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-   -   What temperature do you keep your house at in the summer (https://ecorenovator.org/forum/showthread.php?t=555)

Higgy 06-15-09 10:29 AM

What temperature do you keep your house at in the summer
 
Ok, we had a winter one. What temperature do you keep your house at in the summer. And also, what kind of temperatures do you get during the summer (because that will probably affect what you set your thermostat to).

I don't want mine turning on too much so I set it to 76 in the morning and after work and 80 during the day, and either 78 or 80 at night. These are just testing temps for now. I just don't want to set it too low because I hate coming into a freezing cold house.

It finally reached 81 here yesterday and today. We've had a pretty cool summer so far, but now it looks like it's heating up. We usually have an average of about 75-85 with the odd 90+.

PaleMelanesian 06-15-09 01:18 PM

76-78 most of the time. We've already been up to 95 degrees, so it's looking like a hot Texas summer coming up. I'm gradually improving the attic insulation, which can only help.

groar 06-15-09 04:13 PM

Currently 32°C (90°F) outside by day. No cooling here, only ceiling fan in summer position. Inside stays at 26°C (79°F).

As the house is East/West, we installed shades recently in front of the kitchen window and the living-room bay (9x7feet). Gonna install a shade in front of the office bay (9x7feet) soon as the ground in front of the office bay is dark so very hot in afternoon and always hot in the evening.

These do have an impact on not heating in summer but will have to be removed in winter for these windows to be heated by the sun.

These shades may have an impact on the solar panels as the shades are light beige so they reflect the light. By preventing dark ground to heat they may also permit the panels to heat less, but this must be confirmed more thoroughly.

Denis.

truckncycle 06-15-09 04:52 PM

We are currently running the house at 78 during the day. If we didn't have house guests, we would probably bump it to 79 when we are out. A couple of hours before bed, I bump it down to 76. Around here, it usually cools off at night so I open windows when it is cool enough and run the whole house fan while we are awake. I do the same thing when I wake up. Except for some 100s we had at the beginning of May, it has been very mild so far. This has allowed us to open the windows to cool the house most nights (unless it is skunky or smoky).

TimJFowler 06-15-09 05:14 PM

We have no Air Conditioning or "Swamp Cooler".

We open windows in the evening and let the house cool off overnight (usually into the mid 60's) and close up the windows in the morning. Thanks to the new cool roof and attic insulation the house has only been warming up about 3-5º's Fahrenheit during the day on sunny and warm days (less on cloudy or cool days).

This is a huge improvement over last year with the old asphalt shingle roof and very poor insulation. Last summer the house would warm up 10 - 15º+ during the day and would take much longer to cool with open windows and fans running on high.

Tim

Daox 06-15-09 05:47 PM

I do the same as Tim. It works great so far. However, I have yet to own the house through an entire summer, so we'll see how it goes.

mincus 06-15-09 08:03 PM

Currently cooling to 78F. We were doing 80 last summer, but this year we have a 6 month old so the wife insists on keeping it somewhat cooler. The average day during the summer in St. Louis is probably between 85 and 90. In august we usually get a bunch of 90 to 95 degree days. Humidity is was really kills us.

We haven't had to use the AC much this year, been pretty cool so far. But, we're supposed to get into the 90s by the end of the week. We can usually get by with no air on an 80 to 85 degree day. I open all the windows at 5 in the morning, and put a box fan in one of the windows to draw cool air through. I keep them open a couple more hours until the sun starts hitting the house. Then I'll close them all up and close all the blinds. Doing this usually keeps our house below 80 all day (although by sunset, it does start to get pretty warm inside). My wife hates this method, but it definitely works. If I keep the house closed up at night, the AC is usually running by 8AM.

ldjessee 06-29-09 09:20 AM

I believe we have the programmable set for 78 during nights and daytime hours we would not normally be home and 76 for when we are there.

