Just Curious - AC

In texas where we live we have two seasons, extremely hot and extremely cold! From mid april to october it is very hot here! I would say my air is no less than 75 that entire time!

I do not like the AC. We put it in the window as soon as it's been 70 or above for a few days straight...if it were up to me, I wouldn't do it until it was mid 80s, and I'd only run it at night. Others in my house like to have it on from May to November...and we live in MN. May and November are still winter to me.

Girl....I live in Galveston County, Texas....the AC is ALWAYS on!!!! I think we have the heat on a couple of months....MAYBE.... I usually keep it at 73....its HOT outside!!!! (and humid)

Just MY opinion!!!
M:)

It's normally the HUMIDITY that forces me to turn ours on.

Wow, some of your posters must have a high heat tolerance! I get sweaty super easy! I CANNOT sleep if it's hot and sticky despite my best efforts and ceiling fans. I, too, love fresh air and windows open, but if it's remotely humid the air comes on, otherwise I am just one big sweaty mess. I can handle my house being at up to about 78 degrees, without much humidity; it depends on how sunny it is and how much heat is building up in the house. I cannot stand to go to other people's homes and be so sweaty--I mean my shorts stick to my legs, and there is a sweat pool on my back, etc. When we hang out at home, I turn the ceiling fan on if we are watching TV--it does NOT reduce the temp in the room, but it DOES create a wind-chill effect, making it FEEL cooler; turn ceiling fans off (with AC on) if you are not home or in that room. Keep them on if you have windows open to keep air circulating.

I live in Michigan and sometimes the humidity is worse than the heat in the summer! I can tolerate 80s and no humidity better than 60s or 70s with lots of it. I also don't like it when it's been hot all day and then in the evening when it cools off outside, it still feels boiling inside. We keep the temp at 68 during the cold weather and then at 72 in the summer when it starts getting consistently hot.

I hate air conditioning and don't use it.

we need our home at 77 to surrvive our summers here in AZ. So if it is about that in the house, we put our ac on. That starts about 4 weeks ago . lol

Last night is was 82 in the house. Our home just doesn't get a good cross breeze and gets humid quick.

We don't have an attic fan. Our poor Husky mix dog was just miserable, so we turned the ac on.

So we turn it on when it gets to uncomfortable for everyone to sleep well.

I'm the odd man out in my family. I will keep every light off and every window open all summer if I could... BUT the kids get hot, my fiance gets hot... so the AC gets turned on. Lucky for me, I'm the only one home during the day, so I get to conserve some energy and keep it off. Our house is small so it cools off really easy without the AC really having to try, so this is a great compromise for us!

Hah, I live in the Deep South so I have been known to run my AC in January. LOL

I don't wait until a certain time of year as our weather is sooooo variable. Example - it was in the low 50s last week every morning, never going over 75 during the day, so I don't think I ran it all.

But, while I like it cool at night while I sleep, as soon as I get up I push the thermostat up to 76/77 where it stays all day. If it gets miserably hot - like triple digits outside, we "escape" to our family room where I have a little window AC to keep us cool.

I have found I have significantly lowered my electric bill this way. Yippee!!!

God Bless

I don't start turning on the AC until it gets extremely hot like in June and July.

If my inside temperature goes above 72-74 i turn it on. I really like the cold and detest the heat(guess im in the wrong state) But on the bright side october through may i dont touch the ac but a few times. During my spring and summer i spend like 300 a month on my electric bill, but fall and winter i spend like 100.

I can deal with it being 80 degrees or so inside before I think about turning on the AC. I'm lucky that I live in a ground floor condo that is mostly shaded with windows on three sides and a lake breeze. I'm not lucky that I only have a small window AC unit for the bedroom in a 1920s building. So sometimes the noise and the lights dimming is not worth the slight cooling I get from it, so I just turn on the fan and forget it. The last two summers I think I had the AC on for maybe three days. I just wear fewer clothes!

Here in MN we complain about the cold for months, and then in the summer all public buildings and office buildings are AC'ed to the point where you have to wear a sweater! Crazy, and what a waste of energy!

I usually only use the AC during July and August. We are pretty well shaded so my house stays cool pretty good. A lot of the time we open the windows to heat up the house a little. A lot of the time I turn the AC on it is more for the cat and dog who seems to have more trouble with the heat. It usually is when it is close to 90 outside and getting close to 80 or so inside.

The humidity, some heat (we have NO shade trees at all), and allergy season are all factors that induce us to get the Central Air on. Many years its late April but this year we just turned it on a few days ago. I am in Minnesota. But we like it super chilly...many of our friends tease and ask us if its snowing inside the house so they can dress appropriately when they come over! LOL

A few days of rain or overnight rain as well will make us turn it on...the wood trim inside the wondows will get destroyed..and the wood floors and carpet of course, if it rains all night and is warm out enough to need the windows open. Too bad cuz I love the smell of rain as I sleep.

We also did not have good windows for most of the 17 years we have lived here...we installed all new ones 2 years ago..so I really try to have them open when I can....before that we also had a 3 year highway project going on just down the street and could NOT have windows open...the dust and dirt that flew into the house was a nightmare from all the construction, so we got used to them being closed all the time and the air on.

By the way...AC is kept at 68* here (in heating season we keep it at 66* with a drop to 55* at night...like I said, we like it chilly!) I would die of heatstroke at the high temps some of you mention...ugh! LOL

If it's higher than 74 in the house, I have the AC set at 73.

When it's cold, the house must be below 62 before I would turn the heat on and then put it at 63.

Florida is super hot 7 out of 12 months.

It depends on how fat I am, and now that we have leather furniture we will want it on sooner so I don't stick to the couch..lol It's been 89 already for a couple days this year and we didn't use the a/c but I was not happy. I got the fan out of the garage and turned it on so I had some breeze. Now it's cool again and poured rain tonight so I will be ok for a couple days. I'd say about the time it hits 90 for a couple days I will have the a/c going. It's not so much how warm it gets in the daytime, but how warm it stays in the night and gives us no relief. Ceiling fan over the bed helps. I will set the a/c to 75 and try to live with it. I'd like 65 but it costs too much.

80 or above maybe if its really humid but lower then 80 i will turn it on.

were also in AZ and its been on awhile. We keep it at 79.

It's dry where I live and our house is really well insulated. One hot day does not get to us...but heat does build in the attic. I find I need it on the 2nd day and forward of 90 degrees or higher.

I dislike AC, so we don't have it and are not putting it in our new house. We use ceiling fans whenever things get too hot...above 85.

We don't wait until a certain time or temperature. We turn the heat or AC on whenever we feel the need.

We don't skimp on it either... my daughter and I get cold often during the summer. Hubby likes the house nice and comfortable and his comfortable is a lot cooler than ours, LOL

We didn't even put our air conditioning units in last year (and I was pregnant!) That did make for a couple of uncomfortable days, but not many.

Our house has about a million windows, though, and we're on a mountain, so we get a great cross-breeze going. We also spend most of our nice days outside. Front yard in the morning, back yard in the evening (opposite of the sun).