What is the best thermostat setting for max electric bill savings during summer time?
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 at
12:37 pm
when you’re at home?
Also, is it OK to leave fans and AC off during summer time when you’re not at home even during temperatures greater than 80F? If not, what is the best thermostat setting when I’m away from home?
Filed under: Wind Power
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I have always heard 72. It depends on what you are comfortable with.
An air conditioner has to work harder to "catch up" than it does to simply maintain a specific temperature. It’s best to leave it on during warm months and leave it set at the highest setting that is comfortable for you. Also, don’t open windows. This allows humidity to build up in your house, which your a/c has to remove before it can cool efficiently. Turning it on and off, or opening windows will end up costing you more than just leaving the windows closed and the a/c on.
as with a lot of things,balance and moderation are best…setting the tstat temp higher [ or even off] while your gone does save money but at the expense of your comfort when you get home..i would leave the windows closed all of the time until the weather is such that ac is not needed for days at a time..the cooler you keep the house,the more money it will cost you….find the temperature at which you are comfortable and dont keep it any cooler than that….then turn it 3-5 degrees higher than that when you are out of the house..that will save you money and still give you reasonable comfort…a programmable tstat would be good in that you could have the set temperature change back to the lower comfortable setting 30-60 minutes before you get home,,then have it automatically adjust when you leave,etc..that way you dont forget to set it back and also dont have to suffer while it catches up,,best of both worlds………dan