Posted on 08/20/2019 2:08:56 PM PDT by ransomnote
Full Title: Set Your Air Conditioning to 78 Degrees During the Day, 82 Degrees at Night, Federal Agencies Recommend
Looking to beat the heat without breaking the bank? Energy Star, the federal program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Energy, has some tips — but you might not like them.
Energy Star recommends that, in order to reduce costs and energy usage, you should set your thermostat as high as comfortably possible through the summer.
Specifically, they say you should set your thermostat to 78 degrees while you’re home.
Spending the day out? Turn that thermostat up 7 degrees to 85.
Then, when you finally hit the hay, the federal program recommends setting your thermostat to 82 degrees.
They add that, if you’re using a ceiling fan, you can even turn up the temperature another 4 degrees without losing any comfort.
I can remember 90’s at midnight in the barracks during Air Force Officers Training School at Lackland AFB in San Antonio. May through August 1963. WW2 barracks with no AC. Slept (or tried to) on wet towels on floor. “Built character” (somehow it didn’t help mine).
“Ha! There is no such place! Is there?”
Sure! Montreal and Nantucket.
We’ve had a fairly cool summer. My AC didn’t run all that much in July. I had my big floor fan on medium. It was glorious (c;
Glad these are just “recommendations.” Once the totalitarian left take over, these will probably become hard requirements backed up by force of law and automatically enforced by the new “smart” meters.
Ceiling fans don’t help me sleep. At low speed it is ineffective. At high speed, I wake up shivering in the middle of the night. No happy medium.
It is great to take the edge off when I go to bet excessively hot or if the AC is still working its way down to 70, but to leave it on all night in lieu of a comfy 70... No. It is either weak or freezing. No in between.
Been there, done that — hot house for 3 days when the AC fan died and wouldn’t move. I solved that problem by taking long cold showers to pull the heat out of me. Worked rally well, for a few hours anyway. I bet a pool or a cold bath would be even better.
“I set it to ... 80 at night, my wife threatens to kill me “
I feel her pain. Not kidding.
Nope. I need to actually SLEEP so I can go to
work the next day. Those are not sleeping temps in Michigan in the summer.
78 during the day, 73 at night. Isn’t going any higher than that. Where do these retards get these ideas from?
I live in SW Florida. The temperature outside is between 90 and 93 from May until October during the day. Low 80’s is normal for night. I set mine at 75 or 76 degrees and run the ceiling fan in the bedroom at night. It seems cool after getting used to the outdoors.
When I step outside, my glasses fog up and sometimes, my watch fogs up. I think the dry air inside makes it feel much cooler than it is.
They forget an important part of the equation...
Thermal mass: every object, carpet, sofa, bed, towels...every single machine and object in your house will also get warm as your house simmers in the 90DegF heat.
By 5pm when you get home, everything is 85DegF.
The A/C will run much longer taking the heat out than if you left the dial on 78DegF.
Our home has a lower level, surrounded on three sides by earth.
It’s usually 8-10DegF cooler down here.
I’ve done something similar in a previous home. And, I’m no longer 29.
My grandparents had sleeping porches on the back of their house. My uncles slept out there year round. They sometimes woke up covered in snow!
Up in the mountains.. AC has been on a couple times but otherwise it’s quite nice and not humid !
Preach it, FRiend!
I was born a yank but grew up in Florida. Didn't have A/C in college and slept in a dormer window that was always open. No A/C in the car either. It was miserable.
Kept moving farther North after school and ended up back in New England. It's still too hot. A/C is set at 68. In the Winter the heat is a balmy 58. Must be Neanderthal DNA. I can sit out on the deck on a chaise lounge staring at the stars for hours, and the lady -wrapped up and looking the the Michelin tire guy - can stand only about minutes of it.
Might need to ditch her and move to Alaska - or Terra del Fuego. Greenland if President Trump succeeds.
I kept a window open all the time to let the west-to-east breeze flow through the entire house. I only had to run the A/C during still days.
Now, in the Houston metro area, we're just coming out of a week-long 100+ heat wave. I can't live with the A/C above 70, just to filter out the humidity that seeps inside. If I were to set the A/C to 78, it would take a day just to cool the house down again.
Turning it up and down and up and down would be less efficient than just letting it keep a steady pace of coolness.
-PJ
My response. Oh shut up and MYOB!
Air conditioning? Open the windows at night!
Sounds like the EPA and Department of Energy are still chock-full-of-nuts.
I’ll bet few of them sleep bathed in sweat at 82 degrees.
I live in the Tampa Bay area. We recently bought a dehumidifier which seems to help. Yes, it puts out a bit of heat on the right side, but we’ve been amazed that we get 6-8 gallons of water every day out of it. Our thermostat for the A/C is upstairs and we put the DH downstairs. We can keep our temp setting at 79-80 during the day, and at 78 at night. Don’t know if we’re saving a ton of money, but so far this year our bills have been a bit lower. Plus it’s a lot more comfortable inside with the drier air; 80 deg with 45% humidity feels like the old 76 deg. Our A/C doesn’t run 24/7 any more ... more like 18/7. We set the DH to 45% humidity.
You do it. Mine stays on 68. I pay the bill, not you.
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