DesertDweller Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 It's almost May, and our temps are headed up, up, up. I'm trying not to turn on the A/C until I absolutely have to. It's 82 in the house right now. I may have to run it for a little bit because I'm already feeling uncomfortable. I was wondering at what point as far as an inside temperature do you give in and run your A/C? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 when the upstairs (kids' rooms) get so hot that you can't spend the day there, 86 degrees upstairs, about 82 downstairs. We then set it on 76. We had a hot spell end of March and broke down for a day on April 1st and put it on. Now it has cooled down again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 We turn on our ac when the trees first start to bud, because of allergies. Before we had allergic/asthmatic kids, we turned it on when it hit 80F in the house. We live in a humid climate. When we visit our relatives in the desert West, I was comfortable with no ac when it was 90 and with a breeze. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nono Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 85F inside for us. That's a rare day. We'll set the thermostat to about 80F. But we still spend most of the time outdoors in the weather, so that's just to insure comfortable sleeping at night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kewb Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 If it is going to be over 80 degrees upstairs for more than one night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssavings Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 (edited) We'll set the thermostat to about 80F. same here. If its 85+ in the house, we set the air to 80. Edited April 20, 2012 by ssavings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 Ours is already running. I like it about 76-78* in the house. We're going to hit 100* this weekend, and we like the a/c on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaxMom Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 When it's over 80 in our bedrooms at night. God bless the Victorians and their excellent sense of ventilation, that doesnt happen until late August most years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elinor Everywhere Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 It's almost May, and our temps are headed up, up, up. I'm trying not to turn on the A/C until I absolutely have to. It's 82 in the house right now. I may have to run it for a little bit because I'm already feeling uncomfortable. I was wondering at what point as far as an inside temperature do you give in and run your A/C? If the house hits 80, it's time for a cool-down. We live in the desert, too, and have an evap (swamp) cooler, which I have on now. I won't need to run the A/C until late June or early July, whenever the monsoon season starts. Then it runs until mid-Sept, when the monsoons are over, and the evap goes back on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QueenCat Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 If it gets over 80-82 inside the house, during the day, with the windows open, then the air goes on. I get way too moody when I get hot and I'm not near a pool, so the air goes on if I'm uncomfortable..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlebug42 Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 For me, it depends on how humid it gets in here. When my wood floors start to feel clammy because of the humidity, the air goes on. We have excellent cross ventilation in our house with the windows open but that doesn't do anything for the humidity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
love2read Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 86 unless it's humid and then 80 or 82. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WiseOwlKnits Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 Ours is already on. It was only off for about 2 months. We're in Texas though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyagain Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 I must be the only hot-blooded one here. I turn mine on when it hits 75! I hate heat!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinivanMom Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 I turn on the a/c as soon as the humidity hits. I keep the house set to 72. I feel like a whiner, but I couldn't cope with my house being any warmer than that. It gets humid here and I'm always either pregnant or breastfeeding. I need it nice and cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sleeplessnights Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 We just moved to Miami, and we've had that A/C on most days since we moved in January. We keep our thermostat at 77, and 75 at night. It's not the heat, it's the humidity... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unicorn. Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 Nope, you aren't the only one. Mine has been on since Feb. If it goes above 76 in the house, we are miserable. It's the one thing I hate about TX. I much prefer colder weather. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TranquilMind Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 It's almost May, and our temps are headed up, up, up. I'm trying not to turn on the A/C until I absolutely have to. It's 82 in the house right now. I may have to run it for a little bit because I'm already feeling uncomfortable. I was wondering at what point as far as an inside temperature do you give in and run your A/C? Long before that! I run the AC if it gets above 70 or anytime it is humid. I can't breathe well in humidity. Mine is running from March through November most years, except when there are cold spells. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsBear Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 If it hits 76 inside, it goes on....we keep it set around 73-74 once it's on; most days though, even with it on now, it doesn't go on much this time of the year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KungFuPanda Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 My house is cold all year long. If I lived alone, I'd wait until it hit 90, then just run it at night (or sleep in the basement). However, I live with people who cannot handle heat or humidity. It's ridiculous. It's usually between 65-72 all year long and I'm the one bumping it past 70. I tell people to bring sweaters. Sometimes I sit outside and warm up. It's easier than dealing with cranky hot people. They are mutants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
