Do you AC your house? What do you keep the temp at?

[miaclear]

I've been watching a lot of Green friendly TV lately and the one thing they say is to bump up your AC a few degrees to help save the environment. I honestly thought that DH and I kept our house at a fairly warmer temp than most north Texans in the dead of the summer. A lot of my old coworkers said they used to keep it at 72. We keep ours at 77 with the occasional bump down to 76.

So I'm curious...what do you keep yours at?

[SweetRed]

80 during the day (with the occasional sneak down to 77 if the humidity is getting to us). 76 at night (once again, occasionally sneaking down to 74).

[Foley42]

Anywhere between 70-74.

[Jen&Dan]

We usually keep ours around 77 also. We bump it down to 74 or 75 once in awhile.

[daphne]

I try to convince DH to keep it warmer, but he insists on 72/74 during the day and 70 at night.

[jules1025]

78 during the day (I'll sometimes bump it down to 77 during DD's nap) and 76 at night.

[Annette]

85 if we're not home, 80 while we're here and 78 at night. DH knows someone who keeps his house at 68 and his bill is $400 a month.

[LDS Angel 19]

75 all the time.

[MLA]

During the day when we're not home, it's at 82. At about 4:30 it goes to 80, then at 5p it goes to 78. We used to keep it a lot colder, but I realized that I was freezing all the time, so it didn't make much sense to keep the thermostat so low.

[boilermaker]

We used to keep it pretty cool at 70-72 because we had such poor air circulation to the bedrooms, but since we installed ceiling fans, we keep it around 75-76 when we are home.

[LeslieR]

I think the temp is different depending on your thermostat. So one person's 72 could be another person's 69.

We don't have central air. We keep the kitchen/dining room/living room unit set to 75 and on energy saver (we're hardly ever up there other than at mealtimes). DS' room is set to 72 and our room is set to 69. We only run the units in our rooms at naptime (for DS) and nighttime. Our downstairs is partially below ground, so no air is needed down there. I'll occasionally turn the fan on if it's really hot.

[myshel]

We keep ours at 80 when we're not home, but that's mostly for our dog. I suspect we'd keep it higher if we didn't have one. During the times we're home, we'll keep it between 76-78 degrees. We've never had it lower than that in this house.

[Sophia]

75 pretty much all the time.

[tashaw6]

We switch ours off during the day, when we get home we put it onto around 74. As a foreigner it was the first 'weird' thing I noticed (all houses have aircon or central air). But now I can't live without it! :)

[sparkle&shine]

We keep ours set at 79 and sometimes 80. That feels plenty cool though when it's 110 degrees outside.

I also wouldn't want to see the bills of keeping it much lower ;)

[KristyK]

Since this is my first experience with A/C, at least central air, we keep ours at about 76 all the time. I'd prefer 72-74 since I'm flashing all the time now, but DH has a fit. He prefers it warmer, I prefer it cooler. Our first 2 electric bills here were at the $400 mark, so I've been trying to honor his wishes. Now I've got us on the budget plan and it won't top $200 at all, so I can live with that, and maybe turn down the thermostat a bit more. We also have ceiling fans in the major areas which are on all the time, so that helps tremendously!

[Kelly51703]

We usually keep it at 73 and sometimes bump it up to 74.

[IrishEyes]

83 during the day. 78 when we're home, with an occasional bump down to 77.

[AusAshMommy]

We keep ours somewhere around 75 -80 during the day and drop it down to roughly 65 at night. I can't sleep if I'm too hot, so 65 seems ideal. But its generally only for 6-7hrs a night. Our bills generally run somewhere around $100/mos...

[Jennifer]

82 with occaisional bumps down to 78/79.

I wondered if that was "too cool" - I guess not after seeing all the other responses!

[silvergrey]

DH and I are both always hot. We keep it at 75 all the time, and bump it down to 72-73 sometimes. This is still way too hot for us (for comparison, we keep our heat at 64 in the winter, 58 at night), but the bills get too high if we try to keep it cooler. Colorado gets really cool at night, though, so we turn the AC off and open windows at night.

[miaclear]

We keep ours somewhere around 75 -80 during the day and drop it down to roughly 65 at night. I can't sleep if I'm too hot, so 65 seems ideal. .

Brrrr!!!

Well I'm glad to see that I'm on the warmer side of average it looks like. We used to keep our house warmer during the day but now that I'm a SAHM we don't for obvious reasons. When we go away for periods of time we'll turn the AC to about 80 for the animal's sake.

