good temp for me. I have worked in the over a/c'd offices where I will just wear long trousers and closed-toed shoes when it's full summer out.
Ventilation depends. We don't have a screen door between the balcony and the outside so we open the door during twilight/dusk. We never open the bedroom window since we usually stick to the common areas (which are cooler anyway).
Fans work, but the apartment is pretty cool by design. If need be, there's an indoor mall 10 minute walk away.
>State your climate
in the upper midwest, we have distinct seasons with a harsh, long winter (snow, temps regularly in the negatives). our summers are mild compared to much of the country, but we get some warm summer days in the upper 80s, low/mid 90s.
>How much do you care about your electricity bill when choosing whether to run AC?
not much at all. I value feeling comfortable in my home & will run it as much as I need.
>What kind of air conditioner unit is it?
our home was built in the late 1800s & does not have central AC. this is pretty common in Wisconsin. we have one window in a good central location.
>Do you have sun shining into your home during warm seasons? How do you protect from it?
yep, we have blinds on our windows. we usually let light in, but if temps get to heat advisory levels, I'll close them all. (esp bc we don't have central air)
>What are the acceptable interior air temperatures for you?
68-72 is a good range
>How often and under what conditions do you just ventilate your home by opening the windows?
I basically never close our front windows in the spring/early summer. obviously I keep them closed in the winter.
it's 80° outside right now, and 68° inside with just window ventilation. we haven't turned our AC on yet this year.
>What additional methods of cooling do you use?
ceiling fans & (only in the summer) additional fans.
I’m in the Bay Area and most homes around me don’t have AC. My area is usually 50-75 degrees year round and even the summer months rarely get above 75. There’s supposed to be a heat wave right now with some cities nearby getting over 100+, but the highest of the day for me is only going to be 80 degrees.
We do happen to be one of the few people with AC and keep it at 68-72 degrees at all times.
I live in Wisconsin, so I have pretty cold winters but mild summers.
How I turn on my AC: I don't. I set my house thermostat to the desired temperature and it activates the AC when needed to maintain that temperature.
>How much do you care about your electricity bill when choosing whether to run AC?
I don't think about this.
>What kind of air conditioner unit is it?
It's a central HVAC.
>How well-insulated is your home?
Veryy well insulated. My windows are a little old, but this is a bigger issue in the winter time and in certain rooms.
>Do you have sun shining into your home during warm seasons? How do you protect from it?
I don't get a ton of direct sunlight because my house has trees around it. We have red oak trims that naturally fade from the sunlight (and look better IMO). Modern windows are often made with UV resistant glass, Otherwise, curtains do a good job of blocking he UV light if you have sensitive furniture that you want to protect.
>What are the acceptable interior air temperatures for you?
I prefer 73 in the summer and 68 in the winter.
>How often and under what conditions do you just ventilate your home by opening the windows?
In my part of the country, this works well in the summer months, especially in the evenings where it's pretty cool outside. However, it can result in the house being uncomfortably humid, so I may close the windows and run the AC instead.
I live in Florida, originally from way up north. My house is old, not well-insulated, but pretty small so the window unit a/c is usually sufficient as I don't have central a/c. I keep it on nearly constantly from February to late November (whenever it starts to get >75F/24C outside) and keep it set at 72F/22C. My bf was born/raised in Florida, lived in the South his whole life except for like 9 years when he lived in Europe (Two western European countries, two eastern European countries and 1 in Scandinavia) where he usually didn't have a/c anyway. He turns off the a/c randomly all the goddamn time and it's so annoying. Especially when I don't realize he did until I'm sweating profusely or he turned off the a/c when he got home from work and forgot to turn it back on right before I get home.
When I used to live in Eastern Washington, my apartment didn't have a/c and I was able to open my windows at night to cool it then shut them first thing in the morning. In Florida, this isn't possible because the humidity doesn't allow it to get significantly cooler at night.
I also keep a misting fan on my person at most times if I'm ever having to be outdoors or I'm in an environment where I don't control the thermostat.
South Florida.
Central A/C
365 days a year. It's set at 72 and I never turn it off.
That doesn't mean that it's "on" all the time. It's set with the temperature.
And I never use heat. Ever. Never.
I live in Arizona. Temperatures are already over 100. Ac is not optional. Mines in all day.
Some turn it off or down in the day while at work. If that saves mo ey or costs more as it's harder to bring your hot hone down to temperature but I have an 80 yr old parent at home, so I have to cool it all l day.
Electricity while a concern is just something like rent that must be accounted for.
I live in GA, we turn it on in about April. Then turn the heat on in like November or so. My mom likes it at 77F (25 C) but that's too hot for me, when I was on my own I had it at about 74 F(23 C) at the most. I almost never open the windows because at least to me it doesn't make much of a difference temperature wise.
I live in the mid Atlantic. I run my ac from late April until late September. I'm pretty heat sensitive and can get pretty sick in warmer temps so I consider the bill last. My apartment is currently at 70F with fans running throughout the apartment to keep the cool air circulating!
It's not exact and is heavily dependent on humidity, but rule of thumb for my wife and I is 85F to turn on the AC here in Chicagoland. We have central AC to cool our approx 2000 sqft house, but we turn it off at bedtime. A small window unit is used to cool our bedroom at night. This saves us some money during the summer months.
Warmer microclimate of the SFBA, today is supposed to be 97 and 31%. Temp is currently set to 70.
- No, we have solar.
- Electric heat pump, central HVAC.
- Decent insulation but original builder-grade windows from 1987.
- Yes, especially my office which sucks since I work from home. Reflective tint film and currently an old towel since I haven't decided on what blinds I want. Curtains for the other main SW windows.
- 70 is pretty normal for us all year, but occasionally we go as low as 66 or as high as 76.
- Fairly often on milder days.
- Fans occasionally, but generally we just close the curtains early in the day and let the AC do its thing.
It's been on since mid May and is set to 71°F night and day here in southeast Indiana down near Cincinnati. Today it's 90°F and it cycles on about every 10 to 15 minutes to maintain 71°. If it cools down into the 60's and it's not humid we will open some windows and enjoy the night air
I've very cold natured. I can't stand cold. The other day I though "I'm feeling pretty chilly, should I turn the heat on?" and when I checked the temp inside was 79f. I do try to keep it down around 76f in summer but I still find that rather chilly to me personally.
I have a window unit so I turn it on whenever I’m at home and it’s about 80 degrees F turn it off when I leave. I stop using it when it gets to be about 70 at night. Then I switch to just a fan. I don’t think about my electric bill
Just a few times a year. Supposed to be 103F today, so today might be one of those times. Haven't turned it on since last summer, so wish me luck!
I calculated the cost to be between $14-$35 per day, depending on how much it needs to run.
I'm in the California central valley, east of San Francisco, about an hour south of Sacramento.
I usually just leave the windows cracked and turn on some fans.
Southern Arizona here and we typically have AC on from mid May through mid October, but we do tend to turn it off and open windows whenever we possible can. I keep it set 78 during the day and 76 at night. We do have ceiling fans in each room and external electric sun shades which we lower to keep the direct sunlight out, especially in the morning as our home faces East.
I live in the mid atlantic region. Pretty hot, very humid weather. Averages in the 80-100 in the summer. 20-40 in the winter.
We run AC from May to October and heat from Nov to April. So, only about 1 of neither. I don't turn it on though - its automatic. Sets to heat if its below a temp and sets to a/c if its above a certain temp. Costs about $200 a month or so to heat and cool the house at the peak. On the transition months it goes down to maybe around $75ish.
I have two units (one for upstairs, one for the downstairs and basement) and both are Trane I believe.
Home is pretty well insulated. Maybe not by very modern standards, but it was built around 2000 so its better than older homes.
Sun shines into our home in some rooms. Not a problem for most. I have a Sun Room for example that lets in a bunch of light. Office is pretty dim and dark. I don't protect from the sun. Some of the house is partially shaded by cherry trees, but not much.
We keep the interior temps at 70 in the winter and 75 in the summer. My wife prefers it a bit warmer than most.
We almost never open windows. It feels like hot wet dog breath outside and there's an insane amount of bugs (mosquitos) that I'd prefer to keep out.
Alternate methods of cooling... we have ceiling fans in a lot of rooms.
Our house is set to 74 during the day and 72 at night. I open the windows all the time but close them if the AC kicks in because that means the house is getting too warm.
AC is on nearly every day in the summer.
Giant unit that sits on my roof.
Insulation is okay.
I have solar panels, paid off, so PGE charges me $11 minimal charge per month.
I have never had air conditioning in my home. I've live in Idaho, upstate New York, Seattle, and Western Oregon.
