those with central air, do you leave it on or off when you are gone?

[mtemm]

if you are gone for 4+ hours during the day, do you leave your central air on, or do you shut it off until you get back? if you leave it on, do you change the settings at all?

also, for those with 2 stories/2 units, do you shut off the lower story at night when you are sleeping?

 

[Shmily1]

We leave ours on. It's about 100 here during the day and I believe it takes less energy to keep it cool than to get it cool.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I leave my temp constant to help keep the humidity in check. Even with all of our exterior work to make our home energy efficient, no a/c in the afternoon will turn the house into an 85 degree oven with humidity nearing 60%. Thus it stays on with temps programmer to no higher than 79 to prevent that.

 

[SC Minnie]

We leave ours on all the time. We change the temp slightly if we are going to be gone for a couple of days.

If we turned it off if we were only going to be gone a couple of hours it would take a while and more energy to cool the house down especially since we have had temps above 90 for over 2 weeks. We also have pets in the house.

 

[1stluvispooh]

Ditto! Not that it's usually 100 here but still it takes less energy to keep it cool than to cool off a hot house.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I live in MO so AC is on 24/7 even when we are gone for an extended time.

As a side note it is actually nice out this morning. Finally a real break from the heat. It is 70 degrees right now!!!! With a high of only 81 today.

 

[lovemygoofy]

We have a programmable thermostat that is set to not really kick on much during the day and then an hour before we normally come home the thermostat kicks on to start cooling down.

If I'm going to be gone for days at a time, I do turn it off just because I worry about fire hazard stuff when away.

 

[mamamary]

I would say if I'm going to be gone most of the day I would change the temp a little. I usually only shut it off if we are going away. It's been pretty hot here in Maryland so it's been pretty much going non-stop.

 

[Rora]

I live in South Florida. I usually push my air up to 80 degrees when I leave the house.

 

[luvmy3]

I leave it on when I'm going out for the day. If I leave for a few days I bump the temp up but don't turn it off because of my cats.

 

[shortbun]

on, recovery eats up my bill just as bad. If I'm gone all day, I'll turn it up a couple of degrees.

 

[TerriP]

We have a programmable stat that we use to bring the temp up just a fuzz during the day. Generally, changing the temp more than 10% up or down will result in a loss of efficiency (so says the HVAC hubby), so we don't change the temp all that much.

This year, our oldest dog is really struggling with the heat and humidity, so we've kept the air on lower than normal and have kept it running at that low temp 24/7. The bill is a killer, but my baby is cool and comfortable...and that's all that matters to me!

 

[mom2travel]

We leave our A/C on all the time. I work from home, but even if I am out, it is too hot here that it would be a waste of energy to cool down the house; plus we have pets. We keep the downstairs at a higher temp than upstairs but do not adjust it at night (usually it doesn't run much if at all downstairs at night except when it is exceptionally hot outside and the nighttime temps don't go down much). In the spring and fall, I usually increase the upstairs temperature during the day when I'm here by myself and turn it back down before dinner so my heat-sensitive family can sleep well; I don't bother in the summer since it gets too stuffy if the air isn't running. When we go away for a few days, we raise both thermostats so the A/C doesn't run as much but keep them on, otherwise it would be an oven in here when we returned.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I leave it on all day. Once the house gets hot it is impossible to cool it back down, especially upstairs. Just last night I was asking my DH about getting a small AC unit to cool our bedroom which is the hardest to keep from being an oven.

You can get a programmable thermostat which would allow you to set the temp up when you are away and in the morning and put it much lower during the heat of the day.

 

[joviroxx]

I live in South Florida. I usually push my air up to 80 degrees when I leave the house.

That is what we do.... Our Tstat is programmable and is set for different temps for when we wake up, when we leave the house, when we return and when we go to bed, but when we leave for a week, we put it up to 80, no higher than that. In the summer is can go way higher than 80 in the house with no AC and then it just takes too much energy to cool it back down.

I leave it on all day. Once the house gets hot it is impossible to cool it back down, especially upstairs. Just last night I was asking my DH about getting a small AC unit to cool our bedroom which is the hardest to keep from being an oven.

We are in the process of planning that now. We will be putting in 1 AC for the bedrooms and 1 for the rest of the house. I love the idea of having a back up LOL!

 

[Luvchefmic]

My initial thought when we first moved here was to NOT leave it on all the time thinking it would kill us with the electric bill.....boy was that a mistake...didn't occur to either of us just how much energy/$$ it would take to get the temps down again in the house..The first yr here was a learning period now we leave it on 77 to 79 degrees 24/7 our bill has been pretty steady ranging from $107 to $150 a month. We can live with that. I feel very sad for my friends in the Orlando/Kissimmee area as their electric company seems to charge a LOT more than ours

 

[ugadog99]

Living in Georgia, we have to keep ours running all the time. Otherwise, we'd melt! I have progammable thermostats and leave them at 76 during the early morning/over night. During the heat of the day, it is bumped to 77. By the way, we have a geothermal unit and let me just say...NEVER EVER AGAIN!! Give me a regular old fashioned unit any day over this picky, super sensitive unit! Can't wait for the day when I'm out of this house!!

 

[FireDancer]

We have a programmable thermostat that is set to not really kick on much during the day and then an hour before we normally come home the thermostat kicks on to start cooling down.

This is what I do. I have it set to allow the temp in the house to get pretty warm before turning the air on during the day when I am at work but to come on and cool the house back down a little before I normally get home. I do the reverse in the winter so I am not warming an empty house all day but also not allowing it to freeze over.

If I am going out of town I just temporarily reprogram it to keep the AC or heater from kicking in unless the temperature gets too warm/cold. I wouldn't turn either completely off.

 

[Golf4food]

On, but higher.

Two words: programmable thermostat.

 

[kimmar067]

...we usually leave it on at around 74 degrees....with a Samoyed at home, we don't want her to overheat....