Reducing Energy Cost

Everyone else pretty much said it. Leave it on but at a higher temp. Close your windows and drapes in the afternoon/evening when it gets warm out.

There's lots of other ideas on energy companies' websites that you can look at to save money on energy in other areas too. Some companies even offer energy audits to help you find out where you're using the most energy and how you can reduce it. They'll also help you find air leaks etc.

D.:

You are actually hurting your A/C - which will cost you BIG BUCKS down the road. You are also wasting money as it will take longer for the AC to cool your home down if you continually turn it on and off.

Set your A/C thermostat at 80 degrees - to me that's warm - but it will only come on when the house is over 80 degrees inside.

There are many ways you can save money instead of making everyone in the house uncomfortable. Your A/C - if it's not over 7 years old - IS energy efficient.

Open the windows in the AM to let the cool morning air in. By 10AM close the windows and the drapes - to keep the sun out - it will help keep it cooler.

Ensure that you have a working fan in your attic. If you don't - OUCH!!! You are hurting your home - your attic gets VERY hot. the attic fan will push/suck the air OUT of the attic. If you don't do this - you are also seriously cutting into the life of your roofing.

Use fans throughout the house. This will help circulate the air.

ensure you are dressed properly for the season as well. During the winter you can layer up. However, keep in mind - if you are trying sooo hard to save energy - you may be killing your home. If you let a home get too cold in the winter you can burst water pipes - thus leading to the loss of your personal belongings, etc. As I said earlier - keeping your home too hot will damage it in the long run - roofing, etc.

you live in CA - get solar screens on your windows - this will help keep your home cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Use solar panels on your roof - create your own energy.

If you are just trying to save money - you are actually spending more because you are making your systems work harder than they should.

You are wasting more energy by turning it on and off. You are better off leaving the AC on at a higher temp. When you just turn it on for a few hours the AC has to work harder to cool the house.

I have been told by the local electric company that it is cheaper to leave the AC on at all times because most of your energy is used when you first turn the AC on , as it removes excess heat and moisture from the house. Try it for a month...leave it set down at a reasonable temp and see what happens!! My guess is that you are spending a majority of those 3 hours just attempting to get the house cooled off.
Why not call your electric company and ask them? I bet they have a person who can help you with some professional input

Well, I live in Texas, and during the summer, we have to keep it on 24/7, but during the winter it's off/on. It'll be 50 degrees during the day and then 20 at night some days. It's like a car engine. It costs more to turn it off/on than to keep it at a running pace. Just turn it to a degree that's comfortable and keep it there until you need to adjust. It takes more energy to move from 80-75 than it does to go from 78-75 if you get what I'm saying.

I leave my a/c on 24/7. I set my thermometer to 72 and leave it at that. I signed up this year to the budget plan with my energy carrier, so I get billed the exact same amount every month. It's nice because there are no surprises when I open my bill. They charge me the average that I use based upon last years consumption.

Hope this helps!

M

I live in southern California too. I live in an older home and have an attic fan. (An attic fan is different than a fan in the attic.) I turn on my attic fan when there is a 5 degree difference in the outside temp vrs the inside temp. This year I've only had my A/C on for 4 days so far. (4 different Sundays when cooking dinner for my family brought the inside temp up too high.)

If you have an attice fan installed, you can bring in the outside air in the evening (and over night) and turn it off in the morning and close all the windows. By doing this, my 2200 square foot house has had an electric bill of $65 per month or less this year so far. I believe I save over $800 per year because of my attice fan. The last time I checked, they were about $300 installed.

I have real good insulation in the attic, double pane windows and use energy saver light bulbs (less heat and less electricity).

If you use a solar clothes dryer*, you can save a lot of money over an electric or gas clothes dryer, but whether you do or don't depends on how much money you want to save. I haven't used my solar clothes dryer in 3 or 4 years because my wife would rather use our electric clothes dryer (even when I offered to put them on the solar clothes dryer).

I put an energy blanket on my water heater and turned it down to medium from high. When I had to replace my water heater I bought a gas heater rather than electric. I hardly ever use the full cycle on the dishwasher. I use the energy saver position. I always turn off the dishwasher's heated-dry setting.

Good luck to you and yours. (If you want more ideas, e-mail me.)

* Solar clothes dryer = clothes line ;-)

You might check with your energy supplier for saving ideas.

We leave our AC on 24/7. Most of the time it is set around 78 but we do adjust for comfort and don't "conserve" and will set it to 74 or so on really hot days to get humidity out.

We have 2 units for about 4000 sq ft and our bill has not been over $300 since we completely upgraded the furnace and heating/air system about 4 yrs ago. Before we upgraded our units and added more insulation, it was nothing to have a $700 energy bill.

The other thing you could do is read your electric meter in the morning and at the end of the day two days in a row. On one day, turn your A/C on and off as you have always done. On the other day, run the A/C constantly but at a higher temperature. Of course, you would want to make that you use your other electric appliances similarly both days. Then just subtract the morning reading from the evening reading and see if there is a significant difference in usage between the two days.