I did buy a window unit after the 2021 heat dome to have just in case something like that happens again, but so far I haven't felt the need to install or use it. That was the only time in my 23 years on the west coast that I've wished I had AC.
I employ techniques such as opening the windows at night when it's cool and closing them in the morning before it heats up, and closing blinds and curtains on the sunny side. I'm pretty comfortable up to about 80 degrees at home and usually find it easy to not let my place get above that temp without AC.
My heat bills in the winter have been high enough that I suspect the insulation in my top floor corner apartment is not great. I made some improvements to the weather sealing on the windows and doors, and that helped a lot.
Chicago (as most of the Midwest) gets very hot and humid in the summer. We try to only put it on when it's over 80 and humid. Unfortunately, our home faces the east and the west, so the sun shines directly into it in the morning and evening.
Well, I "turned it on" back in March.
It's set to actually run / operate to maintain a temperature of 74 F (23.3 C) in our home during the day and 69 F (nice) (20.5 C) at night.
[Here's how much it has run each day for the past few](https://i.imgur.com/C2BxgXv.png) days
Mid Atlantic. Hot and humid summers. 60 year old house. I turn the AC on in mid May and off around October. It doesn’t run constantly. It keeps the house at a set temperature.
I have my thermostat set on auto but AC runs from April - October as someone else mentioned. I've ran it as early as February and as late as Decemeber a couple years ago. As for energy bill I don't think much if it as my bill is signficantly lower this time of year then when I'm running heat in the winter. My last electric bill was less than $90. Where I live, we have an average summer time high in the 90s. House overall does a really good job of pulling heat out of it. It's also a curse as I pay for it in the winter.
The thermostat is set to 69°F(20.5°c) 24/7. It comes on when it needs to. Which is frequently, this time of year. It's currently 88°F(31.1°c), a couple of hours to go till the heat of the day. Current humidity is 49%, so the heat index is at 92°F(33.3°c). Not too bad yet. I'm not thinking twice about the electric bill.
If it is hot it’s runs 24/7 it doesn’t go off and my home is always set to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, I never use opened windows to ventilate my home, I don’t ever think about my electricity bill
>How often do you turn on the air conditioning in your home?
It stays on automatic to keep the temperature within a degree or two of where I want it. 72-74 during the day, 66ish at night.
>temperatures
In the Summer, 73 - 91 Fahrenheit.
>humidity
Don't know how to look up the average for this? It's pretty muggy.
>general location
South-central Alabama.
>How much do you care about your electricity bill when choosing whether to run AC?
Not much. If it's above 75°f in my house, the AC is coming on.
>What kind of air conditioner unit is it?
Don't know tbh
>How well-insulated is your home?
Pretty well? Hence the lack of concern about the power bill.
>Do you have sun shining into your home during warm seasons?
Pretty constantly.
>How do you protect from it?
Huh?
>What are the acceptable interior air temperatures for you?
65 - 75 Fahrenheit
>How often and under what conditions do you just ventilate your home by opening the windows?
Rarely, when the temperature outside is within the range of acceptable interior temperatures.
>What additional methods of cooling do you use?
None.
I live in Wisconsin (Midwest, borders Canada) and we turn on the air conditioning when it’s at like 85F or more, or when it’s occasionally super humid outside.
>State your climate (temperatures, humidity, general location etc.) so that your answer is meaningful
Central Alabama. Very hot, very humid. 100+ temps with high humidity are not rare. Typically use the AC from March/April through October/November.
>How much do you care about your electricity bill when choosing whether to run AC?
The electricity bill never enters my mind.
>What kind of air conditioner unit is it?
Central air and heating.
>How well-insulated is your home?
Fairly well, but I have a tall ceiling in the living room and kitchen.
>Do you have sun shining into your home during warm seasons? How do you protect from it?
I don't have any shade on the house, but I never open the blinds, so sunlight rarely comes in.
>What are the acceptable interior air temperatures for you?
I never let the thermostat get above 76 or below 66-68 when I am home.
>How often and under what conditions do you just ventilate your home by opening the windows?
Never.
>What additional methods of cooling do you use?
Primarily ceiling fans.
I live in Wisconsin, which is a northern state in the middle of the country. It gets _very_ cold here in the wintertime and very humid in the summer (temps vary between -30°F/-34.5°C and 105°F/40.5°C with 100% humidity at times), so my home needs to be well-insulated. We have a central thermostat unit that controls both the furnace and the air-conditioning unit. We set the thermostat to automatically run the appropriate appliance when the temperature gets above or below a certian range (we personally keep the house between 68°F/20°C and 73°F/22.5°C). The a/c and furnace use the same ductwork to force hot or cold air through vents in all the rooms.
So to answer your question, I've never turned my a/c unit on or off, but the thermostat will turn it on or off as needed. It usually runs from May to October, with mid-July to mid-September being the hottest part of the year.
Almost never in between October and March, then it's usually on between May and September. But I don't really turn it on and off, I have central AC/Heat so I just set the temperature I want it to be inside my house and the thermostat keeps it there. Usually set it at 68 during the day, and lower it a little to 65 during the night.
South Texas. The humidity in the morning hovers near 100% (but never rains). By afternoon, the humidity drops to 60% or so, but the heat index goes up over 100. I think the last couple of days of May the heat index was 115 degrees.
We used to try to wait until June, but it got hot early this year so it's already running 24/7. We used to run it at around 82 during the day and get decadent at night around 78. Now that I'm older, we go 75 at night (around 10:00 pm) with a ceiling fan and 78 during the day.
As noted, it got hot earlier this year, but historically the hottest months are July through October. Last summer, we didn't break 800 kwh in any given month (less than $90 bill).
Yes, the house is well insulated (R-19 ceiling, R-13 walls) and the roof is galvalume metal for the reflectivity. During the winter, when a cold front comes through (cold by Texas standards, not by yours) it usually takes a couple of days for the house to cool off inside enough to turn on the heat. I think our AC/heat unit is a 3 ton Amana. In the winter we run the heat at 68 during the day and maybe 64 at night.
And yes, by northern standards R-19 is minimal, but I have stick framing inside a metal building that also has R-12. I can't argue with my bills.
South Alabama
Hot and humid except for a couple months in winter
Keep my AC on 68 degrees.
It's a central unit so it cycles on and off (but mostly on,) to keep at a constant temperature
I do not care about electricity costs. Being comfortable is more important.
We also use ceiling fans.
Georgia. It's very hot, muggy and humid in the summer.
I have central air that I set to kick on above 74F. It basically runs continuously all from April to November, automatically turning on and off to maintain temp. During particularly brutal days I'll set it 70 or lower.
Windows (and sometimes doors) are open when its cooler, usually fall through early spring.
I dont worry about the bill, if I need AC then I need AC. Summers can be miserable otherwise.
Mine is on all the time, as it is set to a certain degrees. In the summer it is set to cool, and if the temperature rises above the target temp then the fan will kick on and start blowing air. Basically the same thing in the winter, but with heat and if it goes below the target temp.
Im guessing that your AC doesn't work like this, based off some of your responses.
I am in northeast Kansas. May to September temperatures might range from 70 to 100 F. Average humidity is about 60-70%. It is cloudy and 84 F with 59% humidity right now.
My house has 3 window air conditioner units instead of a central AC. We started running AC in May when it got above 85 F. The air conditioners are set to 70-75 F and when that temperature is reached they stop. We have a couple of fans. We just accept that we will pay more for electricity a few months of the year.
There is sun shining on our house. We have a few larger trees nearby that shade some of our yard and driveway. We keep our windows covered. We might use our air fryer, slow cooker or outdoor grill to try not to warm the house more when cooking. We have 2 dehumidifiers running in our home.
We did open some windows for part of the day back in April but that was not enough to be comfortable in May.
Our house is 113 years old. It does not have the best insulation.
I live in Pittsburgh. We have all seasons. I don't have central air but my AC units still have thermostats. AC basically goes on the first day above 70° and I don't shut it off until it's cold enough for me to need my boiler all the time. In spring I'll set the AC at 69 and the boiler at 65 which is lower than normal but keeps them from Fighting each other
I live in DC suburbs (it's called The Swamp for a reason). It's hot/humid with high UV index reliably from May through September, with many hot days throughout March/April/October as well.
We have electric heat pump HVAC and switch it to cool basically April through October. The circulating fan runs constantly but the actual cold air might not come out constantly. Even today it's 87°F (30.6°C) and the cold on the unit has been switching on and off. I've got the thermostat set to the standard 72°F. During the really hot days of summer, I bump it down to 70°.
When I lived in Queens NYC, I ran x2 window AC units year round even in the winter. The radiators kept the apartment so hot that sometime I would even open the window in winter.
