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This is the time of year when the temperature starts to soar, along with air conditioner usage and electric bills.
One simple and often neglected task can reduce those bills and make your house more comfortable at the same time.
Once the filter is clogged with dust, it runs far less efficiently.
This means:
b) The room may not get as cool as it otherwise would.
The above applies to window and wall air conditioner units, not central AC.
How can the filter be cleaned without using a vacuum?
What is the optimal temperature to set on the AC for optimal performance/saving money? (I know NYC.gov recommends to “never set thermostats lower than 78 degrees Farenheit.”)
FOR STARTERS: Wanna save $$$? Make sure your AC is energy star rated. If you are buying a new one, spend the extra couple bucks on an energy star rated model.
If the AC has more BTU’s than necessary for the room (i.e. a small room with a powerful AC), will that use more energy than necessary?
Or when you set the temperature on a powerful AC, it will use the same amount of energy (i.e. electric power) that an equivalent smaller AC would use?
If the AC has more BTU’s than necessary for the room (i.e. a small room with a powerful AC), will that use more energy than necessary?
Or when you set the temperature on a powerful AC, it will use the same amount of energy (i.e. electric power) that an equivalent smaller AC would use?
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Copied off of AJ MADISON website. BTW, They sell and stock all types of ACs:
I have had an air condotioner that was far more powerful (at least 3 or 4 times more powerful) and used much more electricity (when actually running) then was considered to be needed for that room.
Later I have had units that were supposed to be “the proper size” for the room.
The larger and more powerful one saved me a huge amount on my electric bill.
For one thing, it did cool the room down very quickly (and after a long hard day of physical labor where I felt like I had been in a hot muggy steam bath full of dirty air and dirty water, that quick colling made the difference between getting to bed at a reasonable time, or staying up much later taking showers and the drying off and still being too hot or just staying up waiting to try and cool down) which by itsef made it worth it.
Also it made the room so cool that it was quite comfortable for many hours afterwards which meant many hours per day where the electricity was not being used.
I could use a timer and have it go on for about 30 minutes and stay off for the next 3-4 hours even on the hottest and most horribly humid, days.
Since I like it far colder then most other people, I would imagine that the average person could probably have it off, for at least twice that long, after it cooled the place down.
All the other air conditioners I have had that were said by the ‘experts’ (as well as friends and neighbors) to be,
“the proper size” for the room were never cool enough for me and I had the run them al the time during summer and still it was never cool enough for me.
This wasted a huge bundle of electricity, and really ran my bill way up.
Add to that, the fact that I had to still use fans, because the air was still not cool enough and people ahve told me that running fans is not so cheap either, especially when it is in addition to, and not in place of…running the air conditioner.
I’ll, take a way over powered unit as opposed to a small
‘putt putt’ “barely do anything” device (no matter how ‘right size, the experts and your friends and family claim it is’), any day.
Here is another reason to get a way over powerred unit.
Right now I live in a tiny place, (much smaller then my last with much higher rent, same way all over, for most of us right?)
Anyway the electrical is very schvach here with far fewer lines and not a single one in the house dedicated just for my use as I had had in the other place.
This means that if I had to run an air conditrioner all the time to stay cool, I would keep blowing circuits out(which I cannot reset since only the landlord has access to the breakers, and he is quite often, not home)especially if I tried to run the air conditioner and the electric oven (no gas in my place for my personal use, like for my stove or oven)at the same time.
So if I could run a far more powerful unit for a lot less time and then have it off while I cooked or heated up some dinner, i could stay cool and still get the use out of every electric and electronic device, I need to use.
I can only try;
#1 I am talking about a place that was appox 450 square feet and the big air conditioner was at least 18,000 BTU’s (possibly 28,000 BTU’s it was hard to read that first number of it was a 1 before the #8000 or if it was a 2).
My next largest unit was something like 5000 BTU’s and it worked like an ice cube in an oven.
OK not really that bad, but not so good, either.
#2 The room got down to about 40 degrees and took at least 3 hours to get back up to over 70 (plus the rise in humidity)where it was too uncomfortable for me to wait any longer to keep it off.
#3 That is just plain wrong, the cooler the room is the longer it will take to get back up to any specific temperature that someone decides is “too hot” that is simple physics.
#4 Mine was a much older model and it DID get the room much colder. You cant tell me with any credibility that I did not experience, what I experienced.
Thanks to liberalism and political correctness, they are not allowed to make them like that anymore.
#5 I had a timer but it took me well over an hour to feel comfortable with a weaker air conditioner even with it turned on before I got home which made my eloectric bills well over $200 per month, (please don’t get into the old argument that my bills could not have been that high because while families do not have such high bills I have spent YEARS arguing with friends and neighbiors about that one and they KNEW my personal situation and
they could not come up with an answer to fit their claims of how much the bill should have been.
The neighbor is stealing your electricity and the company is over charging you. None of those theories ever fit what was going on.).
#6 Others have told me the fans used more AC then peope think they do.
You are right my AC was never big enough no matter how much the “experts” said otherwise and I could not even find any places willing to sell me an air conditioner that fit what I knew I needed.
#7 I can’t run new lines because it is not my place and the land lord does not want new lines there because he wants the electricity included in the bill and more lines means he has a bigger bill.
This is just one of many reasons why my life is so bad as I have mentioned in other threads.
Poster; Some new units have a thermostat that can be placed elsewhere in the room to help avoid that false reading.
They should also have units that you can set the temperature and then set “the real temperature”.
For example if the temperature reads as 78 degrees and you want it at 78 throughout the room you should be able to set the unit
lower till it reaches ‘true’ 78 throughout the room.
Or be able to set the compressor to stay on for a certain amount of time even after it reaches maximum coolness as registered on the thermostat.
It is not that I am “comfortable” with a big range it is just that if I am too poor to KEEP it at 40 degrees I can tolerate it up to about 70 (if the humidity stays low) so if I can get down to that and it takes a long time to get back up to that, I save electricity.
That would be way too hot for my fridge. milk spoils way too fast for me at 40 degrees.
I try and keep it at around 33 degrees.
Ice cold milk is a Mechiaya that can’t be beat 🙂
If on Shabbos I need several fans going even according to you 4 fans would be like two light bulbs going and everyone I know worries about making sure even one bulb does not stay on longer then necessary.
Places I eat for shabbos often have bulbs on timers going off before the meal ends and we have to bentsch in the semi darkness.
If I had the money I would make my place like walk in fridge, i’d also have a horse ranch with thousands of acres and a large swimming pool.
In my present place I do not have control over the electricity and I do not have even a single dedicated line just for my use.
On this site I often find myself referring to posters with long user names by an acronym or abbreviation (e.g. ICOT).
How ironic that hereorthere should be “hot”
Squeak LOL
Bump again!
SiDi™
fyi-the original poster is absolutely correct about having clean a/c filters. i recently experienced problems with my a/c’s…one is central and the other a window unit. both were not working properly and when i cleaned the filters, they started to work again. i will always keep my a/c filtrs clean from now on
The hot feeling during summer days are really freaking with all those perspiration and sweating of your body and I must say that these are indeed great tricks to beat the summer heat and save cash on cooling bills along the way. Living without air conditioning during the summer is possible, with just a little self-control. The money-saving potential is obvious, and you know you need that.
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