When and what outside temp do you turn on AC?

[Scarlett]

I just wondered what is normal.  Or average.  Or something.

[Ottakee]

Mine is more temp inside the house....and humidity level.  If temp inside is over 80 I will turn it on.  I might at 76 and humid.

[Scarlett]

We live in OK, so there is not much of the year where windows can be open and no AC or heat is needed.  Night before last we had our window open in our room and there was a wonderful breeze.  Chilly even....we had to snuggle up under blankets.  I woke up at 6 a.m. and it was 64 outside.  Dss18 had his portable AC on.  I was not happy.  He had it set to 64 which of course he had to or it would not have come on since it was so cool outside.  

[tdbates78]

I agree with how it feels inside my house versus outside. Last week it was in the mid-70s here but very humid due to rainy conditions and I turned on the AC. Right now it's low 80s and breezy so my windows are open and it feels great. 

At night is a different story. I need it to be on the cool side to sleep. So if its above, say, 72 in my house at bedtime I will turn the AC on. 

[gardenmom5]

generally for me, outside has to be sustained 75+.  I'd rather just open windows.

the males around here are wimps...  they want it at lower temps.

[Scarlett]

Said young adult has great cross breeze in his room.  He has the entire loft area--about 400 square feet.  We put in a huge roll out window on one end and a new door with old fashioned full screen door on the end.  

[Lady Florida.]

Where I live most people only turn it off for a few months a year. It's always on from March to October. November through February depends on the weather. We love it when we can turn off the A/C and throw open the windows for a few days.

[prairiewindmomma]

When I am hot, I turn it on.  My kids' asthma = no open windows without problems. 

[Lady Florida.]

2 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

 My kids' asthma = no open windows without problems. 

While asthma isn't an issue for us, both ds and I feel the effects of pollen when we open the windows. But it's so rare that we get to enjoy cool, fresh air in the house so we do it anyway.

[Scarlett]

1 minute ago, prairiewindmomma said:

When I am hot, I turn it on.  My kids' asthma = no open windows without problems. 

No asthma in our house....and I feel like I need it pretty cool to sleep.  But 64 seems cool to me.  The windows were open and the house was as cool nearly as it was outside.  I am just annoyed.  I guess I will get over it.  He didn't turn it on last night.  Because dh told him not to.  When we went to bed I went up and opened up the windows and the back door and turned on the floor fan to get air moving around.  

[Bootsie]

This past week I had the heater on downstairs--that ran a little bit just to get the chill off and DS had the AC on upstairs at the same time.  It was warmer upstairs than downstairs and he sleeps better at a cooler temperature than the rest of us in the family.

[Carrie12345]

We rarely use AC. Our house is situated pretty nicely in the woods, so we could get by without our one little window unit if it weren’t for the occasional week of 90* afternoons.  The heat tends to build up then.  Otherwise, the ceiling fan is plenty to keep things bearable through most of the summer with 80-something highs and overnights that drop pretty low.

I do use the car AC more, since the car doesn’t always stay in the woods!

[alisoncooks]

Mine has been on for weeks. I'm a wimp. Once it starts getting warm here, the pollen is off-the-charts insane, so I can't open the windows for long. I don't like to sleep hot so once the days are hitting 70+, I turn it on to knock the humidity down.  DH thinks I'm crazy; I tell him I'd be crazier if I were hot and sweaty. 

[prairiewindmomma]

65F outside = 77F upstairs in my bedroom in the late afternoon based on our house's architecture and position on the lot.  That's lovely in the winter when it's cold, but it makes me really grouchy at about 6 pm when I'm folding laundry.

[Pawz4me]

We have a programmable thermostat. Our AC is set to come on to keep the temperature in the house at 73. I don't know what the outside temperature generally has to get to for that to happen. I rarely pay any attention to when/whether the AC or heat are running, as long as I'm staying comfy. Opening the windows during the spring isn't really possible given the astronomically high pollen levels we have here, and by mid to late May the humidity is high enough that opening windows is useless for increasing comfort.

[Scarlett]

Just now, prairiewindmomma said:

65F outside = 77F upstairs in my bedroom in the late afternoon based on our house's architecture and position on the lot.  That's lovely in the winter when it's cold, but it makes me really grouchy at about 6 pm when I'm folding laundry.

Well he didn't get home from work until 12:30 a.m. so I know it wasn't that hot up there.  It may have been a little stuffy, but his immediate solution was to turn on the AC instead of open the window and let the cool breeze in.