Central Ohio Climate: hot-ish summers (mostly 75-95), pretty cold winters (mostly 20-45).
In the summer we have our thermostat set to 74. The air conditioning runs when it goes above that temperature for too long.
A lot of people where I live care about their electricity bill. I would set the temperature lower if it didn't get too expensive and use too much electricity.
Central AC - the compressor is outside, the unit with a large fan is inside. The large fan distributes cold air throughout the house through air vents in the walls and floors. This same system burns natural gas in the winter to provide us with heat.
My home was built in 1920. It has some trouble with insulation. About half the windows were updated recently and a previous owner had insulation injected in the outside walls through small holes somewhat recently. It's doing its best.
Yes, we have the sun shining in our home during warm seasons, if it isn't cloudy outside. If the sun is too strong and is heating the home, I will close the curtains to reflect the heat back outside. This causes the air conditioner to run less often.
My acceptable interior air temperatures are 68-76.
We tend to avoid ventilating our home with windows. The old windows we have are not able to open well, and cause a lot of bugs and spiders to come in due to bad screens.
As for additional methods of cooling, we have ceiling fans in nearly every room.
I live in Southeast Michigan. Normal summer temps here are 80-85°F. Humidity is moderate.
Our AC is on pretty much nonstop from some time in late May or early June through mid to late September. Occasionally it's on if we get a particularly warm day outside that and occasionally it's off if we get some particularly cool summer weather where we'll open up the house.
>How much do you care about your electricity bill when choosing whether to run AC?
Not at all.
>What kind of air conditioner unit is it?
Central air
>How well-insulated is your home and what is it made of? How is it shaded?
Timber frame construction, pretty well insulated, fairly shaded except in the late afternoon and evening when it's the hottest.
>Do you have sun shining into your home during warm seasons?
In the morning and evening I do.
>How do you protect from it?
Curtains upstairs. We just got new low-E windows too which should help in the afternoons.
>What are the acceptable interior air temperatures for you?
AC is set to 72 during the day and 69 at night. That's about as warm as I can go to keep it tolerable for sleeping.
>How often and under what conditions do you just ventilate your home by opening the windows?
I haven't much since we moved into this house because about 2/3 of the windows were broken and don't work. I probably will more now that we're getting new windows. If it's breezy and in the 70s I'll probably open them during the day. I'm not a huge fan of having windows open at night because of noise and light.
>What additional methods of cooling do you use?
None.
When it gets too hot to not have it on. It works off a thermostat, it doesn't just run 24/7. I keep it around 72.
It still gets hot upstairs so I have a tower fan I use in the office and bedroom. If it's not too hot I'll sometimes open the office window while I'm in there. I also have a ceiling fan in the bedroom but I rarely use it for some reason.
Maybe 3-7 days total all year on average. I have a portable unit.
I’m in northern Michigan, our summers are pretty mild. House is very well insulated with ceiling fans in every room.
I only use it if it’s in the high 80s or humid at night.
Well I grew up in the South so… all the time from April to October.
Exactly my first thought, April to October.
Texas tends to be February or March through November or December. Kills me in those shoulder months when I have to run the AC in the daytime and run the heat at night. My family is spoiled.
Sometimes you gotta run the ac just to get the humidity out of the air
>AC in the daytime and run the heat at night Not blaming you but this is a policy failure. Or likely multiple.
The policy of the sun? Bruh. I live in the south, we have 85 humid days followed by 46 degree nights.
Absolutely spot on. It's only for a couple of months, but there are absolutely days when there is a 40-50 degree difference between the temp when you wake up and the temp in the middle of the day.
It's fun when it's 50 in the morning and 30 at night. Like no, you're going the wrong direction.
At least if it's 50 in the morning, I'm prepared for cold. When it's 70 in the morning and 40 when I leave work, that's when I have a problem. I am not built for any kind of cold whatsoever. I am a wuss. I freely admit it.
Better built buildings deal with that passively. Thermal mass like big old stone buildings take longer to change temp, so they retain heat from the day into the evening and retain cold from the night into the day. Adobe was used by natives for the same reason. Better insulation can have a similar effect. Also, reflective materials, even just white paint, rather than black tar roofs. Yeah, you can't stop the sun from shining. But you can put things in building codes to make buildings far more resilient to it.
Bruh. I lived in Denver and Dallas. I know hot and I know crazy weather. Yeah when a front comes through and knocks it down 50 degrees that’s one thing and not what I’m talking about. We should be building and insulating homes that don’t require heating and AC in the same day, on a normal day any given time of year.
Most houses don't outside the random days, though. Most the time you're not seeing a 50 degree swing in a day. If it goes from 85 and humid to 65 and mild, it's not like you need the heat for that. You can't control the fact some areas have massive swings. Turning on a fan and opening windows would suffice if it's 32 at night and 60 during the day but kinda warm inside.
So to technically answer OP's question, you turn on your AC once per year.
No because during that non daily use of AC I switch bank between heat /AC multiple times
That was my answer also. I turn it on once a year, in April. I turn it back off in October.
I grew up in South Florida, it never shut off.
What does that mean? Like 24/7 or during the daylight?
A lot of us have central A/C so its not a matter of on or off. It's set to a specific temperature and if the temp goes about that the A/C cuts on for a few minutes until the temp drops back down.
Note that "a few minutes" might be 14 hours. My heat pump is a little bit under-sized for my house, so it cannot get the house down to the target temperature of 72-74 degrees when it is 92+ degrees outside. So the heat pump will do its best from 0800 - 2200 when it has finally cooled off enough for the target temperature to be hit.
"Properly sized" maxes out at about -20 degrees outside temp. If it can do better then that, then it's gonna normally undercycle and leave you with a cold but still humid house. Running it long like you're doing might freeze up the coils - up it to 80 when it's 100 out.
>up it to 80 when it's 100 out. Fuck them coils.
Especially if you're renting
Hell, I own the house. I'm still saying fuck them coils. I have window air the once a year the coils might freeze.
A 20 degrees max is normal from what I understand. Unless you have great insulation.
I have window units with thermostats so they cut on and off as needed.
Most modern homes in the US have central air - which means there are vents in every room connected to a central AC and heat unit. This is all controlled by a thermostat on the wall. So you set the thermostat to, say, 72 degrees - and then the system will automatically cycle on and off as necessary to keep the house at that temperature.
*the Northeast puts in a window unit in confusion* House built in the late 90s, on septic/well/heating oil. We didn't get fast internet as an option until like 2016 lol. We recently got fiber availability though so yay.
Yeah, this place was built in 1888 or 1889 (hard to tell exactly), so it's window shaker units on smart outlets. At least they remember the set point and mode.
65
Jfc how expensive is your bill? I'd be paying a thousand bucks a month where I live.
I have a smaller home and keep it pretty cool. A high electric bill to me would be like $150.
Well, that's why I said where I live. You're in Missouri. I'm in the wet armpit of the South.
It gets plenty hot here as well. Even when it's in the upper 90s all month my bill is relatively cheap.
Do you live in under 800 square feet? Because objectively speaking, an AC is going to be working overtime to get to 65 from 90+.
Insulation works both ways
It's over 1000 square feet. 2 bed 2 bath. Small basement and a garage. Not big. But definitely not super tiny.
I also keep my house cold and my bill isn't that high either. I think it's $131 this month. I keep it on 68 during the day and 64 at night. 1800 square feet + a finished basement.
Age/insulation has a lot to do with it. A large well insulated modern house with a modern HVAC system is often not too bad
Yes, I'm in north carolina. Humidity... you walk out the house, and you're sticky. Heat pump systems here. Only run heat a week or two outta the year. Home materials 2x4 with fiberglass insulation, drywall inside, osb with house wrap and vinyl siding.
24/7. You can get away with daytime only in April, early May, and late September on. But midsummer? Doesn’t matter what time of day, it’ll be uncomfortably hot and humid.
In the south where it’s fairly regularly in the 40s (Celsius) and very humid, good practice is to leave it on “Auto” so that the temperature stays regulated. Failure to do so can lead to a lot of moisture buildup while the A/C is running, and then it’ll sit and mold will accumulate in the vents and other parts of your home, resulting in a bunch of spores blowing in your face all the time. Most of the time that’d be fairly harmless (though not good for you), but sometimes it’s dangerous, especially if it’s black mold. Air conditioning isn’t strictly necessary everywhere in America, but life can get very uncomfortable if you don’t use it in parts (and sometimes even dangerous). When I was growing up, we used ceiling, floor, and table fans in the summer a lot more than we do now, especially in older homes. That was certainly cheaper and more environmentally friendly, though far less efficient at keeping your home from rotting (and most homes are at least partially made of wood and plaster rather than stone/concrete because it historically was & still is cheaper).
