Home Owners in Hot Temp. Areas in here..

[vhato]

Here in south Louisiana our temps are ~95 degrees and over 100 degrees when figuring humidity.

 

I have a 2 year old home of ~1700 sqft of living area and I *think* 3.5 tons of A/C and a Digital Thermostat.

 

I want to optimize my A/C and want some opinions.

 

Currently my Thermostat is programmed for Monday-Friday. I have it configured to keep the house 80 degrees between 7:00AM and 4:30PM. At 4:30PM it cools the house to 74 degrees and keeps it at 74 degrees until 7:00AM the next day. Basically the house is 80 degrees when I am at work and 74 degrees when I am at home. I get home at 6:00PM

 

It takes 2.5 hours to drop my home temp from 80 degrees to 73 degrees (Digital units always drop the temp 1 degree below your setting).

My current bill for summer time is ~$150.00 a month.

 

TIA

 

My questions are:

 

1. Am I saving any money doing it this way or should I leave my home at 74 degrees all the time??

 

2. Should my home cool 6 degrees faster than 2.5 hours? Meaning my builder slipped in a 3-ton unit.

[Mighty HD]

Holy moly thats all you pay is $150????????????? d**n thats dirt cheap. My bill was $220. I have a large 1400sq ft 2 bedroom/1 bath block house built in the 1950's. We have new windows, new roof, hardwood floors are sealed, new doors I put in, etc. Can't get it down.

 

I have it set Monday-Friday 81 deg to begin @ 6am when I am gone (usually @530am, and my wife is gone by 8.) The sun is nto out so it's fine.

 

By 4:30 I have it cool to 78deg, it starts to run @ 4:00pm in recovery mode. It runs, and runs, does NOT shut off. Then at 8:00pm it is set to drop it to 74 so it's nice to sleep. It still has NOT shut off since 4:00pm. It will eventually shut off for about 15-20 minutes around 10-12pm.

 

Had the a/c people check it out and they say its running perfect. The unit is the perfect size for the house (3.5 or 4 ton Lennox).

 

As a matter of fact it's running now

[Nick2000Gmc]

a few thoughts I am no expert on AC, But I do work for a electrical utility. At my work the have an energy advisor guy that will check your home and advise on ways to save money. believe it or not one of your biggest bandits for heat is your hot water tank, think about it, your holding 60 gallons or more at 170 f all day and night, thermal blankets will save there, or be cheap and wrap in insulation blankets. Anyways I think up here they say for every degree you turn the temp down you save 3 % so I'd guess your ac would probaly be about the same if not better. Also some thoughts on saving energy

 

1. Those florescent lights ( They pay for themselves over time )

2. How good a programmable thermostat do you have ( some are better, aubi is a good name, I just bought some Noma's they were on sale and I wish I could advantage of Aubi's heat system for baseboard heat) if you have baseboard look it up, aubi can save you a lot of money They can throttle down your heater.

3. Turn you water heater down to 130, Any less won't kill harmful bacteria in your dishwasher, be warned you won't have as much hot water though

4. Maybe call someone who can do thermal imaging, I know for the winter months we have one and you can see where the heat leaks out by the different colours, so your house would be the same for AC.

5. New windows, did they insulate around the frames properly

6. How is your insulation, insulation should cover your roof joists, so about 6 to 8 inchs at the least, helps maintain cool and heat.

7. How old are your appliances fridge is a big bandit actually too.

8. open your windows at night and let the cool air in and close during the day during summer.

 

Most Important ( My Deregulation Spiel )

 

 

9. remember that between different states can be a difference of more than 50% in the cost for electricity ( Big business will not save you money, public utility's are non profit they pass what they can save to you, or would you rather a private business tell you what to pay, seeing as there is no competition )

 

I mention this because at the moment I pay 7 cents Canadian per kilowatt, which is less than I bet most will be paying here ( Fact remember canadian, thats about 5 cents american ) And I am an employee and a customer of a public utility.

 

Anyways hope this helps with the AC problem and if anyone wants to add anything I'd love to see it and if you have a question regarding your electricity I am always happy to maybe shed some light

[Tucson_02Silverado]

Definitely don't have your humidity to deal with.

39+ days consective over 100 here in Tucson. Average for July seems to be around 104, at 10PM average around 95, with 72 by 0430

 

New construction 1900SqFt 12SEER Carrier AC

0800-1600 set to 85

1600-0800 set to 80

average $80 per month May-Sep

all rooms have ceiling fans, turn on when in particular room then off on exit.

All major interior lights are flourescent. Outside night lights on dusk/dawn sensors.

 

Setting the temp to 74 in high humidity, don't you get a lot of condestion/mold problems?

[vhato]

Thanks for the comparison and advice guys.

 

Currently my Water Heater and Home Heater are Natural Gas. That costs me $34 a month in use and during winter that rises to $90. Of course Electricicty falls to $40 during Winter.

 

According to the bill ($145.92), As of June, I consumed 57 KWH (1777 KWH for the month...31 days) of energy a day and paid $4.62 a day for it. It also says the cost of a KWH is .014410.

 

I am going to increase the temp in my home to 78 degrees all the time except during sleep hours in which I will reduce it to 74 degrees.

 

My bill wasn't scaring me, I just didn't like the idea of my compressor running 2.5 hours non stop. I wanted to be sure I was using my energy efficiently.

 

Of course it takes some A/C to cool down my computer room. My CPU is overclocked 16% and Video Card is Overclocked 8%. There are a total of 9 fans in the PC and during full load my 750 VA UPS cannot supply the necessary power. No games when the Power is out. As we speak the cases thermometer shows a temperature of 101 degrees, just browsing the net. I am sure this baby has a small effect on my bill too.

[ElephantNest]

We live in Southeast Louisiana also, and keep the thermo on 75 degrees, always. Used to be 74, always, but Lori talked me into trying 75, and so far I'm dealing with it.

 

We have about 1700 SqFt, and our bill runs about $200.00/month. I work outside, so having the house anything but cold is not an option. I may even have to go back to 74 when August and Sept. hit.

 

It's 85 degrees with 70% humidity at 7:00 A.M. This is the nicest it will be all day.

 

Sry, forgot to mention, our unit is a 3 ton unit. We also have a window unit running 24/7.

[boakes]

You guys are lucky. Here in upstate new york are summer bills are low(june-sept), but in the winter most people are paying $600 a month for heating and thats keeping the thermometer at 65 degrees in the dead of winter, which means wearing bundling up just to watch tv in the living room. But, we have to deal with new york state electric and gas which always send us stuff on how much money we are saving, I just laugh when compared to other states. I would take $200 a month in winter any day. Everyone I know has a budget with the utility company to help spread their winter bills over the year, so I average $212 utility bill every month. Kinda stinks, later.