Spinoff Cooling your home

[oz diva]

We have two ancient air conditioners which approximate the sound of jet engines when turned on, which is not very often. It has to be 35C or over for me to even attempt it. I also have ceiling fans in my bedroom and one living area which are more likely to be turned on, on a hot day.

My next door neighbours turn on their A/C when it's about 25C which is just nice if you ask me. They must spend heaps on electricity.

There was a notorious failed govt funded campaign to insulate all homes. Our insulators nearly burnt down my house, doing such a crappy job and then, naturally disappeared.  (they had insulate over the top of the lights). We have subsquently installed more insulation at our own expense.

[Shoo]

We run our A/C all the time, even when it's not that warm outside.  We like the upstairs to be cool at night, and sometimes it requires a little A/C to get it to where we like it.  But it doesn't really cost us anything to run the A/C.  Just a little extra electricity.  We have a heat pump, which I think just might be about the greatest invention ever.  We get cooling and heating for next to nothing.

[Lindee]

Ducted evaporative cooling works well in the dry heat of Adelaide, South Australia. It is much cheaper to run that the refrigerated type and you have to have the windows and security doors open a bit which I like.   We have the house insulated and windows shaded with pergolas and window film but if it gets to 25C downstairs we turn on the cooling.  Our electricity bills aren't too bad and we have some solar panels and intends to get more. On the plus side we rarely need to heat the place.

[Dragons 8 Cactus]

We're got a Water Evap and a reverse cycle. We only turn them on well over 30's

We have ceiling fans in each room, we use daily during summer.

[Dragons 8 Cactus]

Lindee where abouts are you, we're an hourish North of Adelaide. Barossa V.

[dietcokeofevil]

We're in the Midwest and we use central air conditioning.  We pretty much switch from heat to AC.  We have such bad allergies that it makes keeping windows open rather unpleasant.  We're also out of the house about 10 hours a day.  So it would get pretty warm and take awhile to cool down once we got home if we did not use our AC.

[Avi]

I am in Adelaide, South Australia and have ducted evaporative and ceiling fans in the bedroom. We also have roller shutters on the front windows to keep the lounge cool.

We usually turn on the air-con when it hits the high 20's (27 c or so) but run the fans year round to stop the rooms getting stuffy.

[kitty-cat]

Florida here, and about a 10-15 minut drive from the Atlantic ocean. We run the AC from about March to November. It's *just* getting cold enough to need the heat at night.

And we have to run it too-the amout of humidity in the air in summer is horrible. I give up doing hair/makeup if I'm doing more than going home-car-school-car-home because it would be ruined in 2 minutes...

[Ereine]

I live in Finland and there isn't that much need for cooling, though the last few summers have been very hot (for us, meaning 35 C). My apartment is badly designed when it comes to cooling, I have one wall that's pretty all windows and it faces south and there's nothing in front of the house so when the sun is shining it gets hot (around 32 C which is too hot for me). Central AC isn't common here apart from public buildings and though there are some sort AC machines available, they are very expensive so all I do is keep my windows and curtains closed (I have blackout shades on some and curtains on top of them) during the day and run a stand fan during the night and suffer. At least I now know what to look for if I ever manage to move.

[Bethczar]

We're in the midwest and have central air. Since our condo is well shaded by trees, it stays relatively cool, so we don't run it as much in this house as in others we have had. I usually run it at night, since I have more difficult time sleeping in hot, humid weather than just doing daily activities.

[camlan]

In New England, we get a lot more cool/cold weather than warm weather. The real problem is the humidity. I can take 85 degrees (30 C) with low humidity; I can't take it with 90% or higher humidity. I have two window A/C units, one for the kitchen and one for the living room, and they get turned on when the temperature is over 85 and the humidity is over 80%. Otherwise, I just keep the shades down and curtains closed during the hot parts of the day and the house stays cool enough for me.

We have a ceiling fan in the dining room that is perhaps the most ugly ceiling fan I have ever seen, but it does keep things cool. So on hot summer nights when we don't need the A/C, we mostly move all activities into the dining room. We use window fans in the bedrooms to cool things down at night.

Our cooling season generally runs from late June to the end of August, but the past few years, we've had a few days in the 90s (above 32 C) in the beginning of June. No one has been prepared for that.

[Dazi]

Florida here, and about a 10-15 minut drive from the Atlantic ocean. We run the AC from about March to November. It's *just* getting cold enough to need the heat at night.

And we have to run it too-the amout of humidity in the air in summer is horrible. I give up doing hair/makeup if I'm doing more than going home-car-school-car-home because it would be ruined in 2 minutes...

Central Florida here.  We have central AC and run it nearly year round...definitely March-November.  Right now it is about 72F out and I have the windows open with the house fan on and it is extremely comfortable.  It hasn't been cold enough for me to consider turning the heat on at night, but I have been turning off the AC/house fan.  My home is fairly airtight. 

The biggest issue here is humidity.  95-100F in the desert, not a problem for me. 85F with 95% humidity, I feel like I am going to die.

There might be some nice cool snaps were I turn off the AC during March, April or October, but that can be tricky with all the pollen.

Also, I have a solar powered attic fan.  Best money I have EVER spent.  It runs whenever the sun is out and keeps the attic about the same temp as outside instead of 150F+.  My AC doesn't have to work as hard to cool my house and my electric bill dropped by half.  Prior to the attic fan, I had a few summer electric bills that broke $300.

[Aggiesque]

south central texas.

We have electric a/c, gas heating, HVAC system.

We generally run our ac from april-oct. It's very, very humid here. If you don't keep the ac running at least at a minimum, you will get terrific mold growth. We keep it at 80 in the summer, and 70 once cooler weather sets in (so it really doesn't cool, but the fans/ventilation run). Winter will get to the low 20's, but not too much colder than that, usually.

[Diane AKA Traska]

Philadelphia, PA area (NE USA)

We use window A/C units, since we don't have central air.  It gets hot/humid here, and the A/C units go 'till September at the earliest.  That said, we only cool three rooms (my room, M's room, and our bedroom).  And the non-bedrooms get cooled solely because they have computers, and they get hot.

[Bluenomi]

We've got ducted evap here in Canberra, we have dry heat so it worked pretty well. It struggles if it gets above 35ish. I prefer it to air con, I find air con is too cold.