[Lizard]

79 during the day, 82 at night. I HATE A/C but I hate being muggy/sticky even more, so this is my compromise. :)

[AHammer]

85 while we're out -- 80 when we come home -- 82 at night

it's miserable at times, but probably saves us a bunch of money. we use floor fans a lot.

[AusAshMommy]

Mia ~ LOL!!! My hubby thinks I'm nuts but we also have a floor fan blowing on us at night...talk about being cold ;-)

Our DD is the same way, she prefers to be cold when she sleeps too...

[Niobe]

I think I'm the first person to not use AC - no central or window units here! We open our windows and turn on small fans. Granted, it's a lot cooler here then in most places. :)

[QueenDillyDally]

We live in Maine, where central a/c is not common as it is only hot for 3 months of the year.

We have 3 window a/c units. One in the living room/kitchen, one in the master bedroom and one in the guest bedroom (which only is used if we have a guest). Our bedroom a/c is set at 68 at night (we don't use it during the day), and our livingroom a/c is set at 70-72 degrees when we are here. During the day when we are working it is usually off, unless it is a 90+ degree day.

That being said, there are many days when we don't use them at all in the summer. If it is cold at night, we just open the windows to cool off the house. Then, in the morning, I close up all the windows and shades to keep the cool air inside. That works wonders on a hot day to keep the house staying cool.

[Rose]

If I have AC then I leave it around 72-74. I have a swamp cooler where I live now and I can't control the temperature. For me the upper 70's is too warm but I understand keeping it higher for the bills.

[1_mommy]

we leave the AC at 80

[Liz]

We have a really small apartment so we only have one window unit. It is about 68-70 all the time. Growing up my house had central air and my parents kept it about 70-72 at night and 74 during the day when no one was home.

[PinkMartini]

Don't have central heat/air so we have 3 window units. Only 1 of them have a digital temp control - and that one's set at 76. The other 2 are in the bedrooms and only get turned on if we're in there, our bedroom one runs all night long (it doesn't get below 70 here at night) and the one in DS' bedroom only runs when he's napping or we're in there...

[jesseybell]

We keep it really cool - 78 when we are not home, but 70 when we are. We have a townhouse and the bill is about $200 per month (it is more now that we have a bigger tv and we run the de-humidifier in the basement and top floor). I'd prefer about 72 but I feel warm then.

That said, we keep our heat at 68 when we are home, 62 when we are not. We used to keep it at 62 at night too because we like to be cool, but with DD we kept it warmer (and DH and I broiled all winter long - we never even got to put our down comforter on).

[pewee9196]

because our circulation stinks 70-73. Even then the nursery is broiling. Thank goodness we are moving in less than a year

[Toonces]

Dang! We must be really warm natured. We keep ours at 69-71 and even then I still feel hot sometimes.

[uwsweet]

Living in Central Texas the AC is nearly always on. 78 when we aren't home and 75 when we are. We've done alot of energy saving things to try and save some of our AC bill, compact florescent lightbulbs, ceiling fans and a sunshade on our western facing patio....all in all i wish we'd be back in Wisconsin were you can open the windows at night and breathe fresh air.

Candy

[dragonfly28602]

68-72. We like it cold in the house.

[Ilovemygeek]

Ours is set at 83 and we are comfortable. I realize that is warm for most people, but I am always cold so it feels fine to me. We do use ceiling fans quite a bit though.

[JenniferEC]

We keep ours around 73-75. I can't sleep if I'm hot, but our energy bill was $400 last month, so I'm going to have to suffer.

[julietchicago]

We keep ours at 73-74 usually. But I jump on the chance of turning it off and opening the windows up whenever I can. Especially at night when it cools off outside.

[mmeblue]

74 when we're home during the day, 78 (I think) at night. I can handle 76 if I'm not moving around (as long as I'm not working on a quilt!), but if I'm being active I really prefer it to be at 74.

[udsweetpea]

73-75 during the day, 72 at night because I get night sweats if its any higher. I'd keep it warmer if we had ceiling fans.

[jnettie]

Well, I try to keep it at 74-76, but DH likes to crank it down to 70 all the time. :rolleyes: We have crap circulation, too, and I think we need to invest in some good fans. Our units are window units. The one in the bedroom is only on at night, and that one is usually on "low cool" and the room goes down to about 72 (depending on how hot it is outside).

