Is it more cost efficient to run your air conditioner continuously at a reasonable temp, or to turn it on/off?
Question:I just moved into an apartment and my roommate and I have AC wars. He wants the AC on during the day when its hot and turned off during the night. He believes its more cost efficient. However it gets incredibly hot by about 10 AM, and I feel that all the power used to get the apartment back to a reasonable temperature is greater than the power needed to continue to run the AC all night.
Obviously there are a lot of variables, but I feel like a constant reasonable temperture is more power/cost efficient than playing catch-up every morning with the intense heat.
Personal experience answers are welcome, but links to help prove my case to my roommate are best. Then again I may be wrong - which is ok too! Whatever leads to saving money!
Answers:
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...
It is much more cost effective to run your a/c all the time than to turn it off and on, when it comes on it must cool everything in the apartment before you start to feel the coolness. My suggestion is to get a night setback thermostat. Set your a/c on a slightly higher setting for the times you are gone and asleep. i.e. 78 while you are gone or asleep and maybe 76 while you are there. The t stat will run you about a hundred bucks but will save you a small fortune...good luck
Run it continuously. If you don't want to have the fan running continuously there is a setting to only have the fan running when the compressor is operating, but running the fan continuously will keep a more stable temp all through the house.
When you turn it off and on, you are causing the compressor to run excessively and that will run up costs.
More Related Questions & Answers...