How hot does it have to be for you to use your AC?

[arminnie]

As soon as it warms up outside, by late spring, our AC is on. We usually keep the AC on 75 when we are home during the day and 74 at nite when we're sleeping.

I'm drooling with envy disneysteve. I live with my 85 year old dad who likes to keep the thermostat at 80-84 degrees. It does keep our bills low in the summer (at least we don't have huge heating bills because of the temperate climate). I sleep with a fan blowing directly on me.

We have central heat and air and the thermostat is usually just set to automatic. I do try to get the temp down to 78 in the winter and can close off my room entirely.

 

[polkadotladybug]

Well the humidity is what's awful here in South Carolina (that AND the heat - LOL) - my dh likes to keep it on 78 and gets on me if I change it. The thing is - he's at work all day in an office where they keep it so cold he wears long sleeved shirts in the summer and doesn't even turn his ac on much on the drive home at night, since he feels like he's "thawing out". Now me on the other hand - I'm a SAHM (when I'm not running around all over town! LOL) - when it's 97 degrees out - 78 doesn't feel much better inside. I turn it down and then try to remember to turn it up again before he gets in to see it - LOL - Not like he'd freak out on me - but he would say something about our electric bill being higher.......but blah blah blah - in one ear, out the other - I can't stand to sweat in my own house!

I absolutely can't stand to be hot - I'm sure part of it is that I need to lose some extra weight, and that keeps me warmer. I'd love to be skinny and freezing all the time. LOL!

 

[pearlieq]

It goes on when the internal temperature gets above 72. We generally keep it at 70 or so for the entire cooling season.

We make up the money in the winter when we keep the house at 65!

 

[MickeyMonstersMom]

I didn't even have A/C until I was given a window unit last year, so I don't use it much. The inside thermostat has to be pegged at 80 and the humidity high before I turn it on (it's set to 75 but I turn it on and off manually as needed) - it's much more about the humidity than the temperature.

 

[DVC Sadie]

We try to keep our thermastat set at 72 degrees in the summer. It's been so hot here for so long that I swear we went straight from fall to summer.

My husband has bad allergies so opening windows even if it was cool enough is not a viable option. I must be going through menopause because I have to have the AC set to around 68 at night so I can sleep.

 

[Todd&Copper]

I hate AC. I am sitting here. It is a balmy 83 degrees and my windows are wide open. It got up to 87 today (I think) and my windows were open all day. I will only turn it on when it hits 90 with high humidity or my DH throws a fit (whatever comes first). Even then, I never set it below 78.

I do the same (down to the husband throwing a fit!), except I set it to 76 at night and 77 during the day.

 

[patsal]

85 and humid with no breeze, we live by the lake so very often it cools down nicely at night, but with bedrooms on the second floor once it gets to 85 even with all the windows open it is stifling up there and no one can sleep, I'll gladly pay for AC to get a good night's sleep! I set the winter thermostat at 68 and the summer A/C at 74. I figure if everyone can wear shorts at 68 in the summmer that is good enough for the heat and I'm not turning on the A/C for the kids to put on sweatshirts!

 

[kfeuer]

I also have bad allergies, so no open windows for us. 80 is usually when we turn the air on. We keep our thermostat at 78 during the summer. It's comfortable downstairs, but the heat rises and our upstairs is often hot when we go to bed. We have ceiling fans in all the bedrooms so we just deal with it. We can't afford to turn the a/c any lower in a hot Georgia summer.

 

[hsmamato2]

Brrrrrr! I'm not going to visit you guys, most of you keep your houses too cold!
I like feeling warmth,and summer weather.... and we don't have central air, we have 3 window units for our 3 level house, so last weekend it got to 89-90,with massive oppressive humidity,then we turned them on,even then,I set them pretty high, like 74 during the day,and 75 at night,I HATE being cold!
The main reason we turn them on is to reduce the humidity in the air, which makes it feel oppressive- DH is an a/c man for work,and he's big on humidity levels,etc-
If the kids complain about the heat(poor darlings) I offer to squirt them with a hose!

