Does your home have AC?

[JewelFreak]

I don't know how people survived in the South without it. No wonder women got the vapors! Corsets, layers of clothing...I'd flake out too.

We rarely turn on both units -- only when the temp is above about 97. The upstairs zone cools the whole house very well; a lot of trees shading the roof help (but engender big gutter-cleaning bills, erg). Even when the temp is low 90s we don't need to turn on the A/C till afternoon. Our highest bill in summer was around $250 for 3100 sq. ft., but that includes all electricity, with both of us home all day. Highest heat bills in winter are $100 more/month (it's electric, so includes all other stuff) -- we usually only have to turn on downstairs heat to warm the whole house.

I bless the guy who invented a/c every single summer day!

--- Laurie

 

[missy]

Ditto Laurie-I bless the person who invented a/c almost every single day too LOL!

Yes we have wall a/c units in each room in our NY apt and a 2 zone central a/c system at our beach house. I much prefer the central a/c. Quiet and cool. The wall a/c's are good enough and do the job but not as quiet or smooth as central a/c.

And we have ceiling fans in the bedrooms in both homes and the living room at the beach house. Love ceiling fans for moving the air and creating a lovely cool breeze.

Not sure about the monthly cost as I don't take care of the bills but I think electric is a few hundred a month during the summer? But not sure on that.
It's worth every penny whatever it is IMO.

 

[chrono]

Many years ago, I lived in a home without AC and the weather was in the 90 to over 100 degrees F temps and almost 100% humidity. Somehow I survived. Today, our house has AC set to around 72 degrees F in the summer time and our electric bill as been as high as $160 thereabouts. Strangely enough, I melt as soon as the temperature is in the 80s these days.

 

[missy]

Many years ago, I lived in a home without AC and the weather was in the 90 to over 100 degrees C temps and almost 100% humidity. Somehow I survived. Today, our house has AC set to around 72 degrees C in the summer time and our electric bill as been as high as $160 thereabouts. Strangely enough, I melt as soon as the temperature is in the 80s these days.

Chrono, I find that as I get older my tolerance for heat and cold has changed and I think that has much to do with what physiological changes our bodies go through as we get older. And not as much to do with the conveniences we have today vs when we were younger. That is, for me I am much more sensitive to both cold and heat and tolerate both much less well these days.
If that makes sense.

 

[Niel]

Many years ago, I lived in a home without AC and the weather was in the 90 to over 100 degrees C temps and almost 100% humidity. Somehow I survived. Today, our house has AC set to around 72 degrees C in the summer time and our electric bill as been as high as $160 thereabouts. Strangely enough, I melt as soon as the temperature is in the 80s these days.

Do you mean °f? 100°C - isn't that the boiling point?

 

[chrono]

Do you mean °f? 100°C - isn't that the boiling point?

You are indeed correct! I was so busy doing the temperature conversion from C to F that I'd forgotten to switch the temperature units too.

Chrono, I find that as I get older my tolerance for heat and cold has changed and I think that has much to do with what physiological changes our bodies go through as we get older. And not as much to do with the conveniences we have today vs when we were younger. That is, for me I am much more sensitive to both cold and heat and tolerate both much less well these days. If that makes sense.

Yes, it makes sense. I do find that my comfortable temperature range is very narrow although it still tends to be on the slightly cooler side. 60F to 75F are ideal temps for me.

 

[Niel]

Do you mean °f? 100°C - isn't that the boiling point?

You are indeed correct! I was so busy doing the temperature conversion from C to F that I'd forgotten to switch the temperature units too.

Ha! That's OK. I appreciate the effort to convert! I only know what -40, 0, and 100 is in °C

 

[missy]

Do you mean °f? 100°C - isn't that the boiling point?

You are indeed correct! I was so busy doing the temperature conversion from C to F that I'd forgotten to switch the temperature units too.

Chrono, I find that as I get older my tolerance for heat and cold has changed and I think that has much to do with what physiological changes our bodies go through as we get older. And not as much to do with the conveniences we have today vs when we were younger. That is, for me I am much more sensitive to both cold and heat and tolerate both much less well these days. If that makes sense.

Yes, it makes sense. I do find that my comfortable temperature range is very narrow although it still tends to be on the slightly cooler side. 60F to 75F are ideal temps for me.

LOL I wish I had such a wide comfort range temp wise. My dh jokes (and it's mostly true unfortunately) that I have a personal comfort range of 70-71 degrees Fahrenheit hahaha. Sad but true. As you can imagine I can be a bit difficult to live with these days LOL.

 

[chrono]

In the house, I prefer 72 to 75 but when going out, I can always put on a jacket or sweater. I love wearing jackets/coats so I don't mind an outside temperature as low as 60 F.

 

[missy]

In the house, I prefer 72 to 75 but when going out, I can always put on a jacket or sweater. I love wearing jackets/coats so I don't mind an outside temperature as low as 60 F.

