It’s springtime in Virginia. Spring here means that the daytime temperatures vary from 65 degrees to 90 degrees. It might be 70 for a few days and then you will have a couple days where the temperature climbs to 90 and then it will drop back to 65. You never quite know what to wear or whether you will need an extra blanket that night. I read a post over at Frugal Dad about going off the grid for a day and one of his concerns was turning the A/C off. The article made me think about growing up without A/C and how we manage it now.
We try not to turn the air conditioner on until sometime in June when the humidity gets unbearable. Our utility bills are a large percentage of our monthly income so we try to manage them as much as possible. By delaying turning the a/c on, we save a little money and with a little planning, it is not that hot in the house. Have you turned yours on yet?
Ways to Keep Your House Cool
Open the windows in the evening. This allows the cool night air to circulate through the house. At this time of the year, the nights are cool enough that you don’t need a/c and only on the hottest nights do we really need it.
Use Fans. When it gets hotter, we also use window fans and ceiling fans at night. I generally point the upstairs window fans out so that it pulls the hot air out of the house and the cool air in. The breeze keeps you much cooler.
Close Drapes. If the sun shines in your windows, it will heat up your house. Closing the drapes will keep that solar energy from making your house an oven. I have also found that closing the windows during the day sometimes helps if the house is well insulated.
Plant Shade Trees. There is a reason for those big trees that used to surround those old southern homes. Their shade helped to keep the houses cool and they lose their leaves during the winter so you can take advantage of that solar heat in the winter.
Make a Solar Reflector. On windows that you don’t look out of frequently, you can put aluminum foil shiny side out on the windows. This reflects the sun’s heat back out of the house instead of into the room. You will also keep the neighbors guessing if you don’t tell them why you are doing it.
Change Your Habits. There is a reason why the old timer’s sat on the front porch in the afternoon and evening and socialized. It was generally a bit cooler there than in the house. If you live without A/C for awhile, you will appreciate the smaller changes a lot more.
After a while, you will notice some changes. If there are not drastic differences between the temperature inside and the temperature outside, your children will be a lot more willing to go outside to play and you will not be as hot outside doing chores. When it’s 30 degrees cooler inside, you acclimate to the coolness and the heat outside is that much more brutal. Your body can’t adapt that quickly to the heat.
If you can’t live without A/C and admittedly there are some places and houses where it is just not practical, try keeping the temperature set at approximately 10 degrees below the temperature outside. Your A/C won’t work as hard, it will keep the humidity in the house down and it will give your body a chance to adjust to the heat.
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We spend the majority of our time at the man person’s office and we’ve had the air running most days for at least a month. We don’t have windows that open, though, so its a must. Fortunately the electric bill isn’t outrageous…yet.
Still running the woodstove out here… NW Oregon coast.
I will put the one room A/C in the window in June tho if it looks like it’s gonna heat up. Other than that, I just run the overhead fans, and open up the window in the attic – that seems to do the trick here. And of course close the drapes – heavy insulated ones on the east side. Fans really really help!
I live in BC Canada, so the air conditioner won’t come into play until July – but even then I just move into the basement to sleep at night, close the drapes during the day, and open the windows at night to stay cool. It’s nice living in a climate where I can do this as well.
Fox, I envy you. From what I understand the climate in BC is awesome but then I don’t have bears in my freezer.
We turned our wood furnace off a couple weeks ago. The nights are still on the cooler side but with R’s hips in the shape they are, he doesn’t need to be cutting wood. It’s one thing that we can take off his plate for the moment.
[...] S presents Have You Turned On Your Air Conditioning? posted at Oh My Aching Debts, saying “It’s almost air conditioning time and this is a [...]
Gosh. I can’t even imagine running the AC at only 90 degrees. I don’t normally turn it on until the heat reaches 100 — that would be around 85 indoors. It’s 103 on the shaded back porch right now, and the system’s been cycling on & off for about four hours. I keep the thermostat set at 79 (psychologically less annoying than 80 degrees) but drop it to 76 at night. Fortunately, it’s still cool enough at night that the system stays off after about 10:00 p.m. So far…over the next few days, the thermometer’s supposed to rise to more normal summer temps.
Funny, You can tell you live in Arizona. The humidity in the east is so much higher that it’s like being in a sauna when it gets to 90. For example right now at 8 am, it’s 66 degrees and 88% humidity. I have seen days during the summer when the humidity is in the high 90s. Sweating doesn’t cool you off because it doesn’t evaporate.
I live in Pennsylvania, and nope I haven’t turned on the AC yet, but my neighbor has already! I can’t believe that he turns his AC on, especially during the night time, when you could easily open a window… and the air is just as cold, lol.
It is going to be a high of 79F today, and 83F tomorrow, and nope I won’t be turning on the AC yet… I will only do it… if it gets to be in the 90s.