Keeping cool

[Inmybizz]

One house has 27 windows and the other 37 on cool days I can open windows and be comfortable. On the days it’s 85 and up I have to turn on the air conditioner. We run the air about 95% of the time.

[Anonymous 2]

Ugh, it's a sore subject with me. We have MANY windows, which should be replaced with more energy efficient ones. We lost our front & backyard shade trees due to lightening. Our air conditioner is old and under-powered. It runs 24-7 during the summer here in Kansas, and my summer electric bill runs about $600/month, which is about double.

We did new windows a year or two ago. It wasn’t as expensive as I expected, and it helped a ton.

We were quoted, like 1000$ per window, for triple pain, tinted ones. We have 25. And then we'll have to re-paint the siding/house, after they are replaced, I believe. We just keep avoiding it, LOL!

Do you live in a two story house? If so, replace the upstairs windows and air conditioning unit only. That will make the biggest difference in your AC bill.

[Deleted User 172]

Ugh, it's a sore subject with me. We have MANY windows, which should be replaced with more energy efficient ones. We lost our front & backyard shade trees due to lightening. Our air conditioner is old and under-powered. It runs 24-7 during the summer here in Kansas, and my summer electric bill runs about $600/month, which is about double.

We did new windows a year or two ago. It wasn’t as expensive as I expected, and it helped a ton.

We were quoted, like 1000$ per window, for triple pain, tinted ones. We have 25. And then we'll have to re-paint the siding/house, after they are replaced, I believe. We just keep avoiding it, LOL!

Replace only the ones on the east and west of the house. It won't be perfect but you'll be a be to filter out most of the morning and afternoon heat.

And i would check out prices at a hardware store and see if i could do it myself.

[LiveWhatULove]

We did new windows a year or two ago. It wasn’t as expensive as I expected, and it helped a ton.

We were quoted, like 1000$ per window, for triple pain, tinted ones. We have 25. And then we'll have to re-paint the siding/house, after they are replaced, I believe. We just keep avoiding it, LOL!

Do you live in a two story house? If so, replace the upstairs windows and air conditioning unit only. That will make the biggest difference in your AC bill.

Yes. We have 8 large windows on the back of our home. , 4 on the bottom & 4 on the top, that essentially span from first level to second level our living room wall, & I agree the top 4 would make the most difference, but by the time we disrupt the siding, we do not want to just replace those 4. We want to do them all at one time, but we’ll see.

We keep thinking that the heating OR cooling unit will fail, and then we will be forced to replace them, lol. But they just keep humming along.

[carterscutie85]

Anything about 85 or more I turn on the AC. If it's ran constantly for days on end my bill is about 150-175ish. Run periodically it's around 100.

[PurpleTurtle]

During the summer we keep the thermostat set around 70. The a/c generally runs constantly during the afternoon and evening and on and off throughout the rest of the day, depending on exactly how hot it is. Unless we go through an extended period of very hot/humid weather, there's no noticeable increase in our electric bill - we're fairly consistent year-round.

[Traci_Momof2]

I live in the desert in Arizona. It's on 24/7 in the summer. We keep it set at 80F typically. May bump it down to 79 or 78 if it's particularly uncomfortable. But 80 usually works well because it's so dry here. We also have an in-ground pool which works great for cooling off when you feel a bit warm.

Our electric bill in the summer months is around $300/mo. In contrast, our electric bill in the winter months is around $120/mo. We don't run our heat at all. We've lived here almost 5 years and never once used the heat.

[Anonymous 3]

I'm in California. I'll turn my air on after 8 pm when rates are lower if its over 85 degrees in my house other than that it stays off. Between that, hanging my laundry, keeping the TV off during the day, our water heater turning off 11 am to 8 pm, and only running my dishwasher and washing machine at night I just manage to keep my bill under $300.
We should get solar the end of July and then i will run my ac constantly. Im so tired of this nonsense.

[Olioxenfree]

When we lived in NY we didn't have air conditioning so our electric bill actually went down in the summer since we didn't have the heat on and with more hours of daylight we didn't need to have lights on as often. Now we live in Virginia, we do have the air conditioning on June through September. We have fans going and dress for the weather, so we keep the a/c to cool at 78 and it usually doesn't run at night. Our electric bill is usually around 100 a month in the summer, but we also take other measures to keep it down.

[MrsDavidB]

We only use our upstairs AC because we need it for sleeping and of course the 2nd floor is always hotter. I never turn the downstairs on as I just don’t need it. If I am having a party then maybe. Yes it gets hot as balls here in NC but it’s no problem to me. Our electric bill in dead of summer is about $180