My MIL keeps hers at 60 all. the. time. F-ing freezing. She will not budge.

[jnshanna]

We keep ours at 75 during the day because the dog is at home. If she wasn't home, we would probably turn it up more. When we're home it's usually at 71. I guess we like it to be really cool.

[ks_piper]

We have 2 a/c zones in our house - the kitchen/dining room/livingroom/family room/basement (which doesn't need a/c) is kept around 83 or 84. The bedrooms are kept at 80 (digital thermostat on that unit). We have a ceiling fan in our living room and all three bedrooms and it really helps.

Doesn't hurt that we have a fat ton of shade from all the mature trees in our yard and that we have awesome air circulation in our house.

The one downside that my kitchen can get pretty toasty sometimes. Our family room can be quite sauna-ish too - we'll fix that with a ceiling fan sometime in the next year. But summer's almost over, so I can live with it. When it's cooler and we open windows we get an awesome cross breeze in our home. I can't wait for fall!

Our utility bills are lower than most folks I know, so staying at 80 really does help.

[salysaturn]

75-78 degrees. We are on the budget plan, and our bill hasn't topped $78. We live in a 3br split level.

We haven't been here a year yet, so it may be higher in the winter, but we also have a pellet stove to warm our home.

[Brandles]

I keep it at 80 or 82, depending on how how it is outside and how cold my feet are getting by the computer! ;) I also get cold very easily. Sometimes I bump it down to 78 to kick it on for a bit, but it always goes back up to 80. I'm home in the summer, BTW. When I work (or everyone is gone for the day), I'll put it up to 82. The cat doesn't need it to be really cool in here!

[kanga1622]

Since we've moved into our new house and it is much better insulated than the last one...we keep it set at 80 during the day and 82 overnight. Although every time I look at the thermostat it is around 78 degrees unless it got pretty cool overnight. Our AC also runs to keep the humidity level constant so it never quite gets to 80.

[AmandaLeigh]

In theory, our apartment has central air that is controlled by the complex. With their central air it is about 82 degrees, but very humid most days. So we bought a portable unit for our bedroom. We have it set at 70, but run it with the door open to help with the humidity in the rest of the apartment so the actual temperature is about 75/76 in there. It doesn't cool the rest of the house at all but the 80 degree temps feel so much better without feeling like yu are sitting wrapped in a wet towel because of all the moisture in the air.

[lauren f s]

We live in TX and have central air. Our thermostat is on a controller that has settings for wake (6 am), leave (8 am), return (5 pm), and sleep (10 pm). The weekend has settings for wake and sleep. During the week we have the leave setting set at 78, return at 74, and sleep at 72. I'm not sure what wake is. The weekend is set as 74 for the wake and 72 for sleep.

Our house is older and doesn't cool very well, esp. in the back of the house (where the bedrooms are). So even set at 72 the bedrooms can get pretty stuffy.

[LIZNKEITH]

We turn it off during the day while we're not home and have it programmed at 74 when we are home. Of course, it's been so frickin' hot out that it can't get below 78 so we've had it set there for the past month.

I didn't know this until recently, but ac's can only cool to a 20 degree differential. If you have your thermostat set to more than 20 degrees less than the outside temp, you'll only burn out your condenser sooner.

[May27JnJ]

68 year around! :)

[lauren f s]

I didn't know this until recently, but ac's can only cool to a 20 degree differential. If you have your thermostat set to more than 20 degrees less than the outside temp, you'll only burn out your condenser sooner.
That would explain why our thermostat stays put at 78 on the really hot days. Interesting!

[tenofcups]

We both work at home during the day and keep it at 73 during the day, although I usualy turn it up to 74 or 75 if DH isn't home. At night, right before we go to bed, we turn it down to 68. That's also what we heat it to in the winter.

The AC (and heat) throughout our 100-year-old house is very uneven and we get less of both in our bedroom than in most other parts of the house.

My home office doesn't even have vents for cooling (or heat), but the rest of the house is cool enough to keep my office at a comfortable temperature and for heat, I have a separate space heater.

[1MegMeg]

I live in Florida (read: hot) and keep it at 80 during the day when I am at work, 77-78 in the evening, and 76 at night. It looks like I keep it on the warmer side (at least compared to others :), but I still feel like I am running the a/c all the time because it's just so hot down here. On the flip side, when it actually cools off in the "winter", I don't have to run the a/c and I don't run the heat either (I can think if maybe 1 day this past winter that I actually turned on the heat).