Me too. I am talking about inside temps. I love wearing jackets outside and have quite the collection. I love style and jackets and boots are a big part of that. I would hate it to be too warm all year round to wear those. I love the change in seasons but I prefer inside temps to be a constant comfortable range at all times. Which is pretty much asking for the impossible at work where they seem to be unable to keep it at any comfortable range for any length of time.

 

[dk168]

I do not like the heat, which was one of the many reasons why I decided to stay in the UK permanently instead to move back to HK where I originated.

I was used to having air con at home in HK, and when I bought my new car in 2002, one of the "must have" option was climate control, which I set at 17 deg C nearly permanently throughout the year.

When I bought my current home in 2006, again, one of the "must have" was air con, and I installed air con in the house in the sitting room and the main bedroom, the two rooms I would use the most.

The type of air con installed is "heat pump", and it can be used to provide heating as well as cooling.

Very happy bunny here when the temperature goes above 20 deg C, as I can go home and chill.

DK

 

[mary poppins]

We have dual zone air condition system. I don't recall what our highest bill has been.

To keep the upper levels of the house cooler and reduce costs, we installed a dehumidifier which really makes a big difference both in comfort level and cooling efficiency. Also to reduce costs, we installed Nest thermostats which have been fabulous. https://nest.com/thermostat/life-with-nest-thermostat/

ETA: Oops, forgot to mention we also have ceiling fans in all bedrooms and the living room. DH really likes them, but I don't like the way the air movement feels. We use them because they make DH more comfortable and I appreciate the cost savings aspect.

 

[Sparklelu]

We live I'm SWFlorida so we have to have AC. We have a 2200 sq ft under air and DH installed programmable digital thermostats. Most days we keep the house at 80 when no one is home it goes to 78 about an hour before we are due home. It can be manually changed of course.
If we have lots company or the oven is on, I might bump the AC to 76. We have to when they grand kids are in and out of the pool and lanai.
We have ceiling fans in every room. We added solar film on our windows many years ago and the main rooms have Plantation shutters in the windows. My bedroom gets cold!
That said we have monthly electric bills that avg 180.00.
Christmas lights bring December to about $220.00.
We never use our heat, it costs about 35.00 per day to use the electric for heat!!!!!
We have space heaters that even though they are electric don't add too much to the monthly bill.

 

[liaerfbv]

I honestly don't know if there are homes in FL that don't have AC. If we do, I've never been in one or heard or anyone NOT having AC - that's just barbaric down here in our 90,000% humidity. I'd give up diamonds before I gave up AC! Our power bill is normally around $200/month in summer, but I think our highest of all time was about $350.

 

[JewelFreak]

Chrono|1400242571|3674045 wrote:Many years ago, I lived in a home without AC and the weather was in the 90 to over 100 degrees C temps and almost 100% humidity.

Haha! Sometimes it feels like 100º C! Heat & humidity have always bothered me but, like you & Missy, Chrono, it really flattens me as I get older. I've noticed it more over the last 10 yrs -- used to be able to garden all morning, but now I flake out after 2 hrs. It just gets too miserable, which annoys me no end.

--- Laurie

 

[psproot12]

A.C., humidifier, dehumidifier, air purifier, I can't live in a non climate controlled environment! I'm stationed in Tulsa right now, and I'm on contract here at least until July 2015, and it is hot as ****, I was raised in North Dakota so living in 72 degree weather isn't my cup of tea. It's suppose to go up to 93 this week I would die without AC! Oh, and utilities are included in my apartment! I'm sure the landlord hates me!! I keep my AC set to 63F, I like it really cool, and even them I'm in shorts and shirtless.

 

[psproot12]

Chrono|1400242571|3674045 wrote:Many years ago, I lived in a home without AC and the weather was in the 90 to over 100 degrees C temps and almost 100% humidity.

Haha! Sometimes it feels like 100º C! Heat & humidity have always bothered me but, like you & Missy, Chrono, it really flattens me as I get older. I've noticed it more over the last 10 yrs -- used to be able to garden all morning, but now I flake out after 2 hrs. It just gets too miserable, which annoys me no end.

--- Laurie

90 to 100 C?? As in Celcius? That's the temperature that water boils at! 90-100 is mid-high 30s celcius, which is hot but 90-100 is only possible if the temperature is taken under the sun on an EXTREMELY hot day (110F+), because temperature is actually suppose to be taken in the shade.

 

[iLander]

I couldn't live without A/C, no way!

In the summer, we're around 98 degrees and the humidity (90% +) pushes the heat index to 110 and up.

It's so bad, you get a headache just walking to the mailbox. The windows of the house fog up. The moisture just drips off the roof all night long. Glasses fog up when you walk outside. If it rains, it just adds to the humidity, it doesn't cool anything off. Think steamy jungle, literally like that. Everything metal rusts, even the stainless steel hinges we had to put in are pitted and green. DH has a dehumidifier in the garage to try to save the cars.

