 |
| Our last year of household electricity consumption on the bill! |
Besides saving a bit of change, I've noticed something else about not running the A/C often too.. the heat hasn't really bothered me as much this year. Many people have made remarks to me about the heat and quite honestly, I hadn't even noticed. We'll see how the rest of the summer pans out but I think halving our consumption from last summer will be totally doable the whole summer through.
This weekend R is headed off for a fishing trip so I think I will try to get some more window caulking done.
5 comments:
Good job! I wish we could live without our AC, I hate feeling the cold blowing on me, but I hate the heat even more. I never had AC growing up, and I was constantly passing out from heat stroke. I spent many summer days laying in the cold basement, not being able to run and play in the heat. My body just doesn't handle it well at all.
I do keep our house warmer during the week than on the weekends when my hubby is home (he likes it cold!) so that saves us some money I guess
Do you have a programmable thermostat? Ours is set to 25 before AC comes on. At 25 I find main floor okay but upstairs uncomfortable for sleeping. We'll turn on AC just enough to cool the upstairs down to a comfortable sleeping temp (with sheets). B sleeps in boxers and no shirt in the summer (like Dad). We have a ceiling fan in our room which is on all night. Also went around the house and closed all the vents to the rooms we don't use often (incl. bathrooms) this means that more cool air is going to bedrooms. Could also try just running the furnace fan if you have the option. I found it brought up some of the cool air from the basement.
We keep it at 23 or 24 during the day (except weekends, my husband likes it at 22 when he's home), and usually turn it down to 22 at night. We keep the vents closed too, so that most of it goes upstairs, and have tapped around all the joints in the ducts in the basement, but the upstairs still gets to hot.
Our master bedroom is fine, it's the kids rooms that are the issue. They face south and get sun all day, and the furnace is at the north end of the basement, so the air has the furthest to travel to their rooms. I did finally buy proper blackout curtains for their rooms, which helps a lot!
Luckily my hubby grew up without the A/C. And he works outside in this heat so 25 is actually quite comfortable for him. I was the spoiled one :) I really should get black outs for B's room which has the most windows and gets the hottest. They're just so darn expensive!
I bought really nice blackouts for our one big window in the kitchen at Home Depot. 4 panels was $96. Two years later, I found some at Walmart, in fun kids colours, for only $16 a panel, so thats what we have in the kids rooms.
Post a Comment