 

[Free4Life11]

I live in a small second floor apartment. I never open the windows. I turn on the AC depending on the temperature in my apt. Right now it says 81.5 but I feel fine. I turn it off when I leave the home in the morning and usually don't turn it on until I get home at night and only if it's 85 in my apartment. I usually take a cold shower at night and don't wear a lot of clothes when I'm in the apt., but it helps that I'm single

 

[rparmfamily]

I live in Florida, so most of the year I don't really have a choice about the A/C, it's just ON! LOL I turn it on when I start to sweat in the house, probably around 76 degrees I guess.

 

[snowbunny]

Don't ever have to worry about when to turn it on because I don't have it. There are about four days each summer here in Maine where I would be tempted if I did have it, maybe less.

 

[spaceacewannabe]

No AC here! We used to have window air conditioners, but we decided they were kind of ugly and we probably didn't need them as often as we'd use them if they were in.
We keep our windows open as often as possible---well into the eighties. If it's going to get into the nineties, or humid upper eighties with no breeze, we close up in the morning when the outside temp starts to get above the inside temp. We turn on fans and close the blinds...or we go out and run errands so we're not generating more heat in the house. We had mostly upper 80's and well into the 90's last summer, with a few 100+ days, and we were just fine! And when we got to Disney in August, it didn't feel uncomfortably warm at all! In fact, after a rain storm one day, I was COLD!

 

[arminnie]

he's at work all day in an office where they keep it so cold he wears long sleeved shirts in the summer and doesn't even turn his ac on much on the drive home at night, since he feels like he's "thawing out".

I can identify with that. Decades ago when mainframe computers had to be kept in very cold rooms, my cubicle was just across from where they were installing the new mainframes. They put in all of the a/c and I promise it was in the 50s in my office.

I would walk about side in the 102 Texas heat and my teeth would still be chattering from how cold I was.

 

[BelleBeautyandtheBeast]

I have ours set somewhere around 78, 79 or 80. I do not turn it on unless it is over 82 outside. It has only been on a handful of days so far this summer.

 

[HayGan]

WOW! I can't believe how low some people like their temps! We don't turn on the AC unless the house goes to 80 degrees or above. Even then, we only turn it down to 78 degrees. We run a fan in the living room and master bedroom to help circulate air (and because DH likes really cold air blowing on him ) On the days when nobody is home then we set it to 83 degrees and have the AC kick on about 30 minutes before we expect to be home.

I keep the curtains/blinds closed while we are away to keep the house cooler as well.

Our average electric bill in the summer is in the typically $65 - $80 range

 

[shades]

Now I can understand why so many people have expensive electric bills after reading this post! Ours is set at 80/82 during the daytime and 78 at night. At 68-70 degrees, I'd have to wear sweats around the house because I'd FREEZE

 

[tabrizia]

We tend to turns on when it hit the mid-80s outside, so around 80 inside. We try to keep it around 78-80 during the day when I'm the only one home, since it doesn't bother me that warm. Hubby tends to turn it down to 76 or so when he gets home because he likes it cooler, I'd love to push it down to 70 or so to sleep, but our electricity bill is already fairly high, so it tends to go up to 78ish again at bedtime. I'd prefer to keep it a bit cooler, but considering energy costs and the fact that our bill will be rising due to the end of a deregulation thing in Maryland (at least it isn't rising the ~75% it was supose to) we are trying to cut down on energy a bit.

 

[kritter]

I only turn it on when the thermostat inside says 80...then we will turn it on...otherwise it is the ceiling fans...I really do not like the air on..would rather the fresh air...

 

[bamamom]

As soon as it hits 75 in the house ( usually early April late March) the AC goes on and stays on until usually late Oct. We keep the AC on 70 and at night sometimes I bump it up to 73 because it get cold in the house after the sun goes down. DH would like it to be on 68 all the time. We too only have about a week break between time the AC goes off until the heat comes on. I hate our electric bill each month