What temp do you keep your A/C?

[leahjade]

My upstairs is too hot, and if I turn it back then my downstairs is freezing! I would like to turn it lower at night to sleep better but am afraid of high electric bills!

 

[angierae]

Ways we have fixed this problem (we have a finished attic bedroom that gets super hot)

We run the FAN 24/7. That way cool air from the basement is bring blown up through the house but it's not air conditioned air.

Also, upstairs in our bedroom the A/C vent is on the floor. We have a tilted fan placed in front of that vent to suck the cold air up and blow it out into the room (towards the bed). About 90 minutes before I go to bed, I turn it on, and it helps get the cold air upstairs better.

Also, close any vents in any rooms you don't use regularly so that the air is blowing stronger into rooms that you do.

(We keep the ac between 74 and 76 depending on how hard it needs to run to combat the outside temp.)

 

[Zhoen]

This happens a lot... the air takes the path of least resistance, so if you have too much cold downstairs and not enough upstairs, you need to make your downstairs more "resistant." I'm assuming you have already shut a lot of your downstairs vents... if that's not doing it, I've seen folks recommend "sealing" the vents with press-n-seal plastic wrap (the stuff you use in the kitchen. It was on another thread.

Our house is pretty bad with the hot upstairs and the frigid downstairs, too, and DH is the WORST for leaving all the vents open downstairs then complaining he's cold... so I'm considering the plastic wrap solution, that way he can open the vents all he wants, nothin's gonna come out ... in the meantime, we actually have an old window unit we put in during the hotter months, otherwise the kitchen would be intolerable... I keep the window unit set to about 73, which keeps the upstairs nice, and keeps the thermostat (which is upstairs, set to 75) from running constantly, freezing the downstairs... it's imperfect, but it's what we get by with...

 

[leahjade]

We run the FAN 24/7

Do you mean on the thermostat setting? Does this cost more on the electric bill?

 

[ilovemk76]

My upstairs is too hot, and if I turn it back then my downstairs is freezing! I would like to turn it lower at night to sleep better but am afraid of high electric bills!

Where are the A/C returns? If they are on both floor, block off the ones on the 1st floor so the hot air from the 2nd floor is removed. Try closing some of the 1st floor vents to push more of the air upstairs. If this does not help, then install fans in the duct work or at the vent to pull more air to the second floor.

Do you have good insulation in the walls and attic?

 

[leahjade]

Where are the A/C returns?

they are on both floors of the house - near the ceiling. Should I close the ones on the first floor?

 

[angierae]

Do you mean on the thermostat setting? Does this cost more on the electric bill?

Yes, but much less than what we were paying to run the A/C more. The air in the basment is like 60-65 degrees and that cold air gets shuttled upstairs. The A/C runs much, much less now and it balances out cheaper.

So we keep the fan on "on" and the AC set to click on at 74 or 76 or whatever. It only runs occasionally, and usually not at all at night. This is the compromise we've found to keep our upstairs bedroom bearable without freezing the downstairs and running the AC at like 68 or 70 (and thus it staying on for ages and ages to get to that temp.)

 

[ilovemk76]

they are on both floors of the house - near the ceiling. Should I close the ones on the first floor?

I would close off all of the first floor returns and see how that works. If the first floor is too hot, then open/partially open the return that is farthest from the stairs to the second floor. It may take a little while to balance the floors.

 

[ilovemk76]

Yes, but much less than what we were paying to run the A/C more. The air in the basment is like 60-65 degrees and that cold air gets shuttled upstairs. The A/C runs much, much less now and it balances out cheaper.

You A/C pulls air from the basement? Our unit is in the basement but no basement air enters the system.

 

[leahjade]

So we keep the fan on "on"

I'm dumb about this sort of stuff - is that the fan in your house - not the fan blades that are turning around on the unit outside?

 

[adventure_woman]

We have a cape code style - so our bedroom is upstairs. We just got new central a/c put in last year. We keep the fan running 24/7 (it is on ON, not auto). When they installed our system, the person said it just cost pennies to run it. We also have a fan that I have running all the time and I have it pointing down the hall, so it pushes all the cooled air around. (it is an older house so it actually doesn't have a return air upstairs). It actually keeps it comfortable - not like the main floor but it is okay... We keep ours set at 75 deg usually.

 

[angierae]

I'm dumb about this sort of stuff - is that the fan in your house - not the fan blades that are turning around on the unit outside?

I'm probably not explaining this well. The A/C compressor is outside, the fan I'm talking about is in the unit in the basement that blows the air either from the A/C (in the summer) or the furnace (in the winter). It's the fan that blows the air through the vents. I tend to refer to the entire unit as the "furnace", I don't know if that's technically correct. But the air it blows is coming from _somewhere_, and it's certainly colder than outside air, so I assumed it was circulating house air, including the basement air.

 

[ilovepete]

75

 

[angierae]

Here's an except from a website that suggests doing what we do:

Keep the furnace fan running!
Most modern homes have thermostats equipped with two settings for the furnace fan: Auto and On. Set yours to the On position and leave it there. That’s good advice for any house, any time, any where. The furnace fan burns very little electricity, but it keeps the air moving continually throughout the house.

If you have a multi-speed fan, set it at one of the slower speeds. If the fan’s too noisy, have the fan’s motor pulley replaced; that will slow it. A slow fan running all the time is much better than many fans running some of the time.

Regardless of the structure – dome or traditional, home or office – a continually running fan continually cleans the inside air. The fan moves more air through the filters. Obviously, you then might have to change the filters more often, but you will have a cleaner, healthier, less costly environment.

During hot weather, most air conditioners do not turn on as often with a furnace fan running. Then too, the furnace fan supplementing the air conditioning lessens the chance of mold and mildew.

Keeping the furnace fan running is another one of those lessons I learned during my Idaho, home-building days. A local Lennox Furnace dealer taught me that. But just the other day, one of my assistants told me that the Owners Manual that came with her recently purchased Carrier Furnace also suggests setting the furnace fan to run continually.

 

[DSNY4ever]

78, we have a one story house.

 

[TwinMamaTastic]

77. We have a 1 story home in Florida.

 

[rluey29]

We never try to go below 80. 2-story home in Florida, we use fans and stay comfortable.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

78 and it is just a one room a/c. The rest of the house is controlled totally with fans. The room with the a/c still seems too cold for me.

 

[furb & dez]

1-story ranch in Arizona... 72º in the winter (late Nov-early Feb), 75º in the summer (Mar-Oct).

 

[BillSears]

83 in the summer. Unless I'm having guests over and then I turn it down to 75.

I'm not so sure about running my furnace fan constantly. My ductwork is in my extrememly hot attic and I'd be worried about blowing hot air into my house in the summer.