Even so, we almost always go down to the finished basement to hangout to keep cool.

ldjessee 06-29-09 09:29 AM

Sorry, am in mid to southern Indiana, so we have been in the 90's already.

truckncycle 06-29-09 11:35 AM

We bumped ours up to 79 yesterday and then only brought it down to 78 last night. It was 107.8 yesterday. Our poor AC was running constantly. It was only 69 outside this morning - not much cooling there. We will probably keep the house warm for the next couple of days until the outside temp cools some.

mlac 06-30-09 07:49 AM

Ours is set to 80 day and night. 80 feels great when stepping out of 101-106 heat. and its just June, wonder what August is going to be like.

NiHaoMike 07-03-09 10:23 PM

About 81-83F, with a small inverter drive PC fan as a desk fan to keep me cool. I use natural cooling when possible.

Binger 07-28-09 12:23 PM

my apt is a 2 story configuration. I leave the upstairs windows open while at work and it usualy gets to about 77degrees down stairs, abit warmer upstairs. When I come home at about 7pm I open the down stairs windows and the breeze sucking up through the apartment cools it to about 73 on its own.

I have only used the a/c a few times when the windows opening dosn't drop it below 83, then its only on for about 2 hours till the sun goes down.

Mobile Master Tech 06-10-13 09:52 PM

Since our home is also our offices and we are on a time-of use electric plan, we generally keep the house 74-77 for a comfortable working temp, but also precool the house weekdays to 71 starting around 9am, then set at 77 at 3pm. That usually keeps the A/C from coming on again on all but the hottest days until at least 7pm.

Our new Nordyne (Tappan) 23 SEER A/C has never taken more than 15kwh in a day over our baseload even set on "meat locker" with a 40 person party most of the day, and the usual is around 10kwh/day. Even conditioning the garage (my office) and the basement, that is less than 1/4 what the old builder grade stuff took. It also has a humidity control mode, so it maintains a perfect 47-52% RH any time it is on(most of the daylight hours at ultra-low speed), even when it is consistently 85%+ during a straight week of rainy, humid weather.

modernlighting 06-17-13 08:43 PM

No AC here in the Bay Area... luckily it isn't needed , but there's always a week or two in the middle of summer when I wish I had it, a fan does the job.

NeilBlanchard 06-18-13 09:49 PM

I use a couple of window fans to exhaust the hot air out of my attic, and on days I know it is going to be hot, I close all the windows in the house *except* one in the basement. This slowly pulls cool air (like ~60F) up through the house, and it generally stays pretty cool inside (below 78-80F) all day. Oh, and all the window shades and curtains are closed, too, reducing the solar gain.

This is great especially if we get a cool night a couple of times a week - and if we don't have 4 or 5 hot days in a row. We have ceiling fans in every bedroom and in the family room, and floor fans help in the other rooms when it gets hot.

where2 06-20-13 08:14 PM

78°F at night. Our Nest is programmed for 82°F when nobody is around to wake it up, or 79°-80°F if someone is around the house. Daytime highs outside are running upper 80's to mid 90's right now, with a "feels like" of 95°-102° due to the humidity. By August, high's will consistently reach the mid 90's. Lows at night are currently 77°-78° outside with humidity in the 70%-75% range. (South Florida = 10 months of summer)

Xringer 06-20-13 10:09 PM

There have been a few days this year, when we used the cooling mode.
I kinda like 78F.. When I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt, it feels pretty cool.
Going below 78F is a bit too cool for me.

Weird, during the winter I felt warm at 70F (I was dressed warmly),
but now, 70F would be way too cold for me... Seems odd..

Lately, it's been pretty mild. Perfect bicycle weather!

JRMichler 06-30-13 02:00 PM

My wife sets the heat to 69 and the AC to 79. If I was alone, it would be 70 and 80, but I get along just fine at 69 and 79. Our house is well insulated, so we need about 3 days with highs in the 90's before the AC turns on.

Xringer 06-30-13 04:19 PM

1 Attachment(s)
Because of solar gain coming in the south facing windows, our house will
warm right up in the morning, and the west facing den windows were
killing us in the afternoons. Had to install solar screens to keep it cool in there.