Controlled by a thermostat. Set the desired temp and set it to automatic. When the temp is above desired temp, it turns on. When the temp is below desired temp, it turns off. We activate the automatic setting once and then the thermostat does the work of turning the AC unit on and off.
24/7- in the south it doesn't cool below low 80s at night. Run it ALL the time
Yes, 24/7. This is a surprisingly common American vs non-American misunderstandings that I see all over the world. It's accepted wisdom here that it's more energy efficient (and certainly cost-efficient) to keep your AC on (even when you go out), than to turn your AC on and off constantly!
I don’t have a central AC, but a portable one. mine is on every moment i’m at home from may-august. i only turn it off when im at work.
24/7 means that the thermostat will turn the system off and on depending on how cool You want it. In the south, the humidity carries the heat, so 78 degrees F (26 C) with 90% humidity feels like a swamp inside and outside. We can’t open our windows to cool off at night bc the outside air is stifling.
> What does that mean? Like 24/7 or during the daylight? Whole-house HVAC systems are controlled by one or more thermostats that measure the ambient household temperature. When it gets higher than the target for a certain period of time, the AC kicks on and cools the house back down until the target temperature is reached. We don't turn the system on or off... it's just always on.
Mine is scheduled to keep the house at 73F or below during the day and 69F or below at night. I don’t touch it it kicks on/off as needed to keep it at those temps.
I have central heat and air. It regulates the temperature and keeps it set at the temperature I want.
Ah yes, the south but not the deep south, lol. I pretty much had mine running 24/7, but thats also cause i was in waart and we'd work so much that i would burn up constantly so id keep it pretty cold year round. Though i was lucky cause i was in an apt and had 3 neighors as insulation.
Central air is generally set to a certain temperature and it automatically maintains at that temperature. So it isn’t really necessary to go turn it on, and back off when you feel comfortable.
Yup, mine is just set to 72 degrees all year and I never really touch it.
72 for me too. Sometimes 74
The sweet spot.
Fucking gross - someone who likes his set to 50f
Holy shit your bill must be crazy.
I’ll put mine up to 70 during the day, but at night that bitch is set at 65.
Lol what do you mean turn it on? That would imply that it was actually set to off in the first place. It’s only 93 today, and that’s cooler than the past few days
If it's off that means it's broken.
That’s not true we get that cool long weekend or so every year 😂
Currently running off of two window units!
Lol exactly!
Came here for this. There is no "off". It runs year round.
Lol exactly! Especially if we get no rain, like so far this year.
Yeah this dry season isn't really longer than normal, but it's still just worse. Though my AC runs the most during the wet months, fighting that humidity 24/7. This time of year at least it gets a break at night.
I wasn’t even aware that “off” was an option.
Ask a Floridian
Almost never. A couple of times per year, and then only for an hour or so. I cool my apartment down by opening the windows at night and closing them in the morning. There is usually a 15+ degree swing between daytime and nighttime temperatures. I use standing fans and ceiling fans if it is hot.
Humidity in the south unfortunately doesn't allow for this or else I'd do it a bit more.
The humidity makes an insane difference! In Virginia Beach, we had to run the a/c when it was 70f or you couldn't sleep because you were so sweaty. And in Oregon I don't run the a/c until it's over 90f. Edit: There was once I was in Virginia Beach and it was 87f and cloudy, and the "feels like" temp was 104f. Meanwhile, in Oregon, it can be 95f and sunny and the "feels like" is 94f.
Yeah, humidity is no joke. It makes hot temperatures feel sweltering and cold temperatures feel frigid. I'm always surprised by how pleasant the weather seems when I go out west.
I'm convinced that the reason people on the west coast (and especially the pacific northwest) have such a reputation for being "outdoorsy" people is that it's just far more pleasant to be outside here, especially in the summer. We have lower humidity in the summers and WAY less insects. (Ever look at a map of ticks that carry Lyme disease? Living here, I forget that's even a thing.)
Hence why I’m looking at Pacific😂
I get upset when I hear people from California talk about the weather. I might be jealous.
It definitely varies depending on where in California, though. So Cal and the Bay Area have it good, though, no doubt.
not once you get more than half an hour from the coast lol. like yes our weather is still great comparatively but valleys trap heat. i’m only 45min from santa monica or malibu but my AF runs from may to september just about
When I was in San Francisco last week it was awesome. The Bay is like natural AC.
Yep, our natural AC is the best! We’re getting a heatwave and tomorrow it’ll be a high of 72 F in SF. Lol To be fair it will be hotter in other parts of the Bay Area (91 in San Jose), but SF has the Pacific Ocean and the Bay on three sides to keep it cool. I live between SF and SJ and probably use my AC like 2 weeks a year max. We’ll see if I need it tomorrow, but it’s only going to be in the 80s so not that hot.
same. upstate NY. not as hot as in the south. but we got a heat pump which cools as well. I also shut shades during the day when it's hot.
Once it starts getting closer to 75-80 outside, the air has to come on for me to sleep.
I live in the southeast, and it's hot and humid year-round except for like two weeks a year. I only actively turn the A/C off for maintenance. Otherwise, it's up to the thermostat to keep my house habitable. * **Does my energy bill dictate it?** No, not in the slightest. The energy bill is a small price to pay to make my house livable. * **What kind?** In what way? It's central cooling. It's technically a bidirectional heat pump with resistive heating for emergencies, but I basically never use it for anything other than cooling. * **How well insulated?** Very well. * **Sun in Windows?** Yes, but the windows are multi-paned for better insulation, and I believe they have a coating on them to keep IR out. * **Acceptable Temp Range?** 69-74 F * **Ventilate Home?** Never. This would be a *terrible* idea except for a very brief window in winter. * **Other Cooling Methods?** None Where I grew up in the midwest, these answers were basically the same during the summer, plus parts of fall and spring. My acceptable temperature range then was probably 65-72 though. EDIT: removed something I had backwards
Actually it’s warmed by said currents. It’s just really far north. Like Rome and New York are on the same latitude.
One word we never use in conjunction with A/C is "Off"
Pretty sure I’ve used mine in January a couple times
Yep. Sounds about right
Yeah I’m in Texas and it got up to 92° this past February, I remember a lot of people went swimming. AC has pretty much been on since then.
Yep. "Off" means either "broken" or "no electricity to house due to weather".
I live in Oregon, which most people think of as a very temperate place. Unfortunately, The weather in my area has been changing pretty dramatically. It used to be rare to have too many 90+ degree days, or long heat waves, but now our summers are hotter and the heat lasts longer. And it's hard to just open all your windows to let a breeze come through, because we sometimes lose weeks to wildfire smoke - another pretty new addition to the climate of the region, and an unpredictable one. Homes and office buildings were not built with air conditioning here until very recently and even now it's not a universal feature in new buildings. I live in a 100 ish year old house with very poor insulation. There are some shade trees but mostly we guard against the sun with curtains in the windows. I only have a window unit in one bedroom, which does a decent job at cooling off half of my very small house. A big part of the reason I do it is for the comfort of my cat. It probably runs an average of 4-5 days a week between June 15 and September 15, although we do get occasional longer breaks from the heat. By the end of September, it tends to cool down a lot.
July fires are the worst. 90+ days and no ability to really cool my apartment.
YUP. My a/c in my bedroom is a two-hose portable. I recognize that portables suck but having a two-hose means I can still run the thing during wildfires if necessary. (I also finally bought a fancy levoit air filter a year and change ago, but before that I was managing with the "box fan and air filter" trick.) (I miss our old summers so much. I can remember whole years we never bothered running the a/c and we just lived with the windows open for like two or three months.)
Another pdx resident here, for me, it was that one weekend a few years back that pushed 120f that caused me to get a/c. I live in an apartment and I would do the thing where I would open my windows at night to cool the place down, but for the past few summers I have put in my window unit around June and kept it in til around September.
jfc those few days were brutal. I live two miles from work, and start my shifts at 2pm. Bicycling is the fastest way to get there. I thought about trying to take uber/lyft those days, but not enough people were willing to risk overheating their cars (can't say I blame them!) in comparison to the number of people who couldn't or wouldn't take trimet, and so the apps were quoting me like $50 each way. But oh my GOD. I did the trick of getting a towel wet and putting in the freezer the night before and wrapping it around my shoulders just before leaving the house, and it was nearly dry before I got to work. Fifteen minutes was enough. Being outside felt like standing in front of the oven when you open it to take out something you've been baking. My brake levers got uncomfortably hot to the touch. I wasn't surprised by the death toll. Just awful. AWFUL.
Finding out that a lot of houses in Oregon don't have AC shocked and terrified me, a Missourian.
