Anyone else live with an energy hog?

[sbj405]

Grrrr. My SO, despite claiming to be an environmentalist, is the worst. He thinks that since we can afford to leave the a/c on 74 all day and night that we should. Do you they make password protected thermostats?

[NMDemDist2]

1. ROFL

that's funny "password protected thermostat"

I'd take to wearing sweaters and complaining how cold it is (and 74 in the summer is COLD)

[sbj405]

2. I agree,

He sets it at 74 and then uses a blanket at night. He also likes to have it at 68 in the winter.

[FloridaPat]

3. How about a fake thermost over your real on? At offices, they have

a plastic box with a lock on them to keep people from changing the temperature all day.

[politicat]

4. Welll.....

Here's a question - how much are you cooling your residence? 20 degrees? 40?

It may in fact make more sense to leave the therm at a set temperature day and night, especially if night temps are below the therm temps and you can pull outside air inside without turning on the AC. We have ours set to do this - it cools the house to outdoor ambient temp at night (which can get chilly, but we're both cold sleepers) and so the AC doesn't have to come on during the day until about noon or one.

It keeps the bills lower than if we ran the AC 24/7.

As it happens, ours runs between 70 and 74, with winter temps in the low 60s.

You may have to replace the thermostat with one of the fancy-schmancy programmable ones that does everything but clean the kitchen sink for you. They're worth it -- ours saved us well over 5 times its price in the first year we had it.

[sbj405]

6. I have a programmable thermostat

There's 2 problems - 1. I think that 74 is too cold for the summer. At 74, the a/c runs pretty much continuously. It runs about half as much at 75. I know that he can't be any more uncomfortable at 75. 2. The program can be overridden and placed on hold. He does this and then leaves the house, so the a/c runs all day at 74.

fyi - The a/c is only 2 years old, energy efficient model, and the entire hvac system is serviced every six months.

[politicat]

7. Is this a new thing, or has he always needed a cool environment?

Some people are just low thermals, meaning we thrive at lower temps and suffer in warmer ones. There's nothing we can do about it; as much as the travel industry would have us believe that laying on a beach in the sun is a good thing, we low thermals consider it torture. And low thermals and high thermals often have thermostat issues between themselves. (I grew up with two extremely high thermals; one lives in Vegas, the other in Phoenix, and they are delighted with the weather there. I'm a low thermal, and I absolutely can't stand the heat; I had heat exhaustion at least twice a summer growing up in Arizona, and my parents couldn't understand why I chose to work graveyards during the summers. Colorado is too warm for me; I'm thinking Montreal or St. Petersburg, or possibly Buffalo with summers in Patagonia.)

On the other hand, if this is a new thing, temperature variation intolerance can be a sign of a medical disorder. People who once handled X weather just fine and now have problems with it may have hormonal issues. If this is a sudden change from his previous behavior, you might want to ask him to see a doctor.

The other thing is if this is a change from previous years, compare almanac readings. Is this summer more humid or less humid on average than previous years? Humid air holds heat better, so it's harder to cool a house when it's humid. If that's the case, look for a dehumidifier to have added to your AC. If it's a drier year than normal, look into a portable evaporative cooler. Air that is too dry will feel warm even if it's cool because humans associate cool and wet (because, before refrigeration, anything that was cool was necessarily wet thanks to condensation.) Also, air circulation improves the cooling effect of AC, so investing in ceiling fans or punkahs (stiff paper stretched over frames that attach to the ceiling on one side and are flapped by either someone rocking in a chair with the chair attached, pulling on the cord, or by a small motor) or, if you can handle the constant white noise, floor fans, are a good, cost effective measure.

[LiberalEsto]

5. My daughters

Even though in previous years we've kept the thermostat at 78 during the summer, this year they have decided they want it at 74 or lower. If I turn it higher, they turn it down. My husband will never back me up - he does everything he can to avoid conflict, which is why the girls (age 19 and 22) act they way they do.

I can't wait till they move out and pay their own utility bills.