Not too hot here today.. 81F right now..

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1372626602
But there is just enough humidity to make it feel sticky outdoors..

So, the Sanyos are running at 23 to 24C (73.4 to 75.2F) so it's very nice in here.
We burned up 4.8 kWh so far today. Old folks gotta stay cool.. :o

oil pan 4 07-08-13 05:56 PM

I keep the bedroom at about 70'f, but the rest of the house gets 80'F to 90'F or hotter.

warmwxrules 07-09-13 02:21 PM

Cooling the entire house (3br ranch) with a 8000btu GE (10.8 EER) window AC that I fit in a picture window in the living room. I set it at about 70F and it runs non stop in this heat (90F/very humid)... It stays anywhere from 71F-75F in the hallway, a little warmer in the bedrooms (use a fan to move the air around)...not the best setup but works very well and keeps it dry in here and very cheap (vs central AC). I think its drawing about 700 to 800watts ...i usually can shut it down in the morning for a few hours and tomorrow I should be able to turn it off for a few days (cold front)... If I had Central AC i would probably set it about 74F or so...

mejunkhound 07-10-13 08:19 PM

AC has maybe run 5 hours total in the last 10 years.
House under big fir trees, open doors/window in AM for an hour, never gets above 78 or so (except those 5 hours when it got to 100F a few years ago here)

MaxHedrm 08-08-13 09:08 PM

I have a Nest. It is generally programmed for 79 while I'm here, 81 at night, 83 in the day while I'm gone, but of course auto away bumps it up to 86 when I'm out of the house or not moving around.

It's been in the 100s this week. While we had a bit of a mild July here in Dallas this year, my electric bill was only $72. :)

Elcam84 08-08-13 09:20 PM

When we moved into this house we kept it about 80-82 but as we have replaced all the windows and all but one of the doors we are now able to keep it at a more comfortable 76 and the KWH usage is the same or sometimes less than it was with the old windows.
When it cools off I'll be adding more insulation in the attic and that will help I also plan to put in a new AC in the spring next year as well which will enable us to keep the house a a more comfortable 74 or so.

With our 100*+ every day and the lows at night that barely hit 80 and only sub 85 for about 2 hours a night it's a constant battle trying to keep cool. Not to mention the dew point is always above 70* except one day early this summer it was a cool 95* and 20% humidity. I thought it was 85*. I had forgotten what dry air was...

With a proper sized system you set the temp and forget it. Letting the temp warm up during the day while you are away does nothing but make for an uncomfortable house when you get home because the system isn't capable of removing all that heat, it's designed to maintain temp which requires smaller equipment. You also end up increasing the humidity in the house which the AC also has to pull out before any real cooling can be done. Not good for the house or furniture. Your AC is the little engine that could not a dragster. Always maintain steady states with no drastic changes.
Even many of the govt studies have finally shown there is little to no savings from setback thermostats.

Xringer 08-08-13 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elcam84 (Post 31022)

I also plan to put in a new AC in the spring next year as well which will enable us to keep the house a a more comfortable 74 or so.

If your home is suitable for mini-split systems, you might want to look into
replacing your old system with an inverter type mini-split.

They have a variable output, and use very low power at low output levels.
I was just running my Den Sanyo 24,000 BTU system to cool down the Den only.
It wasn't real hot here, so it was only using 360 to 460 watts, when it wasn't in idle mode.
Total usage after a couple of hours was 0.5 kWh.. :D

ELGo 08-09-13 04:55 AM

We do not have AC or a swamp cooler.

Cooling is by night ventilation that is sometimes aided by a fan, and daytime shading. The large southern facing windows have external shades, while the east and western windows are internally shaded. Roof is gravel on polyurethane.

