At what temperature do you turn on the A/C?

[Simple Abundant Living]

It was mid-90's today, but thanks to a whole house fan, cool dry evenings, solar screening, and shade- we didn't turn on the A/C. The house got up to 81 inside.  I can see daytime triple digits/evening higher temps might break me. What's your breaking point?

[wtjbatman]

With these humid midwest summers, even if we had to pay the electric bill (we don't, thank god), I think we would still run the AC once it reaches high 70's and humid. If it's not humid, maybe let it get to 80.

[horsepoor]

When it starts hitting 80 inside.  Ive found that we just dont sleep well ifits hotter than that.  Worth the money to avoid the chronic sleep deprivation.

[Emg03063]

78

[wtjbatman]

When it starts hitting 80 inside.  Ive found that we just dont sleep well ifits hotter than that.  Worth the money to avoid the chronic sleep deprivation.

I should have said that. Ok, yeah, I can sit in front of a fan or whatever when I'm awake. Even if I'm not comfortable, I'll live. But trying to sleep while hot and sweaty, and the blankets on the bed are sticking to me and my fiance? Um, no.

[taekvideo]

Our thermostat is set at 69F and will probably be there all summer long...
Not my preference obviously, but since my roommates live in the upstairs (where it's hotter) and the cost is split 4 ways anyways, I decided to just let them have that one.

[John74]

I don't have A/C. It sometimes gets up to 85F in our apartment. I've gotten used to it.

[MrWednesday]

Between 83 and 87. It depends on how humid and if I am trying to sleep or not. I'll set it at 83 at night and aim a box fan at my bed to sleep. Works well.

[soccerluvof4]

Its one comfort I am willing to pay for especially since its been in the tropics here in the Midwest lately. Since I am home quite a bit I check the weather and change the settings based on temp and dampness and usually find during the days its fine and will turn on to 74 if the nights not going to cool down. Need to sleep. Dont enough as it is.

[High FIdelity]

I'll sometimes kick the AC on in my bedroom for maybe 30 mins before I head off to sleep just so I have a touch more comfort falling asleep (am I going to care once I'm out till daylight?), though more of a treat than nightly occurrence.

I have a nice fan in the living room that's more than enough for me.  I'll usually only kick the AC on there if I have guests coming over.  A few cold glasses of water and the heat doesn't really affect me, though I understand others may not feel similarly.

[GuitarStv]

Depends on humidity, not temperature.  I'm comfy at 30 C (80 F) with little to no humidity, but 22 (71 F) can be miserable to sleep in if it's 100% humidity.

[guitar_stitch]

85 during the day for the most part.  78 in the evening when the outside thermal load is lower AND while I'm cooking.  76 at night because it aids sleep.

[nereo]

I'll turn it on when the inside temperature hits 85ºf (29.5ºC).  Fans, curtains and insulation do a wonderful job of keeping it from reaching that temp on all but the hottest weeks.

[nordlead]

It basically has to hit 88 or hotter before I'll turn on the AC, and even then I personally wouldn't care too much if I can sit out on the porch with the ceiling fan running. I have a ceiling fan in my bedroom too, so the AC is pretty much never on at night. This is in the humid upstate NY area too.

So far it has hit 89 twice and I'm yet to turn on the AC.

[hybrid]

We keep the AC set at 78, and as everybody else has said it's all about the humidity in the summer, not the heat. It was 85 Monday but we had a rare day where a high pressure system in the NE pumped drier air into the region. It was glorious that day.

Today is going to be 89 and the winds are pumping in from the south with all that gulf stream moisture. It's not the four degrees that are making the difference today.

[netskyblue]

I keep the AC set to 80 (AND the heat, in the winter!).  I like heat.  I dislike humidity.

If the temp gets below 76, I'm bundled up in winter clothes, under piles of blankets.

[clarkm04]

Live in the humid Midwest so 76 is the temp we set in the summer when we are here and 85 when we are gone. 

In the winter the heat is set at 66 when here and 58 when gone.

Tried 78, but the humidity made it too uncomfortable so we dialed it down 2 degrees.  Both of always feel cold when we are at other places since the common temp maintained by most friends and businesses is 68 - 71.

[Cromacster]

If I feel the need, I set it at 78.  Thus far this year I have not turned it on.  It still gets quite cool at night and the wonderful tree on the southern side of our house shades the entire house during the hot parts of the day.

A newly installed ceiling fan over our bed has done wonders for comfort while sleeping in the heat.  I will have to see how much it helps when it actually gets hot out.  The pup gets a fan too, he's so spoiled.

[ivyhedge]

75F-76F.


My wife is from a more equatorial region than I, and our doge is a mid-pint double coated furball.


