What's new
By:

A federal program says you should keep your home above 78 degrees

We rarely use air conditioning in SLC, mostly just on weekends here and there. Not home much on weekdays during the heat of the day. Open windows at night and in the morning helps the house stay well ventilated and cool until late afternoon, then ceiling fans into the evening keeps things pleasant enough. I’ve checked the thermostat maybe twice all summer.
 
I want to know if the good people that put this study together actually keep the temps like they say we should. I guarantee they don't. I like 74ish to live and sleep. We have upstairs and downstairs controls. We have solar (in Norcal its the only way to go) so I leave it at whatever feels most comfortable and DGAF about the bill. I used to be a damned Nazi about the thermostat and would try to leave it at 78ish to sleep because it would keep the bill down a little. The solar life is better.
 
82 at night is crazy talk... I'd be sweating like a mofo. We did a week in Hawaii with no AC in the condo... until it got below 80 at night I couldn't sleep at all.
 
My thermostat year round is set at 74. I put a ceiling fan in my room and am usually quite comfortable.

Sent from my moto z3 using JazzFanz mobile app
 
The wife and I live Southern California, and, for 90% of the year, we deal with what the weather serves up. We take the edge off the coldest weeks with an electric blanket and a small space heater. In the summer, a small AC in one room.

We should be able to power these items with a small solar power system, so I’m finally looking into that in the next few months. If anybody has any good advice, I’d welcome it.
 
Zombie said:
Haha I'd lose my mind. I'm glad I live in a climate that reaches the nineties only rarely.

We'll see how long that lasts.
Click to expand...

Rock Springs is one of my fav places on Earth.

Sodium Carbonate or Trona as it's sometimes called. The sun burns you pretty good even if the air is cool, but the wind is something else. I don't go there between November and April, though....

Here's a great little startup business for you, though, if you're willing to work, that is. And tired of the little community school that endows half-wits with prof status......

Buy an insulated tractor trailer or two. Turn on your garden hose in November. Get some Home Depot buckets.... the orange "You Can Do This" positive indoctrinated ones. Fill up twenty buckets a day, stack them in your trailer. Paint your trailer snazzy, like with a huge blue logo "Way To Be Cool"...... Get your CDL..... get a good powerhouse from Western Star.

Haul 4000 buckets to Las Vegas during Spring Break, and from then on once a week......

damn. I forgot about electricity and ice plants everywhere. oh well....

you'd do better to get a job driving truck for Trona. If you get stuck in the snow, I hear it makes great de-icing fluid...... people will love you.

Finally.......
 
NAOS said:
The wife and I live Southern California, and, for 90% of the year, we deal with what the weather serves up. We take the edge off the coldest weeks with an electric blanket and a small space heater. In the summer, a small AC in one room.

We should be able to power these items with a small solar power system, so I’m finally looking into that in the next few months. If anybody has any good advice, I’d welcome it.
Click to expand...

Lots of people doing business putting solar on house rooftops. In the LA area, I think it pays.... pays for itself pretty quick, with years of positive returns on your investment. The solar panels shield the sun a bit from directly hitting your roof, which is likely tiile, and insulated underneath, anyway, but.... on those really hot days when the sun just doesn't quit 'til ten, it's a degree cooler I'm sure.

LA should have a city or country ordinance reducing property taxes by a hundred bucks for people who have solar on their roofs. Way better than paving Southern Nevada with miles and miles of solar panels. Less line loss, too.
 
Gameface said:
I'm gonna have to take a HARD pass on that suggestion. 78? 85? **** that!

I've been really proud of myself this year, I've been keeping the thermostat at 73. That's hot for me. If Energy was free and I wasn't married I'd keep my house at 67-68. The think that has helped me deal with 73 is that I bought a room air conditioner for my bedroom and I turn it on when I go to sleep and keep my bedroom at 64 while I'm sleeping. I sleep WAY better when the room is cool.
Click to expand...
You have a link to the one you bought?
 
The whole air conditioning is wasteful thing seems like an excuse for urban Northerners to sneer at us Southerners. So we spend money and resources to lower the temperature 30 degrees in the summer. How much energy are those dudes using to RAISE the temperature 50 to 60 degrees all winter? How much gas goes into snowplows?

True sustainability requires you move out of the damn tundra (where many of the biggest cities in the US are.)
 
Saint Cy of JFC said:
I do 80 during the day and 75 at night. 80 isnt bad if you just wear shorts.
Click to expand...
I set the thermostat at 75 during the day and 71 at night. I pretty much live in the family room, (which is between the main floor and the basement) and yeah, I wear shorts and use a fan.

The bedroom upstairs gets around 80 in the late afternoon, but lowering the temp to 71 after the sun goes down does a good job of cooling it for sleep. After the house is cooled to 71, the air conditioner doesn't kick in until around 10 am the next day.

And sometime around 2:00 am, during one of my many pee breaks (damn prostate!) I open the bedroom windows to let in the cool night air.

Looks like my electric bill this month is $99.
 
Red said:
Two bedroom apt, with one air conditioner in the living room. If the dew point is in the 70's, I leave the air conditioner at 70 when I go to bed, around 1 AM. The Mrs. retires well before me, and will be asleep by then. We use separate bedrooms, because my C-Pap machine noise bothers her. If the dew point outside is in the lower 60's, I open a window, no air conditioner, and try to fall asleep. Once asleep, the heat won't wake me.
Click to expand...

I don't use my C-Pap anymore, instead I have a fan blowing into my face. The fan blows away my exhaled breath and creates a positive pressure zone for inhaling. I find this much more comfortable than a C-Pap and it helps to cool me during the night. During the winter, I just throw on a couple more comforters to snuggle in.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Red
The low here overnight drops to 70-ish but not soon enough for open windows to make much of a difference, and it only stays that low for a few hours. So my air conditioner runs probably 16 to 20 hours per day I'd bet. It's much better since we got our landlord to install vinyl windows to replace the crappy aluminum windows that we dealt with our first year here. That was horrible.

My neighbor leaves their thermostat at 80 all the time. Blows my mind. He even has solar all over his roof. He said his electric bill is like 60 bucks a month and he refuses to pay more than 100 no matter what. It's stifling in his house. I don't know how he stands it.
 
Sure, I'll keep my house at 85f, I'll just spend all my free time driving around using the AC in my car.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page
Back
Top