[Scarlett]

Just now, HeighHo said:

 

That would not cool an upstairs room here, our house just doesn't vent like that.    We are better off opening the cross-vent windows/doors and starting cooling as soon as the air temp is below the house temp.

Ours does.  

[Scarlett]

2 minutes ago, HeighHo said:

 

what was the actual temp in the bedroom at midnight?

 

I don't know.  I didn't check it. But I went up there last night around the time I went to  bed and opened the windows and door and could feel a nice breeze coming in.  

[Farrar]

When you can only occasionally open the windows and you’re not the one who pays the bills, I get why the habit becomes to run the A/C, even when it doesn’t fully make sense.

Our ventilation is really good so I’m often able to wait until it’s been well into the 80’s for several days and also not cooled at night much. But once it’s on, it’s on. I’m not comfortable once the house is consistently above about 77/78.

[prairiewindmomma]

Not picking on you Scarlett, but our bedroom will remain at the peak temp until it starts to drop around 2 am.

Dh and I have a Nest thermostat in the house. He likes to set it at eco temps (ac kicks on when it is 80F downstairs) and I feel somewhat homicidal once I hit 77 degrees. I can handle 76 but 77 is my turning point.

Dss may just need the Captain Obvious sign to open windows when he gets home if there are no storms in the forecast. My ds17 is pretty clueless a lot about a surprising number of things even though he is quite capable in a number of other areas.

[prairiewindmomma]

Case in point with my Ds yesterday: I handed him a stack of clean clothes, washed, dried, and folded and he walked into the laundry room to put that in to be washed. 

That whole brain remodeling thing is clearly still going on.

[Lady Florida.]

31 minutes ago, Scarlett said:

No asthma in our house....and I feel like I need it pretty cool to sleep.  But 64 seems cool to me.  The windows were open and the house was as cool nearly as it was outside.  I am just annoyed.  I guess I will get over it.  He didn't turn it on last night.  Because dh told him not to.  When we went to bed I went up and opened up the windows and the back door and turned on the floor fan to get air moving around.  

I'm a Floridian who freezes at room temperature 🙂 so take my comment with a grain of salt, but that seems cool to me too. Even my friends who keep their homes cooler than I do don't usually set it that low. 

ETA: I wonder if young men get hot easily. Ds 21 often gets up at night and turns the thermostat down to 70 (we keep it around 74-75). He does have a fancy computer in his room and even though the computer has a fan, it heats up his room. However, he turns it off when he goes to bed and still turns down the thermostat.

Edited April 23, 2019 by Lady Florida.

[Scarlett]

1 minute ago, HeighHo said:

is there a reason no one is opening the window in there and cooling the room off when the outside temp falls below an inside temp of 73 or higher?

He wasn't home.  He was working.  

Believe me, I thought to do it for him last night so he wouldn't feel the need to turn the AC on.

[Scarlett]

3 minutes ago, Lady Florida. said:

I'm a Floridian who freezes at room temperature 🙂 so take my comment with a grain of salt, but that seems cool to me too. Even my friends who keep their homes cooler than I do don't usually set it that low. 

ETA: I wonder if young men get hot easily. Ds 21 often gets up at night and turns the thermostat down to 70 (we keep it around 74-75). He does have a fancy computer in his room and even though the computer has a fan, it heats up his room. However, he turns it off when he goes to bed and still turns down the thermostat.

My ds19 won't open his window at night.  And he keeps his door closed. He just turns on his ceiling fan.  I asked him if he was hot and he said no he never gets hot. 

[Scarlett]

12 minutes ago, Farrar said:

When you can only occasionally open the windows and you’re not the one who pays the bills, I get why the habit becomes to run the A/C, even when it doesn’t fully make sense.

Our ventilation is really good so I’m often able to wait until it’s been well into the 80’s for several days and also not cooled at night much. But once it’s on, it’s on. I’m not comfortable once the house is consistently above about 77/78.

Yes, this is pretty much me too. I need it cool to sleep or clean house or cook.  But 64 outside?  Yeah lets open the windows you people who don't pay the bills.  😉

[Donna]

We turn on AC somewhere end of May/early June when temperature has been over 85 for a number of days without going down much at night. Otherwise, open windows do just fine for us.  I like it cool at night when I sleep but we generally only keep AC around 68 or so. 

