At what outdoor temperature must you have air conditioning?

[battlemaiden]

I think humidity will play a part in this, but humor me....

 

What is your breaking point?

 

Jo

[Julie in CA]

If it's anything over about 84, I'm hot.

[Cheryl in NM]

I think humidity will play a part in this, but humor me....

 

What is your breaking point?

 

Jo

 

Dh has been trying to make time to hook ours up for 2 weeks and it's barely been over 80. I would like it, if only for a few hours in the afternoon. We have NO humidity here.

[Stacy in NJ]

85 degrees F.

[Tutor]

Our house stays amazingly cool here, so generally we're good until it's 85 and humid or 90 and not humid.

 

ETA: The farther into the summer we get, the lower those temps get, though, because there is less of an evening cool down.

[JFSinIL]

Shoot - depends on the humidity level. W/o that as a factor - mid 80's - simply because otherwise it gets too hot to sleep at night, esp. our two downstairs bedrooms that I refuse to allow the kids to have open windows at night (fear of murderous thugs, etc.)

[momto3]

85 is good for hubby but I could take it even warmer. I love summer!

[Lakeside]

I try to avoid A/C as much as I can. I do better with a constant temperature rather than going from hot to cold or vice versa.

[ereks mom]

s

[Rich with Kids]

We are in Houston and it stays humid. I run the a/c year round on 72. It kicks on when needed. We have a handful of nights when we need the heater.

[OnTheBrink]

If I have the windows open and the house hits 80 degrees, I turn the AC on. I don't do heat or humidity well.

[nmoira]

Humidity isn't high here, so we don't have a great need for a/c. It gets cool at night, so I can usually have the house below 70 degrees in August by morning. However, the house won't cool down after 3 consecutive days of 90+ temps, so we're considering getting a whole house fan that vents into the attic to help cool the house down overnight. You can get fans that are much quieter than the old ones.

[sleepy]

Humidity is always a factor here in Ga.

I'm okay with just the windows open until it gets up to about 85 degrees.

[GailV]

Varies depending on the house. We had a house in the woods with 9 foot ceilings, and let it go to 90 outside before we ran the a/c. In our current house with low ceilings and not so many trees, we flip it on at about 75.

 

ETA: It also depends on the allergens. Plenty of cool nights are ruined for us by pollen.

[Jenny in Atl]

Humidity is always a factor here in Ga.

I'm okay with just the windows open until it gets up to about 85 degrees.

 

Sounds about right... it's been real dry the last couple years, so I have been able to wait till it's in the upper 80's and not cooling off enough at night. If it's humid, shoot 78 is warm enough! LOL

[Colleen]

I love so many things about the South, but one thing I never miss is that feeling of going from hot, damp air into a refrigerated environment ~ and vice versa. I'm also not real keen on A/C just as far as health and environmental factors are concerned so I used it as little as possible.

 

Homes with A/C used to be unheard of here in Western WA, but it's become more common. We do have serious humidity (comparable to New Orleans and Houston), but not the accompanying ultra-high temps too often. Still, it seems like more and more people are using their A/C, even when it's only in the upper 70s, low 80s outside. I go into their homes and the windows are shut, A/C on, and I feel like the place is hermetically sealed.;)

[Faith]

Mid 80's and it goes on. We live in a humid state. I live in a mobile home and they are hotter than a regular house. Mine is on now. It's 84 out and 62% humidity.

[Rich with Kids]

I love so many things about the South, but one thing I never miss is that feeling of going from hot, damp air into a refrigerated environment ~ and vice versa. I'm also not real keen on A/C just as far as health and environmental factors are concerned so I used it as little as possible.

 

Homes with A/C used to be unheard of here in Western WA, but it's become more common. We do have serious humidity (comparable to New Orleans and Houston), but not the accompanying ultra-high temps too often. Still, it seems like more and more people are using their A/C, even when it's only in the 70s outside. I go into their homes and the windows are shut, A/C on, and I feel like the place is hermetically sealed.;)

New Orleans has to be the most humid place in the US. I dated a guy in college that went to Loyola and I remember showering in the morning and just feeling damp all day. I'm in Houston now, and we have humidity, but it's nuthin' like N.O.

[KidsHappen]

I have a very low tolerance for temperature swings or extremes. I keep it about 10 degrees lower in the winter.

[emzhengjiu]

The temperature usually has to be well into the 90s before I turn on the A/C during the day but that's more for budgeting reasons than comfort. That said even when it's very, very hot during the day, I try to use fans rather than A/C. I've been known to take my girls to the library to study when it gets too unpleasant. But at night I just can't sleep when it's hot & too scared to sleep with the windows open so it's A/C to the rescue. In the Dallas / Ft. Worth area, the temperature doesn't drop by very much at night. One of the best purchases I've made was a programmable thermostat!