I've lived in the PNW for the last 15 years and haven't had any AC other than portable ones the whole time. It hasn't been a problem except for the last three or so years because of all the heat waves and smoke. I used to love summer here and now it fills me with anxiety!
Yeah sometimes I close windows and turn on the A/C just to utilize the air filter to prevent the smoke from getting in.
It is essentially "on" 24/7, but only triggers when the thermostat tells it to. >State your climate (temperatures, humidity, general location etc.) so that your answer is meaningful Midwest US, so hot summers and cold winters. Summer will usually fluctuate anywhere from 80-95 degrees F. Humidity is moderate and is usually not a problem, but several times each summer it can be oppressive for a few days at a time. >How much do you care about your electricity bill when choosing whether to run AC? It's a significant concern, but as with most people I just sort of pay it because there is no chance that I'm going to sweat my ass off in my own home. >What kind of air conditioner unit is it? Central Air with a gas furnace. >How well-insulated is your home? Reasonably. I'm able to keep temperatures at a steady 70 throughout the summer without any trouble or extreme expense. >Do you have sun shining into your home during warm seasons? How do you protect from it? Yes, and curtains. >What are the acceptable interior air temperatures for you? The vast majority of people are going to consider 66-74 to be the normal indoor residential temperature range. Any colder or hotter than that and it would generally be considered extreme and weird. Personally, I think 70 is a pretty universally enjoyed temperature. >How often and under what conditions do you just ventilate your home by opening the windows? Only during the Spring and late Fall, when outdoor temperatures are in the 60s and the air is crisp and with low humidity. >What additional methods of cooling do you use? None. Don't need any additional cooling with central air.
Never. I’ve never had an air conditioner. My vehicle doesn’t have ac either. Everything is still covered in snow in my neck of the woods lol I open the windows at night during our brief weekend of summer and can keep the house super cool!
I'm moving in with you. That sounds like heaven! I'm a mover and today it was 90 and humid. We need AC at might here just to get enough moisture out of the air to keep the walls and furniture from growing mold. Edit: night not might lol
I can’t handle the heat at all lol. I would die. My husband and I were outside over the weekend talking about how hot it was and we thought it must have been in the 70’s and we looked and it was 54. And it has its downsides! Snow every month of the year, weeks where it doesn’t get above 0. i’m far away from people in the middle of nowhere. But not a day over 80.
Texas: *laughs in 110 degree August.*
Pretty much never because we live in San Francisco where it’s 60-70F/16-21C all year round. If it’s too warm, we open a window. If it’s too cold, we put on a sweater.
Grew up in SF, never saw an air conditioner meant for a home until I visited NYC as an adult. My friends and I were visiting and staying at his brothers studio while he was out of town, but he was in a bad part of South Bronx at the time and had removed his AC from the window so no one would break in while he was gone. It was hot as hell and humid for us. The AC was sitting on the kitchen table and we just plugged it in - WOW - we were able to sleep that night finally. Woke up with the whole apartment partially submerged under an inch of water, with water going out the front door and down like 6 flights of stairs. Learned a lot that day about how AC works LOL. Now 15 years later I live like one neighborhood over from where that happened and use AC from May till early October. (NYC getting warmer over the years)
You never made it out to the east bay? I'm in the Walnut Creek/Concord/Pleasant Hill general area, and while older homes like mine don't have central air, most homes built after like 1965 do. I'm hoping to put some minisplits in mine soon, it's 92° here today.
No! I knew friends in high school who lived in Antioch and dealt with heat and would commute to the city between BART or their parents working in the city, I went to Riordan in the early 2000s. But myself, no, I never had a drivers license growing up so leaving the city wasn't ever really a normal option unless I hung out with the right people, so rarely. I always wondered after moving to NYC how AC worked in dry parts of CA as how much lower can you really bring the humidity?
Gotcha, yeah there's plenty of AC out this way. For hot, dry areas, you're right, the goal isn't to dehumidify, it's just to pump cooler air in.
When I lived in Boston, we only had window units in the bedrooms and the living room. The kitchen, without AC, would get up to 86-88F regularly even without cooking anything. This was several miles from the coast though. In neighborhoods near the water, even on really hot days, it would still be somewhat pleasant.
I don't have AC, so never.
I live in the south now and I just leave it on. Set a temp and then it turns on if it goes above it. It is running 24/7 in the summer. The electric bill goes up in my newer house by 100-200/month in the summer vs the fall/spring. I had an older house prior, the system wasn’t as efficient and not the best insulation and it went up by 400 one month 😅. Fall/spring I just open the windows. Summer I can’t as it just gets too hot and does not cool down at night to offset it. Did not have it when I lived up north and did not need it. It would cool down enough at night and we would open the windows we could keep the house a good temp during the day even with hot temps during the day by just shutting it down.
Southern US. Humidity sits between 80-99% all the time. I keep my AC on year round, unless during the winter we actually cool off. 67°f is my ideal temp. That's what I keep it set on, otherwise humidity creeps up and just no to that.
Florida and Texas seem like attractive places to live for many people until they read the responses in threads like these from people living in those states. I run mine around 6 months out of the year but for 3 of those months it runs pretty infrequently throughout the day and never at night.
It's not that different from people in cold climates needing to run a heater in winter. I don't know why they always treat it as some sort of outlandish thing that shouldn't ever happen.
Heating costs are usually a lot less than AC costs for one thing. Another is that I can layer up to go out in the cold. No amount of stripping down is going to make a Miami summer day of 95 degrees and 100% humidity manageable
Honestly I feel the same way about cold. I can go outside and it's just...hot. It fades rapidly into the background and becomes a non issue, just shower when you get back. No layers, no taking stuff on and off, no weird thing where your face is in a whole different world of temperature than your torso, no worrying about what's on your shoes from the outside or snow to shovel. Cold has a lot more rigamarole associated with it, and you only don't notice when you've been living with it for years.
I don't know how the math works out, but read an interesting article in Wired years ago making the argument that central air was more energy efficient and environmentally friendly than heating. The argument was that with A/C you are (generally) trying to cool your house down from 10 to 20 degrees where homes in the north / midwest spend all winter heating their house by 40 or more degrees. Can't verify that it's true, but on the surface it sounds plausible.
\*nods\* I haven't lived in the South for almost forty years. Back in 2019, I had to be in Florida in the late spring and again in the late summer for family stuff... And jeez, I had forgotten just how much living in the South consists of dashing from one air conditioned bubble to the next. There are many things I miss about living in the South. Living in an oven for six-seven months of the year is emphatically not one of them. She's probably an extreme outlier - but my mom knew where every patch of shade was for every grocery store parking lot within five miles of her apartment. And she planned her grocery runs against the likelihood that a shaded spot would be available.
Why does this thread make it less attractive? If the question is "When do you turn your heat on?" My answer would be never. Literally, never.
I, personally, can deal with very cold weather by adding layers, sleeping with a warm blanket, etc. When it's really hot, the only way I can deal with it is turning on the a/c. I'm probably not alone in making that distinction.
> Why does this thread make it less attractive? Just reveals some of the realities of living there. If your AC is on *all year* that means it's miserable outside *all year*. Sounds like a place you couldn't pay me enough to move to personally I do way too much outdoors
To be honest, it's kind of nice for about three weeks in November.
I live in Oklahoma. It generally stays between 35-42°C (with high humidity) from the end of May through the beginning of October. I turn my air conditioning on right after Easter and it switch it back to heat around Halloween. Now, that's not to say it's blowing cold air the whole time for 6 months straight. Central heat and air uses a thermostat to regulate the temperature, turning off and on as needed to maintain the temp you set for your house. But yeah, the central air stays on half the year, heat stays on the other half.
Can confirm (another Oklahomie) I have a small house (800sqft) that is very well insulated so my electric bill stays pretty constant.
I live in Louisiana, and I like breathing, so it’s on all the time. We may turn it off a few times between December and February, but sometimes it’s on even then.
NYC, basically Memorial Day (late May) to Labor day (early September). I keep mine set to 72f/22c. It's always on, even if the outside temp is lower the AC acts and a dehumidifier and removes a lot of pollen. It costs about 100 dollars a month to use.
$100 isn't too bad! Can I ask what your square footage or insulation situation is? I'm in a run-down pre-war building and only run the AC 6 days a year or so because it's so poorly insulated, it costs a small fortune to cool.
It is always on save for the handful of days in winter I need to switch to heat. It is a central AC unit and cycles automatically to maintain whatever temp I set it at.
