The Chainlink

Air conditioner poll-- who's getting by without?

I've been close to installing my window units several times now, but then we cool off and things are reasonably bearable again with windows and a box fan.  Looks like we're supposed to get back down into the 70s in a few days . . .

Who all's getting by without AC, and who plans to do so through the summer?

Views: 3893

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jerry Lee on June 20, 2012 at 5:00am

no air condition here or in the car...I leave the door open all night, I don't goto sleep till 7am anyway. It's just me and my Patton fan.

Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on June 20, 2012 at 5:17am



Tank-Ridin' Ryan said:

Why didn't they just make ten colder and make ten be the top number and make that a little colder?

Duppie said:

To offset all the eco-friendly smugness in this thread, I just turned up the AC to 11...

Seriously though, I cherish a good nights sleep enough to pay the $50-70 every month it costs to run two ACs in our house
Permalink Reply by Melanie K on June 20, 2012 at 6:28am

We usually only run the air for a a couple hours a day to cool down the place enough to be comfortable for us, our dog and kitten, but our air conditioning unit is pretty old and finally conked out on Sunday. Our place doesn't get much of a breeze no matter how many windows we open, so it's been pretty nasty the last few days with only fans running. I will be thankful for getting a new, more efficient a/c model, as our a/c unit has been on its last legs and would only run in a semi-cool mode anyway.  So, in answer to the OP's question, I have had no choice but to be without air right now.   Hopefully, the heat wave will soon pass as it is hard for us to get a good night's rest in this heat. 

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on June 20, 2012 at 11:50am

The thermostat was saying 78 this morning which should be comfortable but the humidity was beginning to cause some condensation on the tile floors so I turned on the Ac to 76 degrees.  It brought down the temp and dried out the air quite well in about 45 minutes.  Now it runs for a few minutes every hour and the humidity is way down.  I suppose I'll have to let it run a few minutes every day for the next week or so or risk mold/mildew issues down in my basement garden condo. 

Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on June 20, 2012 at 11:59am

No AC for me. Made through last summer without it and I'm planning to do the same this year. We do have a window unit, but not installing it really helps with the resolve to not use it. When it gets super hot the last thing I want to do is schlep an air conditioner around.


Every summer I'm reminded that I should install some awnings on the west facing windows of our apartment. A lot of sun comes in during the hottest part of the day. At the moment we have some towels and sheets crammed into the windows as make-shift blinds - it helps, but awnings would be way better.

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on June 20, 2012 at 12:21pm

I had my two window units in last year-- newish 5000 BTU Frigidaires with thermostats-- kept them on something like 78 degrees and still had $120 electric bills. My place is under 800 sf.

Sol said:

I just get in my car and drive around with the ac running at full blast when my apartment gets too hot!

Just kidding....I have 1200 square feet with east/west windows two floors up from ground level with no south facing windows. I have ceiling fans in most rooms combined with an old Westinghouse 5200 unit in the bedroom, an old Panasonic 7800 unit in the dining room and an old Panasonic 5800 unit in the living room. The Panasonics are 10.7 and 10.8 and the Westinghouse is "good" old 9.7 efficiency. All three are well installed with good insulation and no gaps (2 by x wood cut to size, painted white and combined with rope calk insulate better, look better and form a better seal for the gap between the window and the side of the ac unit than those flimsy leaky vinyl louvers which come with the ac units). All three units are also fairly quiet for window ac units.

I used to leave the ac on all day for the dog in past years, but he now spends his days with the dog walker in her slightly air conditioned garden unit so I simply seal up the apartment and close the blinds by day and have the Panasonics turn on in economy mode at 75 degrees using their timers a little before I arrive home on days when it is above 85 degrees. The Westinghouse has old school dials without a timer so I just turn it on when I get home or an hour before bed if needed. The ac runs until bed time on hot days and then I shut them off. The place cools down quickly and stays cool enough through the morning. On cooler or less humid days, I just open the windows at sun down and close them in the morning before it gets too hot.

My worst electric bill last summer when I ran all three ac units all day was only $85, as compared to $40 without ac ($1.50/day for the ac portion of the bill). My friends with central ac had much higher electric bills. I expect my bills will be somewhat lower this year as the ac is not on that much.

Newer window ac units with timers, energy efficiency mode and more ozone friendly r410 coolant can be very helpful on hot days with minimal energy usage and environmental impact when correctly installed and not overused. I would like to replace my Westinghouse with a more efficient unit and wish all my units had the r410 coolant, but it would be wasteful and in my opinion less environmentally friendly to simply chuck the old units for newer ones given my current low usage.
Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on June 20, 2012 at 12:31pm

Power consumption is a factor of the size of the units and how often they run.

How often they need to run is somewhat a function of size -but more so the heat differential between the outside and the inside being cooled, the degree  of insulation and air-tightness, relative humidities, and radiant heat getting into the area through windows.

Someone like me has very little cooling load living in  sunken garden unit in contact with the cool earth, with decent insulation, a neighboring living space right above us that uses AC too (cold sinks you know) and good shade to the windows with multiple insulating cellular blinds and plantation shutters which makes them very efficient.  Another person living in a sunny location with poor insulation and lots of blacktop around the building sucking up and spreading the suns heat all around will need to spend a lot more money to cool.  

Another thing:  It's better to under-size an AC unit(s) and have it(them) run more than over-sized and have it(them) run less.   The former will be more efficient than the latter provided it can keep up with the demand.   And finally central AC will beat out window units every time if it is sized correctly. 



h' said:

I had my two window units in last year-- newish 5000 BTU Frigidaires with thermostats-- kept them on something like 78 degrees and still had $120 electric bills. My place is under 800 sf.


Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on June 20, 2012 at 12:38pm

Then I guess my heat differential is much much worse than Sol's, all other factors sounding about the same.

Permalink Reply by Robert Egwele on June 20, 2012 at 1:48pm

I personally don't like air conditioning. As long as the windows are open, I'm good!

Permalink Reply by igz on June 20, 2012 at 2:21pm

been trying to get an AC unit from Wood Dale back into the city for over a week now.  ive already built a ground level bed because it was too hot in the loft bed.  i can handle the heat during the day, but need it cold at night!

Permalink Reply by Sol on June 20, 2012 at 3:41pm
I think when using window units, the key for affordable electric bills is to have units which are appropriately sized for the space to be cooled. An undersized unit will have to run constantly to keep up.

There is always the debate about whether you use more energy overall if you only use the ac when home versus leaving it on all the time...since I changed how I operate from last year, I guess I will be able to answer that question when my next electric bill arrives.
Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on June 20, 2012 at 3:44pm

Well, as long as there's an AC thread-- I have a couple of tenants, clean-cut young cyclists, who need a working window AC unit and have no budget whatsoever . . . just got a text that the crappy ones they had seem to have failed; if anyone can help I'm sure they can pick up.

RSS

Groups

© 2008-2016   The Chainlink Community, L.L.C.   Powered by

Disclaimer  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service