[Scarlett]

When it is actually summer temps (not 64 degrees) we sleep with it around 70.  We have central downstairs and a portable unit upstairs for dss18 which has helped tremendously because before we got that portable unit we could not get it cool upstairs at all. Then come morning as I walk out of our bedroom I turn the AC to about 80 and it needs to stay there until late evening when we begin to cool it down to sleep.  One issue we have had in the past is dss18 being home during the day when everyone else is working and he turns his AC upstairs on.  I have told him if he is hot up there (I know it gets hotter up there) he needs to abandon his bedroom and come downstairs for the afternoon.  Sorry, that is just the way it has to be.  Go jump in the pool to cool off.  He wants to lie in his bed and watch movies all afternoon while running the AC.  

[Scarlett]

Our summer electric bills get to about $400 for usually 3 months straight.  So I like to do everything I can to keep it down.

[prairiewindmomma]

When we had issues with the kids running the dehumifier all of the time and not remembering to turn it off, we used a device (kill-a-watt) to calculate how much energy it used per hour and how much that actually cost us. I don’t know if your dss needs that, but I thought I’d toss that out there.

[Pen]

Don’t have A/C.  Oddly— Didn’t even in Southern California.   If I did have , probably at 78 or 80 F indoor temperature. 

Eta we have sort of the opposite— Ds wearing shorts and no shirt and wanting heat on even though it’s 68-74 degrees F, which to me seems manageable with clothes.  

Edited April 23, 2019 by Pen

[eagleynne]

We're in southwest Indiana, and even though we have central air we haven't turned it on in at least 3 years. It bothers my mother's asthma so off it stays. The first year was awful, but now we're all adapted to it so it doesn't bother us until it stays over ~75 all night.

[TheReader]

I mean, we're in Houston, so.....we almost never have a time when it's possible to not have either A/C or heat. I could probably count on one hand the number of times that happens (and some days, we go from heat in the morning to A/C by afternoon.....). 

Add in hot flashes and a husband who hates to be hot, and we put the A/C on if it hits 74-ish in the house (We really aim for 72 more or less year-round). That could correspond to any number of outside temps, depending on sun, humidity, etc., so....who knows. We've already had our first 90 degree day, though, so I don't feel too bad already being in A/C mode. 

[Scarlett]

6 minutes ago, TheReader said:

I mean, we're in Houston, so.....we almost never have a time when it's possible to not have either A/C or heat. I could probably count on one hand the number of times that happens (and some days, we go from heat in the morning to A/C by afternoon.....). 

Add in hot flashes and a husband who hates to be hot, and we put the A/C on if it hits 74-ish in the house (We really aim for 72 more or less year-round). That could correspond to any number of outside temps, depending on sun, humidity, etc., so....who knows. We've already had our first 90 degree day, though, so I don't feel too bad already being in A/C mode. 

Oh yes Houston is hot.  Worse than OK I think.  A little.  

[SebastianCat]

Our A/C runs almost year-round.   I think we turned on our heat for about 3 days this past winter.   But I don't think our outside temps got below 40 degrees more than that during this winter either.   We've already had temps near 90 this spring.

ETA:  I'm in Tampa.

Edited April 23, 2019 by SebastianCat

[Arcadia]

Our central aircon is never used. My husband is a tightwad anyway. It’s now 88degF and not hot at all. We turn on the fan at night in the bedroom when it is around 100degF so kids can sleep.

[TheReader]

5 minutes ago, Scarlett said:

Oh yes Houston is hot.  Worse than OK I think.  A little.  

I have only ever driven through OK, so I'm not sure. I *think* we have y'all beat on humidity, mainly. 100+ with 10000% humidity (or something....) feels like the surface of the sun, underwater......more or less. I think *maybe* y'all don't have the ....underwater.... part, so much. 😉 I could be wrong, though. Anyway, I get it.  (and 64 would have me snuggling under blankets and asking DH to turn on the heater......)

[hippiemamato3]

As soon as we are the slightest bit uncomfortable we put on the heat or the a/c. Sometimes the heat goes off one day and the a/c is on the next. We are really sensitive to temperature. 

[alisoncooks]

8 minutes ago, hippiemamato3 said:

As soon as we are the slightest bit uncomfortable we put on the heat or the a/c. Sometimes the heat goes off one day and the a/c is on the next. We are really sensitive to temperature. 