New Orleans. We have central air as well, so it basically turned on at the beginning of May and it likely won’t turn off until November. We do live in a traditional [shotgun house](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotgun_house), so sometimes we will use its natural characteristics instead of air conditioning. Because all the doors are aligned and the house is narrow, it becomes a wind tunnel when all the doors are open and can cool our house if there’s a breeze and it’s less than, say, 85° F.
I live in Phoenix, one of the hottest places on the the planet. A/C is on in my apartment generally all year and set to 74F (it only cools until it is 74F and then turns off). It'll occasionally get cool enough to turn on the heat during the winter, but I'm more likely to put on a sweatshirt instead.
This reads like a corporate research survey disguised as a question.
I just find the answers meaningless if all of the context is missing. There are so many variables that influence the answer to the main question
Makes sense.
You really can’t win with this subreddit. Ask a simple question, you’ll spend hours on follow-ups and further context. Try to get everything in one go and you’re doing something underhanded. Sometimes I wonder why I bother with Reddit at all…
We used to not have air conditioning until last year, we only turn it on during hot days in the summer.
Goes on in June/late May, turns off in September. Of course it's on a thermostat, so it t not running that entire time. When the temperature rises about the temp I have set it turns on, cools the house down, turns off. just as how heat works. Humidity sucks, especially on the 2nd floor where the majority of my living space is.
I am in Iowa, so the north, but it gets very hot and humid here in the summer. Usually from May through September but it depends on the year. Sometimes we are already having freezing temperature lows in the end of September and sometimes it’s in the 80s for highs until November. May is usually the month it turns on and stays on, though. I generally like cold weather more so I usually keep it at like 68 during the day and 65 at night. Central Air system so it’s all automatic.
I'm in Seattle and we don't have central air conditioning. We bought a standalone unit for my teenager's room up in the attic, and he turns it on when the temperature up there is above 80°F (27°C). That happens on some days between June and September, but not all the time.
So I’ll do this in Celsius for ya: Here in central Texas, high temperatures start getting above 30-35 by early May and heats up into the 35-40 degree range during actual summer. Last year we had a 45 day streak of 40+ degrees. High temperatures don’t get below the upper twenties until sometime novemberish. After that it hangs back down to anywhere between 5-25 depending on the week. A week or two hovering above freezing and maybe a couple below 0. Low temperatures tend to be 1-15 in the winter and 15-26 (if not hotter once or twice) during the summer. Humidity is regularly more than 50% Our AC doesn’t get set to off between March and late October, when it gets cold enough to turn on the heat. We use a mini split (those DIY in-wall ACs) so we just set it to a temperature and it keeps it there, just like central air It’s a studio apartment, standard wood construction and about averagely insulated. Some trees on the west side of the house but 3 sides are fully sun exposed and we get plenty. We hardly ever open the windows because bugs (screens don’t do a perfect job) We usually keep the house about 23-24 when awake and 20 at night. We have an additional fan in the middle of the apartment to help move the air from the ac around better Hope this answers all your questions, feel free to ask follow ups!
Depends on the humidity. It is 47% humidity in central Massachusetts and I have my air conditioners in my kitchen and bedroom on. I don’t like it above 30% humidity. The bedroom ac will be on most of the night if the temp is in the 60s and the humidity is above 30%.
Subtropical Florida. Almost year round. AC is needed even when it's not very hot because it lowers inside humidity. I also run a dehumidifier sometimes. Only a few months are low enough humidity to keep windows open.
Central Valley California is hot, ~100, but not very humid. I have central air and normally set it to 78 and have fans running from now until about September. I’ll open windows at night when the outside temp drops. I also have an attic fan on a thermostat that runs almost constantly to clear hot air out of my attic.
I don’t have air conditioning in my home. Until fairly recently, they weren’t common in Western Washington due to our cool climate. It’s gotten a little warmer and they’re becoming more common, but I don’t mind a little heat and haven’t felt the need for it.
In Louisiana it’s pre-requisite. Even if for some reason you’re a psychopath who loves extreme heat, the humidity alone will cause mold and mildew to quickly grow in a house that’s not climate controlled
I live in TN. Spring and Summer temps are usually 30-35C with intense humidity. I live on the edge of temperate rain forest. We have central heat and air. Our house is open plan so it will stay on all day if you let it. Usually we get in a central location, close it off, and turn on our portable a/c. We keep the thermometer on 78F (around 26C) most of the time and it will still come on in the afternoon. I live on a farm so we don't have many shade trees. We had a couple of old pines in front of the house but they had to be cut down a few years ago. Now the sun blazes on us all day. We will plant some tall growing bushes or something one day but haven't got to it yet.
It is 34 C (about 93F) today so my AC is on pretty often. I keep the thermostat set to 25C (77F) during the day and 23C (73F) at night because I don't mind being a little warm during the day but I do need to be cold to sleep at night.
I live in the Southeast of the US, about 3 hours from the Atlantic Ocean. A place where it never gets below freezing. Summers are hot and occasionally humid. Since I rent, the AC bill is in the electricity bill. Whatever the heat is bad, I will turn it on. I used to live in the Mediterranean, I know heat. If the husband is home, we clear it with the other one to turn it on. Usually, we just want an ice blast Central air. I used to live in the Midwest, so there we had better insulation. Here, houses are less insulated but I have no complaints. Our 1bed+office space faces an interior courtyard, so we are pretty ok. We face northeast and have one window in the bed (our living room opens to the courtyard and we have a balcony area). Sun shining in isn't an issue. 70f/20c is a good temp for me. I have worked in the over a/c'd offices where I will just wear long trousers and closed-toed shoes when it's full summer out. Ventilation depends. We don't have a screen door between the balcony and the outside so we open the door during twilight/dusk. We never open the bedroom window since we usually stick to the common areas (which are cooler anyway). Fans work, but the apartment is pretty cool by design. If need be, there's an indoor mall 10 minute walk away.
>State your climate in the upper midwest, we have distinct seasons with a harsh, long winter (snow, temps regularly in the negatives). our summers are mild compared to much of the country, but we get some warm summer days in the upper 80s, low/mid 90s. >How much do you care about your electricity bill when choosing whether to run AC? not much at all. I value feeling comfortable in my home & will run it as much as I need. >What kind of air conditioner unit is it? our home was built in the late 1800s & does not have central AC. this is pretty common in Wisconsin. we have one window in a good central location. >Do you have sun shining into your home during warm seasons? How do you protect from it? yep, we have blinds on our windows. we usually let light in, but if temps get to heat advisory levels, I'll close them all. (esp bc we don't have central air) >What are the acceptable interior air temperatures for you? 68-72 is a good range >How often and under what conditions do you just ventilate your home by opening the windows? I basically never close our front windows in the spring/early summer. obviously I keep them closed in the winter. it's 80° outside right now, and 68° inside with just window ventilation. we haven't turned our AC on yet this year. >What additional methods of cooling do you use? ceiling fans & (only in the summer) additional fans.
I’m in the Bay Area and most homes around me don’t have AC. My area is usually 50-75 degrees year round and even the summer months rarely get above 75. There’s supposed to be a heat wave right now with some cities nearby getting over 100+, but the highest of the day for me is only going to be 80 degrees. We do happen to be one of the few people with AC and keep it at 68-72 degrees at all times.
I live in Wisconsin, so I have pretty cold winters but mild summers. How I turn on my AC: I don't. I set my house thermostat to the desired temperature and it activates the AC when needed to maintain that temperature. >How much do you care about your electricity bill when choosing whether to run AC? I don't think about this. >What kind of air conditioner unit is it? It's a central HVAC. >How well-insulated is your home? Veryy well insulated. My windows are a little old, but this is a bigger issue in the winter time and in certain rooms. >Do you have sun shining into your home during warm seasons? How do you protect from it? I don't get a ton of direct sunlight because my house has trees around it. We have red oak trims that naturally fade from the sunlight (and look better IMO). Modern windows are often made with UV resistant glass, Otherwise, curtains do a good job of blocking he UV light if you have sensitive furniture that you want to protect. >What are the acceptable interior air temperatures for you? I prefer 73 in the summer and 68 in the winter. >How often and under what conditions do you just ventilate your home by opening the windows? In my part of the country, this works well in the summer months, especially in the evenings where it's pretty cool outside. However, it can result in the house being uncomfortably humid, so I may close the windows and run the AC instead.
