Last night, as I often do, I was chatting with some bloggy friends on Skype. The subject of thermostat settings came up (don’t ask me how). I happened to mention that we set ours at 77 during the summer.
Living in North Texas, air conditioning is a must, even at night. This was quite a change for me when we moved here, considering I lived right near the beach most of my life. In fact, we did not even have air conditioning in our home growing up in Southern California, and then Hawaii. We slept with the windows open, and used fans. I never knew what it was like to run the A/C all day long. Or what that would cost, ouch! But I digress.
My friends were rather surprised at our setting of 77. Their preferences ranged from 72-74. Most people I know also keep theirs around 76-77, which is quite comfortable when it is 102 outside. I must admit I would prefer it a few degrees cooler, but the savings in our electric bill is worth the difference.
Much to my dismay, we also keep our blinds closed most of the summer to keep the house cooler. Fans in all the bedrooms help as well. Our utility bills are reasonable, but I am constantly seeking ways to get them even lower. Not only for the sake of our budget, but to conserve energy.
So I wonder, what is your comfort zone?
Can you handle 77, or even higher? Or does your family prefer a cooler setting?
What other ways do you employ to keep your home cool in the hot summer months?
Please share your thoughts and experiences here in comments. I would love to hear your feedback!
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When we moved down here to the Tampa area, we learned to also run our air conditioning throughout the whole summer. But we keep ours between 83-85. If we have guests, we put it down to 82, and we also run our ceiling fans. We never put it below 80.
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We live close to the Texas coast (halfway between Houston and Galveston) and, during the summer we kick up the a/c to 85 about as soon as we wake up (5a.m.). We close the blinds on the sunny side and open them on the shady side. Around 6p.m. we drop the temp to 80 and then to 75 by the time we start putting kids to bed at 8p.m. Our fans are on constantly. When it’s too hot for words we visit the library or some other place to use, as my grandmother used to say, “other people’s air conditioning”. We live in an older home (read: lacks insulation) with very little shade thanks to Ike. Two refrigerators, an all electric house, and kids don’t make for low bills so we do what we can to save. In the winter the process is reversed. We set the temp around 78 at night and 65 during the day.
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I know that we aren’t as frugal with the thermometer as we could be. We keep the temp. set at 70 during the day in the winter. My elderly mom lives with us and we need to keep her comfortable.
Even at 70 I get cold and wear a sweatshirt, lol!
We live in WA and don’t have an a/c. Man, did I want one this summer when temps got up to 107. My makeup was actually melting off my face in my home!
It was about 100 inside with the fans on at 9:00 p.m. at night. So we spent alot of our time in the basement where it had cooled to the 80s.
But the heatwave is not usual weather for us. It usually will get up into the 80s and occasionally the 90s. We do without an a/c and just suffer. You get used to it after awhile but the triple digits was miserable, even with fans.
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We are 76-77ers also. With ceiling fans in every room and an additional box fan in the bedroom, it’s comfortable. We also keep the blinds and curtains closed and use as little extra electricity as possible. Cooking involves way less oven and more sandwich/salad/no cook options. Several years ago we blew insulation into the attic which was a huge help.
Stay cool!
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I’m in north central Texas, too, and my preference is 77-78. I’m okay with an inside temp up to 79 but once the house hits 80 I am MISERABLE. I be quite happy at 76, but I’m okay giving up a couple of degrees.
Incidentally, the mobile home we have lived in for the past 5 years is so old and leaky and the a/c system so old and inefficient, that we would run it at 80 and it would run nonstop, never kick off, and it would still get up to 90 in the house in the middle of the summer. Our electric bills were outrageous, upwards of $400 at the peak of the summer (for a 1000sqft house!). And the opposite was true in the winter. So last fall we completely turned it off. We enjoyed the comfortable weather when we could with open windows. We ran space heaters when it was cold. And our highest bill at the peak of winter never even reached HALF of what it was the previous year. And we actually felt warm. Now we’re heading into summer and we’re buying window a/c units and we’re hoping they don’t cost too much too run. BUT.. the most interesting part of this story: the electric bills in the fall and spring, when we never ran heat or air conditioner, were almost double when the a/c unit was on but not running, than they were the past fall and spring with no unit, no heaters, etc. The unit itself, just being ON, was using too much electricity. So the moral of the story? I guess it would be to get your systems serviced, keep them up, repair them as needed. (And I wonder if you could get in the habit of completely turning them off in spring and fall when you don’t need it?)
.-= Amber @ Classic Housewife´s last blog ..Menu Plan Monday =-.
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