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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?

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It's at worst break even if you turn it off the air conditioner or heat (during winter) when you're not at home and may quite possibly be much more advantageous to turn it off.  The basic idea is if there's a difference in temperature between the the inside and outside of your place, you'll get a heat flux of f(ΔT) where ΔT is the temperature differential between the interior and exterior temperature and the flux is watts.  Your heater or air conditioner will have use at least W_2=f(ΔT)*t amount of work in order to keep your place at a constant temperature where t is the time that the air conditioner or heater would be off.  If your heater or air conditioner is off, then when you get back it will need to do a certain amount of work (say W_1) in order  get your place back to your preferred temperature.  However, the important bit is that the work (W_1) that must be done, is at most equal to the energy required to cool or heat the interior temperature to your desired temperature.  On the other hand, the work needed to  keep your place at a constant temperature  W_2 (=f(ΔT)*t) is not limited and increases as t increases so the longer you're not at home, the more energy your climate control system uses.  If t is longer than the time required for the interior and exterior temperature to equalize, then leaving the ac or heat on is wasting energy.  Also, the greater ΔT is (i.e. the greater the difference between the exterior and interior temperature), the shorter the time period before you start wasting energy.

 

A simple analogy is to think about a bucket with full of water that has a few holes in it.  If you need a bucket full of water some time in the future, it makes more sense to let the bucket drain and then fill it when you need it rather than to keep refilling the bucket as the water drains if it's going to be a long time before your need the water.  Here the holes in the bucket represent the heat flux through your home's insulation and the water is the energy required to keep your home at your preferred temperature. 



Sol said:

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.

So we are all talking apples/apples here in energy usage what kind of numbers are people seeing on their bills?

We have a little over 1000ft2 and I just looked at last month's electric usage and it is 464kwh.  My wife thinks this is wholly too much and we need to get an energy assessment to see where we are wasting it.  My thought is the electric drier is probably one of the biggest wasters as we tend to do a lot of laundry here -followed by too many computers/laptops plugged in and running all the time.  We watch very little tv but we have a DVR plugged in and going and a Wii idling on standby that has not been used in months.  That stuff can all be unplugged and save the parasitic loads.  I need to put a power strip into the TV entertainment center so we can shut the stuff down that we don't use very often.

It's not just AC that wastes power.  

With lights, every fixture in the house either is a fluorescent or a CFL upgrade -and I try to keep them off as much as possible anyhow.

When I lived alone -and didn't have a computer or laptop that was always running (or laundry in my unit) I used to have electric bills in the mid/high 200's as far as kwh's.    What do other people get?  I was reading somewhere that the average US household electric usage was in excess of 1000kwh/month.  That sounds crazy to me. 

Haven't hit the intolerable heat threshold, yet.  With a pair of Galaxy whole house fans, pulling 3560 CFM it's still okay.  When the outside temps surpass 100, the window AC's get called off the bench.

 

I just logged on to ComEd to see what my usage has been. It looks like in the non-summer months (heck, even last month) our usage floats between 130- 160 kwh. Amazingly, we only used 26 kwh in October. I'm not even sure how that happened.

 

Our biggest spike comes in July and August - 476 and 519 kwh

 

So yeah, more than 1000 seems really, really excessive unless you run a disco or own a pool/hot tub. Or maybe there are people that own REALLY large homes. But, I would think that's the exception, not the rule.


 
James BlackHeron said:

So we are all talking apples/apples here in energy usage what kind of numbers are people seeing on their bills?

We have a little over 1000ft2 and I just looked at last month's electric usage and it is 464kwh.  My wife thinks this is wholly too much and we need to get an energy assessment to see where we are wasting it.  My thought is the electric drier is probably one of the biggest wasters as we tend to do a lot of laundry here -followed by too many computers/laptops plugged in and running all the time.  We watch very little tv but we have a DVR plugged in and going and a Wii idling on standby that has not been used in months.  That stuff can all be unplugged and save the parasitic loads.  I need to put a power strip into the TV entertainment center so we can shut the stuff down that we don't use very often.

It's not just AC that wastes power.  

With lights, every fixture in the house either is a fluorescent or a CFL upgrade -and I try to keep them off as much as possible anyhow.

When I lived alone -and didn't have a computer or laptop that was always running (or laundry in my unit) I used to have electric bills in the mid/high 200's as far as kwh's.    What do other people get?  I was reading somewhere that the average US household electric usage was in excess of 1000kwh/month.  That sounds crazy to me. 

You sir, are my hero!

I need to try some stuff to get our electricity usage down.    Are you using a gas or electric clothes dryer?  Ours is electric and I fear that is one of our largest electric hogs.  We can't do gas because of the lack of venting. 



Jim S said:

I just logged on to ComEd to see what my usage has been. It looks like in the non-summer months (heck, even last month) our usage floats between 130- 160 kwh. Amazingly, we only used 26 kwh in October. I'm not even sure how that happened.

 

Our biggest spike comes in July and August - 476 and 519 kwh

 

We definitely have an electric dryer. I'm not sure how many loads you run, but I'd say we do laundry about once a week, to the tune of three or so full loads (towels, sheets, clothing.)

 

My wife is really, really good with unplugging EVERYTHING not needed for use during the day. That means that our alarm clock, laptops, lamps, window A/C units and even our microwave is not using ANY electricity during the day.

 

We don't have pets or any other living creatures (that I willingly know of) in our apartment by day, so it's not bothersome to let the place get toasty.

with

I got spoiled living a block from the lake, now I'm inland, even when it 96 and 100+ in the apt. A fan would pull lake breezes in. I also would go swimming and cool my core off. If I can find one I'll use it just for the bedroom. It's only June.

I miss that aspect of living in Rogers Park 1/2 mile from the lake.

Mike Zumwalt said:

I got spoiled living a block from the lake, now I'm inland, even when it 96 and 100+ in the apt. A fan would pull lake breezes in. I also would go swimming and cool my core off. If I can find one I'll use it just for the bedroom. It's only June.

James,

Is there any way you can rig up a clothesline? We haven't run a dryer since... I dunno March or something, but we are fortunate enough to have a back-yard. 

I've seen some pretty ingenious methods of hanging laundry out to dry from apartments in some pretty dense cities in Italy.

 

"The sun makes your whites whiter."

http://smallnotebook.org/2011/06/20/dry-your-laundry-like-youre-in-...

You've obviously never visited Houston clp. 

Enjoying this discussion. I def get concerned about our electricty use and global weirding. I know we can do better with totally shutting things off at night.

Re: AC. I like what some posters have said about just trying to stay away from home when it gets so hot. I work from home and even with the "open windows at night, close them and shut blinds in the morning" strategy, my office was 90 degrees at points this week. (At least it was still cooler than outside :) We have a ton of windows in our place, which I love about 80% of the year. But during heat waves, it's challenging. I keep thinking I just need to hit a coffee shop, but I have so much stuff I need to refer to, it's a little cumbersome. We do have good ceiling fans though.

I know many folks would not be able to stand that kind of heat; folks have become so unused to temp variations in our indoor spaces. I think that's too bad. I grew up w/o AC, and don't start to get miserable inside until it hits 90.

We do have a window unit in our living room that we run sometimes to create a cooling zone, and set it at about 78 degrees. I might get a portable AC that I can switch between the office and my son's room for the really bad days.

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