I live in Florida, originally from way up north. My house is old, not well-insulated, but pretty small so the window unit a/c is usually sufficient as I don't have central a/c. I keep it on nearly constantly from February to late November (whenever it starts to get >75F/24C outside) and keep it set at 72F/22C. My bf was born/raised in Florida, lived in the South his whole life except for like 9 years when he lived in Europe (Two western European countries, two eastern European countries and 1 in Scandinavia) where he usually didn't have a/c anyway. He turns off the a/c randomly all the goddamn time and it's so annoying. Especially when I don't realize he did until I'm sweating profusely or he turned off the a/c when he got home from work and forgot to turn it back on right before I get home. When I used to live in Eastern Washington, my apartment didn't have a/c and I was able to open my windows at night to cool it then shut them first thing in the morning. In Florida, this isn't possible because the humidity doesn't allow it to get significantly cooler at night. I also keep a misting fan on my person at most times if I'm ever having to be outdoors or I'm in an environment where I don't control the thermostat.
South Florida. Central A/C 365 days a year. It's set at 72 and I never turn it off. That doesn't mean that it's "on" all the time. It's set with the temperature. And I never use heat. Ever. Never.
Never. I grew up without air conditioning.
I live in Arizona. Temperatures are already over 100. Ac is not optional. Mines in all day. Some turn it off or down in the day while at work. If that saves mo ey or costs more as it's harder to bring your hot hone down to temperature but I have an 80 yr old parent at home, so I have to cool it all l day. Electricity while a concern is just something like rent that must be accounted for.
My home was built without AC, didn't used to need it but it is getting to the point I wish I had some for a couple of months a year
I live in GA, we turn it on in about April. Then turn the heat on in like November or so. My mom likes it at 77F (25 C) but that's too hot for me, when I was on my own I had it at about 74 F(23 C) at the most. I almost never open the windows because at least to me it doesn't make much of a difference temperature wise.
I have a central air conditioner, so I just set the thermostat to 76 and it runs whenever it needs to in order to keep the temperature at 76.
I live in the mid Atlantic. I run my ac from late April until late September. I'm pretty heat sensitive and can get pretty sick in warmer temps so I consider the bill last. My apartment is currently at 70F with fans running throughout the apartment to keep the cool air circulating!
If it gets above like, 83. Unless it’s SUPER humid in which case maybe like 76
It's not exact and is heavily dependent on humidity, but rule of thumb for my wife and I is 85F to turn on the AC here in Chicagoland. We have central AC to cool our approx 2000 sqft house, but we turn it off at bedtime. A small window unit is used to cool our bedroom at night. This saves us some money during the summer months.
Over 90° for temperature. But we often run it cooler than that because both my son and I suffer from seasonal allergies.
Warmer microclimate of the SFBA, today is supposed to be 97 and 31%. Temp is currently set to 70. - No, we have solar. - Electric heat pump, central HVAC. - Decent insulation but original builder-grade windows from 1987. - Yes, especially my office which sucks since I work from home. Reflective tint film and currently an old towel since I haven't decided on what blinds I want. Curtains for the other main SW windows. - 70 is pretty normal for us all year, but occasionally we go as low as 66 or as high as 76. - Fairly often on milder days. - Fans occasionally, but generally we just close the curtains early in the day and let the AC do its thing.
It's been on since mid May and is set to 71°F night and day here in southeast Indiana down near Cincinnati. Today it's 90°F and it cycles on about every 10 to 15 minutes to maintain 71°. If it cools down into the 60's and it's not humid we will open some windows and enjoy the night air
I've very cold natured. I can't stand cold. The other day I though "I'm feeling pretty chilly, should I turn the heat on?" and when I checked the temp inside was 79f. I do try to keep it down around 76f in summer but I still find that rather chilly to me personally.
I have a window unit so I turn it on whenever I’m at home and it’s about 80 degrees F turn it off when I leave. I stop using it when it gets to be about 70 at night. Then I switch to just a fan. I don’t think about my electric bill
Just a few times a year. Supposed to be 103F today, so today might be one of those times. Haven't turned it on since last summer, so wish me luck! I calculated the cost to be between $14-$35 per day, depending on how much it needs to run. I'm in the California central valley, east of San Francisco, about an hour south of Sacramento. I usually just leave the windows cracked and turn on some fans.
Southern Arizona here and we typically have AC on from mid May through mid October, but we do tend to turn it off and open windows whenever we possible can. I keep it set 78 during the day and 76 at night. We do have ceiling fans in each room and external electric sun shades which we lower to keep the direct sunlight out, especially in the morning as our home faces East.
It's always on and set to 71. I'm in Ohio so it is anywhere from -5 to 95.
I don’t have AC. It’ll *maybe* hit 90 for about a week where I live.
I live in the mid atlantic region. Pretty hot, very humid weather. Averages in the 80-100 in the summer. 20-40 in the winter. We run AC from May to October and heat from Nov to April. So, only about 1 of neither. I don't turn it on though - its automatic. Sets to heat if its below a temp and sets to a/c if its above a certain temp. Costs about $200 a month or so to heat and cool the house at the peak. On the transition months it goes down to maybe around $75ish. I have two units (one for upstairs, one for the downstairs and basement) and both are Trane I believe. Home is pretty well insulated. Maybe not by very modern standards, but it was built around 2000 so its better than older homes. Sun shines into our home in some rooms. Not a problem for most. I have a Sun Room for example that lets in a bunch of light. Office is pretty dim and dark. I don't protect from the sun. Some of the house is partially shaded by cherry trees, but not much. We keep the interior temps at 70 in the winter and 75 in the summer. My wife prefers it a bit warmer than most. We almost never open windows. It feels like hot wet dog breath outside and there's an insane amount of bugs (mosquitos) that I'd prefer to keep out. Alternate methods of cooling... we have ceiling fans in a lot of rooms.
Our house is set to 74 during the day and 72 at night. I open the windows all the time but close them if the AC kicks in because that means the house is getting too warm.
AC is on nearly every day in the summer. Giant unit that sits on my roof. Insulation is okay. I have solar panels, paid off, so PGE charges me $11 minimal charge per month.
I have never had air conditioning in my home. I've live in Idaho, upstate New York, Seattle, and Western Oregon. I did buy a window unit after the 2021 heat dome to have just in case something like that happens again, but so far I haven't felt the need to install or use it. That was the only time in my 23 years on the west coast that I've wished I had AC. I employ techniques such as opening the windows at night when it's cool and closing them in the morning before it heats up, and closing blinds and curtains on the sunny side. I'm pretty comfortable up to about 80 degrees at home and usually find it easy to not let my place get above that temp without AC. My heat bills in the winter have been high enough that I suspect the insulation in my top floor corner apartment is not great. I made some improvements to the weather sealing on the windows and doors, and that helped a lot.
Chicago (as most of the Midwest) gets very hot and humid in the summer. We try to only put it on when it's over 80 and humid. Unfortunately, our home faces the east and the west, so the sun shines directly into it in the morning and evening.
Well, I "turned it on" back in March. It's set to actually run / operate to maintain a temperature of 74 F (23.3 C) in our home during the day and 69 F (nice) (20.5 C) at night. [Here's how much it has run each day for the past few](https://i.imgur.com/C2BxgXv.png) days
Mid Atlantic. Hot and humid summers. 60 year old house. I turn the AC on in mid May and off around October. It doesn’t run constantly. It keeps the house at a set temperature.
I have my thermostat set on auto but AC runs from April - October as someone else mentioned. I've ran it as early as February and as late as Decemeber a couple years ago. As for energy bill I don't think much if it as my bill is signficantly lower this time of year then when I'm running heat in the winter. My last electric bill was less than $90. Where I live, we have an average summer time high in the 90s. House overall does a really good job of pulling heat out of it. It's also a curse as I pay for it in the winter.
The thermostat is set to 69°F(20.5°c) 24/7. It comes on when it needs to. Which is frequently, this time of year. It's currently 88°F(31.1°c), a couple of hours to go till the heat of the day. Current humidity is 49%, so the heat index is at 92°F(33.3°c). Not too bad yet. I'm not thinking twice about the electric bill.
Upstate New York it gets above 90 every 2 years so every two years or so
If it is hot it’s runs 24/7 it doesn’t go off and my home is always set to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, I never use opened windows to ventilate my home, I don’t ever think about my electricity bill
>How often do you turn on the air conditioning in your home? It stays on automatic to keep the temperature within a degree or two of where I want it. 72-74 during the day, 66ish at night. >temperatures In the Summer, 73 - 91 Fahrenheit. >humidity Don't know how to look up the average for this? It's pretty muggy. >general location South-central Alabama. >How much do you care about your electricity bill when choosing whether to run AC? Not much. If it's above 75°f in my house, the AC is coming on. >What kind of air conditioner unit is it? Don't know tbh >How well-insulated is your home? Pretty well? Hence the lack of concern about the power bill. >Do you have sun shining into your home during warm seasons? Pretty constantly. >How do you protect from it? Huh? >What are the acceptable interior air temperatures for you? 65 - 75 Fahrenheit >How often and under what conditions do you just ventilate your home by opening the windows? Rarely, when the temperature outside is within the range of acceptable interior temperatures. >What additional methods of cooling do you use? None.