[villanelle75]

Though we live in a somewhat temperate climate, our house has floor to ceiling windows on the South/South Eastern wall, so basically I live in a green house.

Our thermostat is set at 86 during the day and 83 for shortly before I get home from work. Realistically though, once it gets really hot,the AC is too inefficient to cool it off (since it is a large volume of space) so it usually reads about 84 until it is cool enough to open windows and get the night breeze. Sadly, the thermostat is also in a much cooler area than the living room, so it is often 86 (or more) in the living room. Last Wednesday my living room was 89 when I got home from work!

Our bedroom is downstairs and stays much cooler (about 5 degrees) and cools down quickly at night. We use lots of fans and lots of whining ;-) to cope. I just can't deal with paying more for the electricity, and with the environmental implications. Even during last month, which was fairly hot and during which I spent a week at home sick and with little patience for being hot, causing the AC to be run slightly more than usual, our bill was still under $100, though it was high enough that I noticed.

[paiger]

I've lived in apartments the past like 7 years with the same types of thermostats. I don't really believe what they say, b/c sometimes it just doesn't make sense. They also never really circulate the air very well.

But, typically we have ours set 78-80 since it doesn't really program correctly, we are just turning it on at 78 then we turn it back to 80. At night in the past really hot couple of months, we have turned it to 76-77 at night. During the day, we usually put it to 82 and have a fan for our dog, but with the really hot months we've left it at 78-80 depending on how hot it was when we leave.

I am SCARED of my electricity bill this month. Usually in the summer our highest bill is $95, which is what we've budgeted for it. But, we've never run our air conditioning like we have in these past weeks. I think it's going to be the highest I've ever paid!

[Sarah]

No a/c. Central nor window units. I live in Philadelphia, where it's hot and humid and miserable in summer, but not too bad in spring and fall.

I recorded it as 92 degrees in my LR on saturday. Ew.

[mkredhead]

I like my house around 75 - 80, depending on the outside temps. Because it's been over 100 for the last few weeks, 80 feels cool!!!!

My FH has his house set at 70 and bumps it up to 72 as a courtesy for me when I come over. haha

[salysaturn]

No a/c. Central nor window units. I live in Philadelphia, where it's hot and humid and miserable in summer, but not too bad in spring and fall.

I recorded it as 92 degrees in my LR on saturday. Ew.

I lived in the Phila area before. I know what you mean.

[shopaholic]

always at 72. Our unit faces west so around noon the sun is blazing in our windows (which all the blinds are kept shut during the day) which really heats up the place. I couldn't function if it was anywhere above 79.

[Dan's*Girl]

75 during the day while at work, 73 in the evening and 72/73 at night. Our DS gets hot when he sleeps and if keeping the house cooler means him sleeping all night, I will sleep in a comforter if i have to. LOL

Keep in mind too we live in Missouri (we call it Misery in August!) where it is 100% humidity and close to 100 degrees in july and august, so running my a/c at 73 means its actually like 85 in my house. UGH!


My mom keeps her house at 78-80 and its so freakin hot in there. I guess Im spoiled with my 73 ;)

[lauren f s]

My mom keeps her house at 78-80 and its so freakin hot in there. I guess Im spoiled with my 73 ;)
I'm in TX and it's just as hot. My MIL turns her a/c OFF! I refuse to go to her house!

[jnettie]

I didn't know this until recently, but ac's can only cool to a 20 degree differential. If you have your thermostat set to more than 20 degrees less than the outside temp, you'll only burn out your condenser sooner.

I found this out when DH and I were at MIL's house. She called a repair guy because she thought the AC was broken because the house wouldn't cool down to her beloved 60 degrees. It was about 100 degrees all week! The repair guy had to explain to her that when it's really hot, it's not possible to cool the house down that low. She was rather pissy about the whole thing. :rolleyes:

[emmasart]

Another person with no air conditioning at all! We keep windows open to create cross breezes and when it gets super hot we'll turn on a fan.

[MrsSmith]

Wow, I didn't know that A/C even went as high as 80...LOL...I don't think I've ever put it on anything higher than 72, but it's usually on 68 or 67.

[amew]

We live in the central/southern part of Texas--I don't know anyone without AC around here. We generally keep ours anywhere from 74-78, depending on who is winning the thermostat war (DH would love for it to be 68, I would prefer about 80).