Same here. NC has wildly fluctuating spring temps -- we've had the heat on overnight and the AC on the very next day. 😛

Just a few weeks ago, we had some very warm days where the heat was off, followed by a cold snap. I didn't check the forecast, so we woke up with inside temps of around 55 degrees. Sitting around, eating breakfast, I was like "is anyone else really chilly?!?!" 😄

[Mbelle]

I turn it on when I need it.  I have asthma and so the open windows and breeze just won't work.  It's 72 during the day and 67 at night.  

[sassenach]

We don't have AC. When it gets into the 90's, I wish we did. But it never stays there for long, and we get very cool in the evenings no matter the daytime temp.

[AmandaVT]

We use ours more for the humidity. We have no basement and have tile floors, so the floor can get wet in the summer. It's gross. And dehumidifiers add heat to the house, so we run A/C off and on all summer, only on humid days and nights. I can deal much better being hot and dry than I can warm and wet. Ugh. 

 

[KrissiK]

June. I don’t turn it on until June. It’s a matter or principal with me. It’s supposed to be 97 #$&#@ degrees on Thursday, but I am not turning on the AC. It is April, for crying out loud. I think part of it is that it gets so hot all summer and we run the AC almost constantly from June till September... but it is also very dry here. So, it’s warm in the spring, but spring warm is not like summer warm, even if the temperatures are the same.

[City Mouse]

No AC here.

When I lived in Houston, the AC was on pretty much all the time. If it wasn’t cold enough to turn the heat on, the AC was on. 

[DesertBlossom]

Sadly, I have been running the a/c the last few days. It's been hot. 

I have several window fans and as long as the night temps get cool enough, I can cool the house down at night and close the windows in the morning. But we've already already had some days in the high 90s. And I pregnant so my comfort takes priority. 😅

 

[Bambam]

Mine depends upon the temp inside the house. Once it hits 75/76, it is time to turn on the A/C. 

[73349]

Similar to @Pawz4me. Very humid, high-pollen area (I've been coughing and sneezing quite a bit today, in fact) in NC, programmable thermostats--but I'll adjust them if we're uncomfortable.

Downstairs, daytime: heat to  67, AC to 78.

Upstairs, for night: heat to  64, AC to 75.

Otherwise we'd be switching that thing back and forth all.the.time., September through April.

[moonflower]

3 hours ago, Scarlett said:

My ds19 won't open his window at night.  And he keeps his door closed. He just turns on his ceiling fan.  I asked him if he was hot and he said no he never gets hot. 

 

Isn't your DS19 thin, though, and your DSS18 is overweight?  I have a total evidence of 2 people, DH and me, but DH is thin and I am maybe 20 lb over ideal weight, and he runs cold and I run hot.  I always thought this was because I had an insulating layer 🙂

I think if he felt hot, he felt hot.  Probably someone living without air conditioning in south Texas would scoff at you for turning on the air at 80F, but whatever.  An AC cools things off, ime, esp in top-floor rooms, much faster and more reliably than an open window.  I get the reason for opening a window instead and of course this is what adult me would do, but teenager me did not give a lot of thought to energy efficiency or electric bills.  I'd just open his window for him a few hours earlier than he gets home so his area is cool already and he doesn't need to be inclined to run the AC.

[Forget-Me-Not]

I broke down and turned the AC on this last week when it hit 80+ outside and it was 78-79 inside. I like it set at 75, but our energy bill gets insane so I’m trying to train myself to live with higher temps in the house. We saw 90+ this week and it will likely continue to climb from there. We regularly see triple digits from May-September and sometimes even October here. 

[katilac]

6 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Not picking on you Scarlett, but our bedroom will remain at the peak temp until it starts to drop around 2 am.

 

He had it set at 64, though, lol. 

I'd definitely try to open windows and stuff for him when possible, I know I'm not the most patient when I'm hot or uncomfortable. Maybe a rule, though, about a minimum temperature, because 64 is beyond cool imo. And I'm always hot. I'm not as overweight as your son but I am pretty fluffy, and I'm in perimenopause and he's not 😄

If he doesn't have a fan in his room, he needs one (in addition to the ceiling fan if he has one). Maybe two.  I think they're usually called air circulating fans and they cost less than $20. I'm decidedly more comfortable with my fan and can keep the a/c several degrees higher.  

[Ellie]

I go by the temp inside my house: 75 is my limit. I'm a mess with anything higher than that, lol