didadeewiththree Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 We turned our a/c on in March; anything over 75 in the house is too warm. I can never have the windows down because two of my children have allergies, one of them has asthma, and we have been told to keep the air on and no windows down by her allergist. I will do anything to avoid an asthma attack(which is a cough type) so the air is on just about everyday now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheryl Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 I turn on the a/c as soon as the humidity hits. I keep the house set to 72. I feel like a whiner, but I couldn't cope with my house being any warmer than that. It gets humid here and I'm always either pregnant or breastfeeding. I need it nice and cool. This is me too! Our house is a little older (not new construction) and not as tight or insulated as it could/should be to keep heat out. I feel like we're wasting money and we do need to do something about it. I'm right there with ya on liking cooler temps. Not a summer heat gal. We live in the SE and it can get pretty hot. However, after reading this thread, I "may" "try" to up it to 75! But, that would be a stretch on a hot July/August day. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 When it is consistently above 84+ in the house and not cooling down at night. I can usually control that for awhile even when temps are 80-90 outside by opening windows at night and closing the windows and blinds during the day when it is hot. However, when we get to the 90-100-110 degree weather we call uncle. Last year we held out until June I believe this year we are hoping to go a little longer by retreating to the basement at night. Once on I set the thermo at 86 day-80 at night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 The thermostat is set for 75. At 76, the AC goes on. Sometimes I'll turn it on if it's not quite 75 but it's very humid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 For me, it's not a specific temperature but how well I'm sleeping at night. We have an old house and window units. So it's a big pain to get them plugged in. If we have a gradual warm up, I find I am less frantic about AC then if we have a sudden heat wave in the spring. I live in the upper midwest too, so when I was a kid plenty of people lived just fine without AC. I sincerely hope we won't have AC on here for another 2 months! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer in MI Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 I love the heat. I am still wearing sweaters when it hits 75! I would freeze in some of your houses! And I love having my windows open. I really don't like when I have to shut up my house and turn on the ac. For us, it goes on when it is too hot to sleep. I need my sleep! But, even then, we keep it at 82 or so during the day and bump it down to 80 at night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momtoamiracle Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 I'm in Louisiana so the humidity really plays a huge role in when we turn the air on. We've had it on in January many times. This year we've been running it since about February off and on. Humidity has been quite bad early this year. We keep it at 73 in the house, anything else and you can't breathe...If it's very dry then I can go without the air, but otherwise it's too uncomfortablly sticky. The mildew also starts to grow if we don't keep the humidity down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peaceful Isle Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 Um, I get hot really easily, so we keep it on 72 ish. We live in AZ, so it is on about 9 months out of the year. My dh would like it a little warmer, but he has figured out that a hot wife is not a happy wife. Well, he also says I'm hot in a good way. :D Anyways, yup. Our electric bill is up, but when I'm hot, I have no energy, and feel awful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustybug Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 We wait until it stays 82 or higher for more than a week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan C. Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 Been running A/C for a couple of months, set on 72 in the day, 71 at night (heat pump). But, we went to Florida and set the thermostat at 72 in the condo....... its very different, we woke up and it was 58 inside!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
besroma Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 We turn on our ac when the trees first start to bud, because of allergies. Before we had allergic/asthmatic kids, we turned it on when it hit 80F in the house. We live in a humid climate. Same here. Before so many allergies, we would tough it out awhile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justamouse Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 (edited) When it's over 80 in our bedrooms at night. God bless the Victorians and their excellent sense of ventilation, that doesnt happen until late August most years. :iagree: They are awesome about that, aren't they? We don't have AC, we use fans if we need, but on a 5 day streak of 100 degrees, we do have window units we'll put in. Edited April 21, 2012 by justamouse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joker Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 We live in a humid climate, and have allergies and asthma here. We usually don't get above 76 here anymore, which means our a/c is pretty much always running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shellers Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 I have A/C, but never run it because it costs too much. Many years ago, I had an evaporative cooler installed. I run this thing all day on the coldest setting and it only adds about $100 a month to my electric bill. I run the evap cooler all day from the end of April until the end of Sept or Oct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawana Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 About 76. I'm a woman of a certain age who can't tolerate heat anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngieW in Texas Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 I'm boiling all the time. I keep the upstairs at 75-76 and downstairs at 71-72. We need a 4 degree temperature difference between upstairs and downstairs or one heat pump tries to take care of the whole house instead of the upstairs pump taking care of upstairs and the downstairs pump taking care of downstairs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmoira Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 We don't have a/c... it's just not worth it for the 5-20 days of really hot weather we get year year. This might be the year we finally get a whole house fan (Triangle brand), however. We were set to get one a couple years ago, but a sick cat -- she survived near-complete liver failure -- ate up the fan budget. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momofsbandeg Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 we live where it is HUMID and HOT most of the year. Everyone is our house is hot-natured. We are extremely frugal in ever area of our life...except AC. My husband has said that the AC will be the last thing to go....that he will work an extra job to have the AC if ever necessary. It is his thing. I'm hesitant to even say what our air stays on ....69-71 (in a dodging low whisper making eye contact with no one) ...:eek::eek: I know. Keep in mind that we have energy efficient windows, extra insulation in the attic and my house only has 10 windows. The air isn't constantly running and we do have fans in most of the rooms. It is on 70 right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nd293 Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 We switch on the a/c when it reaches between 82-84F inside (depends on how hot I know it's going to get), and then set it to run at 79F. By the time it reaches 82 inside, it is much hotter outside. I am usually fairly vigilant about closing windows when the temperature outside gets higher than the inside temperature (we have a digital thermometre inside which shows both temperatures). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StaceyinLA Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 Ours is programmed to where it never goes below 65 or above 74. With those settings, the ac or heat will run whenever the house gets to either extreme (neither of which is very extreme). Of course, heat never kicks on in July, but the ac does occasionally kick on in December. FWIW, my dh works in computerized controls, and was/is an electrician as well, and he says keeping it at 74 vs 76 or 77 costs almost nothing. Honestly, we have a 2000+ sq ft home with 5 bedrooms, poorly insulated, all electric, running 2 fridge/freezers, an upright freezer, washing and drying 2 loads of clothes daily, running 3 window units in the outside room and upstairs rooms (we are adding a separate central unit up there at some point), cooking, and keeping the temps as mentioned and we have NEVER had a bill over $250. In fact, it is RARELY over $200. I can live with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 we live where it is HUMID and HOT most of the year. Everyone is our house is hot-natured. We are extremely frugal in ever area of our life...except AC. My husband has said that the AC will be the last thing to go....that he will work an extra job to have the AC if ever necessary. It is his thing. I'm hesitant to even say what our air stays on ....69-71 (in a dodging low whisper making eye contact with no one) ...:eek::eek: I know. Keep in mind that we have energy efficient windows, extra insulation in the attic and my house only has 10 windows. The air isn't constantly running and we do have fans in most of the rooms. It is on 70 right now. ((((soul sister and brother))))) :D The first year or so we were here in Texas, I kept the thermostat at about 70-73. Then we had the summer of 30+ days of three-digit temps, and the electric bill just about did me in. So I've raised the thermostat to 75, and that did make a difference. I console myself by remembering that we don't have to pay a boatload of money on heating bills in the winter. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy22alyns Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 80 in the house in the summer. I gradually let the inside temps rise as we get acclimated. Right now, I'm not letting the house get to 80. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsTheDay Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 At what point do we run the A/C? When it gets to 74 in the house in the daytime. That's just when I'm beginning to thaw out after freezing all winter. But dh has (medical) body temperature issues, and he can't tolerate it any higher than that. He turns the A/C down to 68 to sleep at night. It's usually too muggy to sleep with the windows open. :chillpill::chillpill::chillpill: :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjzimmer1 Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 My house is cold all year long. If I lived alone, I'd wait until it hit 90, then just run it at night (or sleep in the basement). However, I live with people who cannot handle heat or humidity. It's ridiculous. It's usually between 65-72 all year long and I'm the one bumping it past 70. I tell people to bring sweaters. Sometimes I sit outside and warm up. It's easier than dealing with cranky hot people. They are mutants. I would get along quite nicely with you and my husband would enjoy the rest of your family. I'm always cold and we simply can't afford to keep the house warm enough in the winter for my desire. It's set at 67 and it's all I can do not to bump it up. As far as A/C goes, ours is set at 76 but I will frequently bump it up to 77-78 during the day with the hopes that DH won't notice when he gets home (he always does because he complains how "hot" the house is at 76) But I can't even imagine thinking about turning on the A/C. I actually bumped up the heat today because I was freezing and DH isn't home to notice. We have frost advisories out for tonight that's how cold it is here. 80 sounds positively dreamy to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momofsbandeg Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 ((((soul sister and brother))))) :D I console myself by remembering that we don't have to pay a boatload of money on heating bills in the winter. :glare: At least the winter (if we have one) is mild.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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