 

Judy

[Tracey in TX]

80'F for downstairs, but second story is a sauna at same temp outside. DH insists on A/C when we hit 72'F.

[Colleen]

One of my brothers came to my college graduation ~ a fit guy who had lived in the South (GA) before. He was seriously suffering in the stifling heat and humidity. Couldn't even take a walk with me without having to seek out some A/C. On the other hand, I intentionally subjected myself to N.O. in summer one year. Sure, I was soaked by the time I walked across campus to class, but...you get used to it. The sultry weather is like a part of the culture. Oh, man...every time I talk about New Orleans I miss it!

[hsmom]

Well there is not very much humidity here and it has to be well into the 90's before I turn it on. We have a very hot dry heat here. Well when it finally gets there and I am not thinking it will this year, it is snowing today.

[Melissa in Australia]

We don't have air conditioning. stop doing schoolwork when the temperature hits 38oC/ 100oF. we would only have about 10 days a year where it gets up to / above 40oC. ( we live in Victoria, which is a lot milder).

we don' t have much humidity. if it gets too hot, we head for the beach

MelissaL

[Mekanamom]

95. We have a dry heat. As long as we have the ceiling fans on, I can bear it up to 95.

[SkateLeft]

As a kid, I spent my summers in the north of England, where 70 was a heat wave, so I don't have very good heat tolerance at ALL!

 

It's very dry here, and doesn't rain from about May through October. It does get hot though, and being a "dry heat" doesn't help any! My oven is a dry heat also, but I'm not about to stick my head in it!

 

I can actually hold off turning on the A/C now until it hits about 78 in the house, though I'm probably a miserable whiner by that point, which means it's in the 80s outside. :D

[LaMere Academy]

around 80 and above.

[kim in ks]

mine is all dependent on the humidity! we live in the country in Kansas, so we get plenty of breeze! I try and hold out until memorial weekend!

[Deanna in TN]

It depends on the humidity and amount of wind. We usually have to turn it on when the outside temp. reaches 70. If it's breezy, we might wait until it hits 74.

[battlemaiden]

We don't have air conditioning. stop doing schoolwork when the temperature hits 38oC/ 100oF. we would only have about 10 days a year where it gets up to / above 40oC. ( we live in Victoria, which is a lot milder).

we don' t have much humidity. if it gets too hot, we head for the beach

MelissaL

 

We don't have A/c either.

 

This is what made me curious. I don't like A/C as a rule, but in the afternoon the house gets so hot (just the way its situated makes our living area heat up to unbearable temps- not necessarily the outside temp) I wondered what other home-educators do when the heat starts to melt our little pupil's brains. The winds that usually make any thermometer reading comfortable have disappeared.

 

Today would have been a good day to study oceanography (go to the beach). :D

 

Dare I say, we may need to get up earlier every day so we're done by lunch? Help.

 

Jo

[Plaid Dad]

We don't have a/c at all in our apartment, but I start wishing we did when it gets to about 80. (I'm actually happiest when the outdoor temps are between 45 and 65 degrees.)

[Nestof3]

I've been known to run it when it's in the 60's just to get the humidity out on a rainy day. For some reason, humidity makes me really cranky -- perhaps it's the frizzy hair.

 

I had the air on today, and it was in the mid 70's outside. But, I didn't run it all day. When it get's over 72 inside, I run it sometimes.

 

I hate summer and heat!

[percytruffle]

No a/c here either and our house can get pretty warm in the summer. It becomes rather uncomfortable at about 85, or even 80 with high humidity. That's when I don my suit and sit on my floating chair in my blow-up swimming pool :D

[cin]

Our AC goes on when the pollen count hits High. :glare:

[keptwoman]

We don't have aircon. There are very few days I miss it, our house stays quite cool but when the house hits 90 inside and stays there, that's when I want it. Anything below that I'm OK with. It's a dry heat though.

[Amy in Orlando]

Our house stays amazingly cool here, so generally we're good until it's 85 and humid or 90 and not humid.

 

ETA: The farther into the summer we get, the lower those temps get, though, because there is less of an evening cool down.

 

:iagree: This is us too. Once it's consistently about 85 in the house, the air goes on and usually stays on until mid-October. The humidity is most definitely the biggest factor here.

 

We're excited because we've had an unusually cool April and are looking to beat our record of holding off on putting the air on before May.

[Lisawa]

I think humidity will play a part in this, but humor me....

 

What is your breaking point?

 

Jo

 

Hmmm we dont have it..... but when we are dying... its around 90... come to think of it... maybe 85 +..... its so hard to cool down the house once its hot... and it heats up in the late afternoons in the summer.... if we ever have spring so we can have summer. :D

[Janna]

And it makes me sick that I did it, too. Usually, I wouldn't turn it on until 80-85 degree days that are consecutive.