[Megande]

We keep our A/C on between 82 and 80 during the day (or as hot as I can stand) and 77 at night. We live in Texas, and I would LOVE to have it cooler, but our A/C would run non-stop if we kept it much lower. I know for a fact that it couldn't cool the house to less than 75 in August. On the flip side, I guess, we almost never run our heater.

[Jenyfer9]

I'm a SAHM, so I'm here all day (well, in theory), and we have our daytime a/c set at 79. From 6ish-10pm, it goes down to 75, then back to 77 for overnight. We all have ceiling fans in our bedrooms, so that is why we put it back up. If I set it much cooler than about 75 I get cold.

[Lauren]

We don't have central air, but we do have a window unit in the den and a floor unit in our bedroom, for when it gets really hot. We only use the a/c in our room at night, and usually just to cool the room down to 72 or so before turning it off and relying on the fan.

[Amuse Bouche]

75-76, though I'll turn it down to 72 before bed. The other thing is that our thermostat is in our hallway, which has no windows and stays reasonably cool. Our bedroom (faces east) and living room (west facing) get very warm, so even if the therm is that low the temp isn't.

[karlatta]

We run ours at 79 day and night. I used to keep it between 80 and 82, but this summer pregnancy got the best of me and I had to lower it.

When it's really hot, we just leave the house and go to the mall, library, etc. The A/C there is free!

[akacharlotte]

73 right now. Our bill is running about $180 but that isn't just for the AC.

ETA: Our house did not feel like it was getting cool which is not unexpected considering our temps have been in the high 90's low 100's for a little over a month. However, DH cleaned the AC fan and something else and it is now much cooler in the house and the AC is not running non-stop.

[kalogrias]

We didn't have A/C when we lived in San Diego. We had ceiling fans, and that usually did the trick. We never turned on the heat, either, though. That really was perfect weather.

In Seoul, we run the A/C from when we get home to the next morning when we leave. We turn it off during the day. Here, the temps aren't the issue; the humidity is. We keep the A/C temp fairly high (24-25 C), but run it so it can dry out the air. That is a necessity.

[carolc]

82 during the day (no one is home), 78-80 at night. (78 only if we're feeling the heat.)

[lucycat]

We keep ours at 72 during the day - but we have huge windows in the living/dining room that let alot of heat in. Plus its been 90+ degrees here for 30 consecutive days. Cant wait for fall to open up the windows!!

[penybryn]

Central air set at 70-72 all the time, from May to October. Our total electric bill is about $160 a month. We also have ceiling fans and a whole house fan.

[nawsgirl]

We have central a/c... living in AZ this is pretty much a necessity, we're going on 29 days of 110+ degrees this year!

We keep it set at 83-84 during the day, and around 78 at night. Humidity is usually only about 15% so that isn't much of a concern.

We also have sunscreens on all the windows so although the house is dark it is cooler naturally so the a/c does not run 24/7. So far with the sunscreens we are using about 500 less kwh per month!

[TOMama]

We're in Southern Cal where the temps range from the 70's to 90's during the summer days.

78 during the day, with a bump down to 77 during DS's nap. I usually keep the shades drawn in the afternoon to keep the house cooler.

We keep it at 78 at night as well, but it rarely goes on since it usually cools off at night. We just open the windows and turn on the ceiling fans.

[mindy75]

82 during the day and 78 when we are home.

[Myra]

We live in temperate San Diego, so we don't have central ac. we did get a window unit this summer and use it every night, which I love b/c I have bad allergies and am not supposed to keep my windows open.

[coquelicot]

Central A/C with heat pump. It's always on 72, no matter the time of year. The only exception is when we're gone for several days, then I'll bump it up to 80 in the summer and down to 65 in the winter. I haven't confirmed this, but DH says that with a heat pump, it's more expensive to have it change during the day while out of the house and then change back, than to keep it at the same temp all the time.

[Kimberland30]

We keep our AC thermostat set for 68. The reason being that our AC system is VERY old and is on its last leg, but we are trying to get one more summer out of it before replacing it in the fall (when it's cheaper). We have to set it at 68 to get our house even near the 72 degrees that feels comfortable for us. We also live in a very hot and humid climate, so 72 doesn't sound too bad for our area.

In the winter, we set out heater to 68 when we are home, 66 when we go to bed. DH and I both love it cold. DD has an electric heater in her room that she turns on (with a thermostat so it doesn't run all night).