All in all I'll say that the approach for our comfort level in our climate is less than ideal but acceptable. There are probably 15 - 30 days a summer that I find our bedroom too hot to sleep in until about midnight. For me that means over 82F in 40 - 60% humidity.

gasstingy 08-09-13 02:42 PM

If we aren't on vacation {a few days every couple of years}, we set the thermostat at 75 in the summer, and 71 or 72 in the winter. We recently had a high efficiency HVAC installed and it came with a programmable thermostat. The 30 seconds of instructions my wife got from the installer were as worthless as the couple of page programming manual that came with it. You don't really need too much though, if you just set it at one temperature 24/7. :o

We did downsize from a 3 ton to a 2 ton unit after an energy audit confirmed we were efficient enough to do it. The auditor recommended an additional 5" of insulation if we planned to go that route, so I had 10" blown in. After all, if 5" is good, 10" must be better.

Haven't had it long enough to compare our consumption to our old 12 SEER. Our regular usage last month came to 623 kWh so, we'll see in about 3 more weeks.

where2 08-09-13 10:06 PM

Energy.Gov says some interesting things here:
Thermostats | Department of Energy

ELGo 08-10-13 04:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gasstingy (Post 31037)
Haven't had it long enough to compare our consumption to our old 12 SEER. Our regular usage last month came to 623 kWh so, we'll see in about 3 more weeks.

623 kWh sounds pretty modest for Alabama in the summer. I don't know how you do it, but my hat is off to you.

gasstingy 08-12-13 08:14 AM

Thanks, I think the three big items are: (1) natural gas HWH saves ~ 400 kWh/mo. (2) not just Energy Star everything, but we compared the usage labels to try and get the better Energy Star items, and (3) add insulation until the wife gets upset. :p

Of course, the CFL's most everywhere and power strips on all electronics and the microwave were done ages ago.

iamgeo 08-16-13 08:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elcam84 (Post 31022)
Even many of the govt studies have finally shown there is little to no savings from setback thermostats.

Can you provide links. I can not find that information.

Elcam84 08-16-13 09:54 AM

I'll have to dig through and find them. Most were mentioned in HVAC trade mags and other info. The only mention I can find really quick is from Energystar and they do a good job hiding it. Seems as some might not like results from actual tests instead of just going by what someones hopeful calculations were.
The tests generally show that there can be a savings in heating but not really in cooling.

http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partner...ts/Summary.pdf

That's kind of an amusing read there. The part where they mention CA residents set back their heater temp more in the winter than those in cold climates.. Well DUH it's allot colder in those cold climates and your system isn't designed to warm it up from below freezing.

The setback idea sounds good at first but as you analyze it's effects it doesn't sound as good as first thought. Got pets in the house,wood floors, wood furniture etc and the wild changes in temp and humidity wreak havoc on those. Many in the HVAC trade find these thermostats amusing as they don't work in a properly designed system. You just install it make the customer happy and go on. Then when they call and complain that the house is hot until 2am with the ac running non stop since 5pm you now can sell them either a grossly oversized unit or a regular thermostat to control their properly sized system that is designed just big enough to maintain temp and save energy.

Rant over... I'll see if I can find the names to those other studies and find links online to them.

Elcam84 08-16-13 09:58 AM

Here is another I found really quick with allot of good info and links.

Do Programmable Thermostats Really Save Money?


It also mentions something I forgot to say in the last post and it was the statement by the EPA. This is the quote from there.

"EPA has been unable to confirm any improvement in terms of the savings delivered by programmable thermostats and has no credible basis for continuing to extend the current Energy Star specification."

Xringer 08-16-13 11:50 AM

I wonder if the data is coming from the average user, and there are actually
ways to use a set-back, to save energy?

I'm picturing a single guy (or working couple), that uses a hotair system,
that provides almost instant warm air heating.
(Maybe gas, electric or a mini-split).

If he isn't worried about heating up his whole dwelling,
and just wants some warm air blowing around when he gets home from work..
It seems like a set-back might work ..


That type of use Compares to an on-demand hot water heater for a sink.
No power is used overnight, or while the owner is away at work.
Only used when needed. :cool:

Servicetech 11-09-13 08:32 AM

75 in day except 2-7pm. 2-7pm 78 on weekdays. 72 at night.
OGE: SmartHours


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