It's like stepping into a steamy bathroom after a hot shower. Or living in someone's armpit.

We have a heat pump system, with a high seer. This is the only way to go, and the electric bill is about $500 at the highest each year. If the weather is cool (December!), and we use the A/C only a little, our bill is $250. Figure the A/C needs replacing every 12 years, costs about $5000. It constantly breaks down and needs expensive parts, but we got an extended warranty that pays for itself 4 times over.

Yeah. It's hot here. But it's a moist, gooey heat.

 

[soocool]

Actually we have a heat pump with oil back up. Our annual electric bill is around $1200 (that averages about $100/month) and we burn about 500 gallons of oil/year (we heat our water with oil). This year we burned slightly more oil because we had one of the most coldest winters on record here in SE PA. Our house is 3000 sq ft. Ceiling fans in almost every room (we run our ceiling room year round in our bedroom). Actually our whole house is electric -well, sump pump, etc. We set the thermostat at 68 during the day and 62 at night in the winter and 75 during the day and 69 at night for the summer. Our house is well insulated and after we had a new roof put on a few years ago saw our electric charges go down.

We must be doing something right because we have the lowest electric charges in the neighborhood.

 

[lyra]

I live in Canada, in an area where we get over 90% humidity from May/June through Sept.. We have central air, and it's a necessity here. We have our electricity billing done on the averaging system. We pay the same amount every month all year. For us it's $240/month.

Kenny, when you mentioned how you use solar blankets in your windows, we adopted that system too. It DEFINITELY helps keep our a/c keep up with cooling. We'll never go another summer without using the blankets. LOL. Sure, we could get the proper film applied to our windows in the back of the house, but that would be very expensive. We prefer looking like a grow-up from the back, since we have no back neighbours anyway.

 

[kenny]

Kenny, when you mentioned how you use solar blankets in your windows, we adopted that system too. It DEFINITELY helps keep our a/c keep up with cooling. We'll never go another summer without using the blankets. LOL. Sure, we could get the proper film applied to our windows in the back of the house, but that would be very expensive.

Groovy. Glad to help.
It is only May but this it's already time for us to put ours back up.
(Actually they're so cheap I buy new ones every year.)
Thanks for the reminder.

Here is the product of which we speak. http://www.coleman.com/product/emergency-blanket/2000016485?contextCategory=28150#.U3fdT8aAeuc

It opens up into a large thin sheet that looks like aluminum foil but is stronger because it is mylar.
I tape it to the inside of most of our windows that get full sun.
This keeps the house maybe 10 degrees cooler for around a buck or two per window.

 

[packrat]

We have AC. It went out 3 years ago this August and we spent 3 weeks sleeping in the basement b/c it was in the 90's in the house. That was horrible. I don't mind sweating, but I don't want to spend my entire day looking like I just got out of the shower and being a hermit in the basement. We couldn't even get relief at night or w/a breeze b/c it stayed in the 90's outside at night. We'd go to my gramma's to swim and the water was just as warm as the outside temps..which usually is my favorite but ooof not then.

Not sure what we pay when it's super hot out...200-250 or so?

The space blanket thing is interesting. We have thermal blackout curtains and they help but they drive me nuts b/c they collect dust, like all window treatments here. I'd like to find a film to put on the windows that would work the same way.

 

[msop04]

OMG. Yes!! We live in Alabama, so not only do we have the heat, we have horrible humidity! If we didn't have AC... well, I just can't wrap my head around that -- we'd melt in April! We have "budgeted billing" which is based on an average heating/cooling from the previous year. This is nice because our cooling bills (summer) would be three to four times as much as our heating/winter months' bills. Of course, the bill is adjusted every 4 months, so if you use way more energy to heat or cool, the bill goes up. Then again, if you use less, it will decrease... so I think that's fair.

 

[dk168]

I normally visit my folks in HK in late November, and I would be in my usual summer attire of shorts and Hawaiian shirts, when everyone else would be wrapped up in woollies and coats!

I would turn the air con on in my mum's flat when I am there, and she would turn it off after I have fallen asleep, for me to wake up later in the night in a sweat to put it back on!

DK

 

[diamondringlover]

We had central installed about 10 years ago...we used window air conditioners prior to that I will NEVER be without air conditioning..period! lol I cant stand to be hot. My highest electric bill was last summer it was around $180.00, I live in the midwest and my house is around 1500 SF and it is a 100 year old farmhouse with original windows, so it is not energy efficient.

 

[ckrickett]

YES!!! I love in south florida, and the muggy humid hot weather would be unbearable without it!

We used to have very high Electric bills until we invested in a few nest thermostats, they have more then paid for themselves within the first year!
https://nest.com