When the warm summer weather comes back around, it has homeowners throughout the country turning on their home air conditioning units to stay nice and cool. As with every year, the debate over what the thermostat gets set at will start again. While everyone loves being cool, many of us don’t like paying high electricity bills. Fortunately, there is an ideal temperature that can give you the best of both worlds.

There Are Two Optimal Temperatures

While you’re likely fixated on the ideal indoor temperature for when you’re at home, you also need to think about the ideal temperature for when you’re away from home. One of the biggest ways to get the best of both worlds is to reduce your system runtime when no one is home.

Most homeowners who have centralized air conditioning systems also have programmable thermostats. These allow you to customize your thermostat settings depending on the hour and the day of the week. You can use this to your advantage by programming the thermostat to increase its temperature at times that you know no one will be home.

Whether it’s going to work or school, you can reduce your home energy usage by increasing your thermostat about 10 degrees above your normal at-home setting. This will likely keep your air conditioner from running at all when your family is not home. By keeping the temperature increase within 10 degrees of your desired at-home temperature, you can ensure that your home temperature will cool back down quickly when you’re on the way home.

The Optimal At-Home Temperature

The temperature that most people are concerned with is the thermostat setting for when they’re at home. Experts recommend setting your thermostat between 75 and 78 degrees. This will typically provide adequate cooling for your family while still being affordable.

Each home is going to be slightly different than the next. It’s best to start at a setting of 78 degrees. If you don’t feel like it’s cold enough, then you can easily decrease the temperature by a degree until you reach an ideal setting. Once you know what your ideal at-home setting is, it’s time to program it into your thermostat.

It’s important to note that you’ll want to program your thermostat to return to this at-home ideal temperature about an hour before your family arrives back home. This will give your home adequate time to cool down. This way, you don’t end up walking into a warm house.

The Optimal Away Temperature

The formula for the optimal away temperature is simply 10 degrees above your optimal at-home temperature. If you follow the recommendation of air conditioner experts, you’ll have your at-home ideal temperature set at 78 degrees. To get your ideal away temperature, simply add 10 degrees. This makes your ideal away temperature 88 degrees.

The whole point of having an away temperature is that you don’t have to waste money on electricity to run your air conditioning system when you’re not at home. Since there is no one there to cool, there’s no reason to have your system running. By keeping your away temperature within 10 degrees of your at-home temperature, you can be assured that your home temperature can cool back down within a reasonable timeframe.

Others Tips for Saving Energy

Apart from optimizing your home air conditioner usage, there are some other household tips that you can follow to reduce your overall home energy usage. A great strategy for keeping your family feeling cool is to install ceiling fans. Having the air blowing down onto your family can help to make them feel between 2 and 8 degrees colder than the actual ambient temperature is.

When it comes to your home exhaust fans, you should be utilizing them regularly. Whenever you take a shower, turn the bathroom fan on to remove the moisture from the air. Whenever you’re cooking, turn the kitchen exhaust fan on. By utilizing these fans, you can help to remove excess moisture from the air.

When the air is overly humid, it can feel between 5 and 10 degrees hotter than it actually is. To avoid that overheated and sticky feeling, always use your indoor exhaust fans. Even consider investing in dehumidifiers throughout your home to remove humidity from the air.

Quality AC Service

Getting your air conditioning unit serviced is as easy as picking up the phone. Fire 'n' Ice Heating & Cooling, Inc. provides residents of Downers Grove, IL, with installation, maintenance, and repairs of heating and cooling systems. We even offer air purification services to help ensure that your family breathes easy while relaxing at home.

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