 

However, ds all of a sudden, has massive, severe allergies. To what exactly is unknown - but it's outside. He doesn't have an appointment until May 9th (gah!). So today I closed up the house and he was pretty good all day. By about 5:30 I couldn't take it anymore. It was just too hot in the house. So I turned on the air. It was either that, or open the windows and deal with ds being absolutely miserable. Poor kid has broken blood vessels in his cheeks from rubbing his eyes so hard the last few days. I sincerely hope after his appointment something can be figured out to make it manageable so I can have the windows open. I can't believe I turned it on today. In April! :ohmy:

[ELaurie]

the temp is about 96 degrees - dh otoh, would prefer to turn it on at about 70 degrees :svengo:

[Lorna in the boonies]

Yesterday our thermometer read 96.8 outside and 95.7 inside, and we haven't turned it on yet. We're dying here, but we haven't turned it on.

 

We are torn between our desire to be comfortable and our desire to make it through April without turning on the air conditioning -- because once it comes on, it's not going off until at least October!

 

Dh informed me last night that he doesn't think he's going to make it through April.

 

(Today the high is only supposed to be 83 -- hopefully we can stall for a few more days!)

[gandpsmommy]

I know. I actually much prefer opening the windows and turning on the fans to have fresh air flowing in. I love having the windows open in early spring, hearing the birds, smelling the fresh air, and feeling more a part of nature, but we all have allergies which become almost unbearable when the pollen counts are high in spring, so we've had to turn on the AC. It actually makes me very sad!

[Mom2legomaniacs]

Here in TN, the humidity is nasty sometimes. So, I'll say over 80. If it cools off at night, then maybe just a bit in the evening so bedtime will be nicer and take the edge off the worst part of the day. OW, stays on all the time when it starts to stay hot all day and not cool off much at night.

[Mrs. Readsalot]

We were also on the windward side and they house was quite old. The house had no heat or A/C and I never missed them. We were in Kahaaluu right up against the mountain. I grew up in Baltimore with no A/C and summers were miserable because of the humidity. I can remember sleeping in the basement to escape the heat. Now we live on the Eastern Shore of Maryland a stones throw(OK you need a really good arm) from the ocean. We tend to be 10 degrees cooler that inland locations due to the ocean breezes. For me it has to be over 85 with humidity to turn on the A/C. We spend a lot of time at the pool in the summer, and I think this helps us deal with the heat better. It really bothers me to be sitting out at the pool knowing the A/C is running at home. Now that we no longer have a pet at home I will probably turn the A/C off more often. See you ask a simple question and what do you get me talking too much :ohmy:

[Jackie in AR]

I've turned the a/c on the past couple of days and it has been in the 80's. So I guess that is my breaking point. :D

[kpupg]

What is your breaking point?

 

Well, we live in a very arid area, so humidity is not a culprit for us. My breaking point is 90, but dh's is closer to 85, so that's when it goes on in this house.

[Amy loves Bud]

It's 79 right now, and I'm starting to want it on. But it would probably be 82-85 before we turned it on.

 

You're right that humidity has a lot to do with it. Sometimes even when it's not so hot we turn it on just to dry things a bit then turn it back off.

[TraceyS/FL]

:iagree: This is us too. Once it's consistently about 85 in the house, the air goes on and usually stays on until mid-October. The humidity is most definitely the biggest factor here.

 

We're excited because we've had an unusually cool April and are looking to beat our record of holding off on putting the air on before May.

 

Gee, ours has already been on!

 

It's set to 81 in the house i think, and 80 back here in the school room (central air, but it doesn't pump much in here so we have a standalone unit).

 

We need new windows and insulation though - everything is 1973 original. We can tell the difference since we got the rest of the trees taken out with the Tornado damage. It's going to HOT in the kitchen all summer :(

 

Anyway, to the OP - we just have a programmable thermostat that has 81 for AC, and 69 for heat. We had times the AC came on in the winter - not many, but it did.

 

That said, we aren't out in the main part of the house most of the time, so i'm hoping to be able to push it up a few degrees to save some $$ this summer.

[Ellie]

anything over 75 is too hot. If it's very humid, I might lower the thermostat to 73.

[jail warden]

I can wait until around 90 as long as the humidity is low. However, today it was muggy and only in the 80's and it was very hot in here, but I refuse to turn on the air when it's only April!

[E_Edgerton]

We don't have Central A/C...so never! But, we do have a small unit for the bedroom. I am hot all the time. Even in the winter. I could live at a constant 60 degrees...however, I am also constantly trying to save energy and money...so I think of bedtime like a treat....and I am usually miserable all day...trying not to complain.