Both must be much comfort.

[frugalnacho]

We try to avoid turning it on.  My wife fired it up last week while it was in the 90's.  I was out of town on business so I don't know what the inside temp was.  We can usually keep the house pretty cool by putting fans in the windows at night, and closing the shades during the day.  Probably won't turn it on until the inside temp gets close to 90.   Though I may lower that to the lower 80's during the night time.  Even when we do turn it on we adjust it to how hot it is outside.  If it's 100 degrees out the house feels great cooling it down to 88.  If you feel hot you just have to go back outside for a bit, then the 88* feels wonderful again.

[Little House]

When the indoor temperature hits 80, I turn the A/C onto 77 or 78. Thankfully, June has been pretty mild and we've only used the A/C intermittently.

[bogart]

I'd live with it set much higher and on at much higher temperatures than DH wants, but since it affects his ability to sleep, I've surrendered on this one.  We set it between 74 (his choice) and 78.  For me, the cut point ends up being not so much how hot it gets by day but how cool it gets at night -- once the lows don't drop below 70, it's pretty much impossible to cool the house enough with a fan at night that it stays cool enough during the day.  And the humidity here -- well at this moment it's 85%, so coolish-but-swamplike doesn't work great for cooling particularly DH down (so running the a/c just in the afternoon and fans at night really doesn't solve the problem once the lows are 70+).

Our house is not well designed/built for energy efficiency, but our lot is very shady, so the house stays pretty cool if we can get it cool overnight.  I do use the whole house (central system) fan some even when not running the a/c because having the air moving (everywhere) helps, and we also have 2 ceiling fans in the main "public" part of our house that help.  This summer I've taken to putting the central fan on "on" rather than "auto" as I think it helps it feel a bit cooler even with the a/c set a bit higher.

[Richmond Savers]

We keep the thermostat set to 80 degrees during the day so the A/C doesn't have to turn on terribly often.  We'll cool it down a bit before going to sleep, because we've found that isn't the idea temp for us to sleep and it isn't worth being zombies just to save a few bucks a month.

Our bills are ridiculously low, so this seems to be working reasonably well...

[CarDude]

Day: 74.
Night: 71.

When I'm home alone, I'll push the day up to 76 and use the ceiling fan.

[lizzzi]

During the day, 76 to 78 for myself and husband. The lower figure is if it is very humid. If we have company, I'll set it at 74, as most people seem more comfortable when it's a little cooler. It is always turned off at night, and I open the bedroom windows--we have good cross-ventilation, a private yard, and plantation shutters. (Unusual in Ohio, I think--but they are great. I've never had them before, but they were already installed when we bought the house--you can adjust for privacy and ventilation, and don't have to dink around with curtains.)

[Rural]

We're earth sheltered with high thermal mass from our concrete slab floor and poured concrete walls on three sides.


All that translates to the house never goes above 78 degrees in summer or below 52 in winter, even without any artificial climate control. I freeze without heat, sadly, so we heat in winter, especially on cloudy days (we're also set up for passive solar heating so often we don't need anything when the sun is shining).


In summer, we're comfortable at 78, so the only consideration is the indoor humidity. But since we're Deep South and earth sheltered, that can be an issue. We turn on AC when the indoor humidity hits 70 percent and add a dehumidifier if it rises to 75. Mold starts at about 76-78 percent, so we take it seriously.

[Bookworm]

We turn it on when we feel hot. Sometimes it's at 80, other times it has climbed up to 84 or 85 before we realize it's uncomfortable. It depends on what we're doing.

[eil]

I've been trying to see how long we could go this year without turning on the AC at all. We haven't had any really hot days so far, so we've been pretty lucky. I think we had  day or two in the high 80's. However, I came home yesterday (not a hot day) and the house was closed up and the AC running. Asked the DW what was going on. Apparently it was too humid indoors.

So, this year: June 24.

[darkadams00]

Away from home more than 1/2 day: 82
At home/away from home < 1/2 day: 80
At night: 78

Nice little curve that becomes as much a habit as turning out lights once warm weather arrives.

[Simple Abundant Living]

I came home from work today (95 degrees today) The kids (20, 18,... 6) were home with screen doors and window open!!!  Inside temp was 84-85 before the outside was cool enough to turn on the whole house fan. I've decided that beyond 85 might be my limit.  And we are going to have a family council on how to keep the house cool in the daytime when mom isn't home!

No judgement on A/C use those living in humidity!  We lived in Cincinnati for years and ran A/C 24/7 in the summer.  Coming from the mountain west, I remember being amazed that there was no relief in the shade or at night!  I miss the lightning bugs, but not that much!

[theSchmett]

80s (inside) or if very humid.