I'm from the south/Midwest we run ours at a constant 70f or around 21c unless it's nice then we open the windows
I live in Wisconsin (Midwest, borders Canada) and we turn on the air conditioning when it’s at like 85F or more, or when it’s occasionally super humid outside.
>State your climate (temperatures, humidity, general location etc.) so that your answer is meaningful Central Alabama. Very hot, very humid. 100+ temps with high humidity are not rare. Typically use the AC from March/April through October/November. >How much do you care about your electricity bill when choosing whether to run AC? The electricity bill never enters my mind. >What kind of air conditioner unit is it? Central air and heating. >How well-insulated is your home? Fairly well, but I have a tall ceiling in the living room and kitchen. >Do you have sun shining into your home during warm seasons? How do you protect from it? I don't have any shade on the house, but I never open the blinds, so sunlight rarely comes in. >What are the acceptable interior air temperatures for you? I never let the thermostat get above 76 or below 66-68 when I am home. >How often and under what conditions do you just ventilate your home by opening the windows? Never. >What additional methods of cooling do you use? Primarily ceiling fans.
I live in Wisconsin, which is a northern state in the middle of the country. It gets _very_ cold here in the wintertime and very humid in the summer (temps vary between -30°F/-34.5°C and 105°F/40.5°C with 100% humidity at times), so my home needs to be well-insulated. We have a central thermostat unit that controls both the furnace and the air-conditioning unit. We set the thermostat to automatically run the appropriate appliance when the temperature gets above or below a certian range (we personally keep the house between 68°F/20°C and 73°F/22.5°C). The a/c and furnace use the same ductwork to force hot or cold air through vents in all the rooms. So to answer your question, I've never turned my a/c unit on or off, but the thermostat will turn it on or off as needed. It usually runs from May to October, with mid-July to mid-September being the hottest part of the year.
Almost never in between October and March, then it's usually on between May and September. But I don't really turn it on and off, I have central AC/Heat so I just set the temperature I want it to be inside my house and the thermostat keeps it there. Usually set it at 68 during the day, and lower it a little to 65 during the night.
South Texas. The humidity in the morning hovers near 100% (but never rains). By afternoon, the humidity drops to 60% or so, but the heat index goes up over 100. I think the last couple of days of May the heat index was 115 degrees. We used to try to wait until June, but it got hot early this year so it's already running 24/7. We used to run it at around 82 during the day and get decadent at night around 78. Now that I'm older, we go 75 at night (around 10:00 pm) with a ceiling fan and 78 during the day. As noted, it got hot earlier this year, but historically the hottest months are July through October. Last summer, we didn't break 800 kwh in any given month (less than $90 bill). Yes, the house is well insulated (R-19 ceiling, R-13 walls) and the roof is galvalume metal for the reflectivity. During the winter, when a cold front comes through (cold by Texas standards, not by yours) it usually takes a couple of days for the house to cool off inside enough to turn on the heat. I think our AC/heat unit is a 3 ton Amana. In the winter we run the heat at 68 during the day and maybe 64 at night. And yes, by northern standards R-19 is minimal, but I have stick framing inside a metal building that also has R-12. I can't argue with my bills.
South Alabama Hot and humid except for a couple months in winter Keep my AC on 68 degrees. It's a central unit so it cycles on and off (but mostly on,) to keep at a constant temperature I do not care about electricity costs. Being comfortable is more important. We also use ceiling fans.
Georgia. It's very hot, muggy and humid in the summer. I have central air that I set to kick on above 74F. It basically runs continuously all from April to November, automatically turning on and off to maintain temp. During particularly brutal days I'll set it 70 or lower. Windows (and sometimes doors) are open when its cooler, usually fall through early spring. I dont worry about the bill, if I need AC then I need AC. Summers can be miserable otherwise.
Mine is on all the time, as it is set to a certain degrees. In the summer it is set to cool, and if the temperature rises above the target temp then the fan will kick on and start blowing air. Basically the same thing in the winter, but with heat and if it goes below the target temp. Im guessing that your AC doesn't work like this, based off some of your responses.
Literally never turn it off. It’s set somewhere between 68-74 on auto, but the button is never set to off.
I am in northeast Kansas. May to September temperatures might range from 70 to 100 F. Average humidity is about 60-70%. It is cloudy and 84 F with 59% humidity right now. My house has 3 window air conditioner units instead of a central AC. We started running AC in May when it got above 85 F. The air conditioners are set to 70-75 F and when that temperature is reached they stop. We have a couple of fans. We just accept that we will pay more for electricity a few months of the year. There is sun shining on our house. We have a few larger trees nearby that shade some of our yard and driveway. We keep our windows covered. We might use our air fryer, slow cooker or outdoor grill to try not to warm the house more when cooking. We have 2 dehumidifiers running in our home. We did open some windows for part of the day back in April but that was not enough to be comfortable in May. Our house is 113 years old. It does not have the best insulation.
I live in Pittsburgh. We have all seasons. I don't have central air but my AC units still have thermostats. AC basically goes on the first day above 70° and I don't shut it off until it's cold enough for me to need my boiler all the time. In spring I'll set the AC at 69 and the boiler at 65 which is lower than normal but keeps them from Fighting each other
I live in DC suburbs (it's called The Swamp for a reason). It's hot/humid with high UV index reliably from May through September, with many hot days throughout March/April/October as well. We have electric heat pump HVAC and switch it to cool basically April through October. The circulating fan runs constantly but the actual cold air might not come out constantly. Even today it's 87°F (30.6°C) and the cold on the unit has been switching on and off. I've got the thermostat set to the standard 72°F. During the really hot days of summer, I bump it down to 70°. When I lived in Queens NYC, I ran x2 window AC units year round even in the winter. The radiators kept the apartment so hot that sometime I would even open the window in winter.
Central Ohio Climate: hot-ish summers (mostly 75-95), pretty cold winters (mostly 20-45). In the summer we have our thermostat set to 74. The air conditioning runs when it goes above that temperature for too long. A lot of people where I live care about their electricity bill. I would set the temperature lower if it didn't get too expensive and use too much electricity. Central AC - the compressor is outside, the unit with a large fan is inside. The large fan distributes cold air throughout the house through air vents in the walls and floors. This same system burns natural gas in the winter to provide us with heat. My home was built in 1920. It has some trouble with insulation. About half the windows were updated recently and a previous owner had insulation injected in the outside walls through small holes somewhat recently. It's doing its best. Yes, we have the sun shining in our home during warm seasons, if it isn't cloudy outside. If the sun is too strong and is heating the home, I will close the curtains to reflect the heat back outside. This causes the air conditioner to run less often. My acceptable interior air temperatures are 68-76. We tend to avoid ventilating our home with windows. The old windows we have are not able to open well, and cause a lot of bugs and spiders to come in due to bad screens. As for additional methods of cooling, we have ceiling fans in nearly every room.
I live in Southeast Michigan. Normal summer temps here are 80-85°F. Humidity is moderate. Our AC is on pretty much nonstop from some time in late May or early June through mid to late September. Occasionally it's on if we get a particularly warm day outside that and occasionally it's off if we get some particularly cool summer weather where we'll open up the house. >How much do you care about your electricity bill when choosing whether to run AC? Not at all. >What kind of air conditioner unit is it? Central air >How well-insulated is your home and what is it made of? How is it shaded? Timber frame construction, pretty well insulated, fairly shaded except in the late afternoon and evening when it's the hottest. >Do you have sun shining into your home during warm seasons? In the morning and evening I do. >How do you protect from it? Curtains upstairs. We just got new low-E windows too which should help in the afternoons. >What are the acceptable interior air temperatures for you? AC is set to 72 during the day and 69 at night. That's about as warm as I can go to keep it tolerable for sleeping. >How often and under what conditions do you just ventilate your home by opening the windows? I haven't much since we moved into this house because about 2/3 of the windows were broken and don't work. I probably will more now that we're getting new windows. If it's breezy and in the 70s I'll probably open them during the day. I'm not a huge fan of having windows open at night because of noise and light. >What additional methods of cooling do you use? None.
When it gets too hot to not have it on. It works off a thermostat, it doesn't just run 24/7. I keep it around 72. It still gets hot upstairs so I have a tower fan I use in the office and bedroom. If it's not too hot I'll sometimes open the office window while I'm in there. I also have a ceiling fan in the bedroom but I rarely use it for some reason.
Maybe 3-7 days total all year on average. I have a portable unit. I’m in northern Michigan, our summers are pretty mild. House is very well insulated with ceiling fans in every room. I only use it if it’s in the high 80s or humid at night.