I'm melting!
By sedel1027
@sedel1027 (17846)
Cupertino, California
August 10, 2012 5:34pm CST
Well, I feel like I am lol Summer finally decided to show its face in Souther California this week. Temps spiked up Wednesday and we though 'no big deal, we have central air'. Flipped it on and it wasn't workin properly. The next day a tech ome out, fixes the a/c loads it with whatever replaced freon. The not a kicking out cooler air.
As he's leaving he tells me 3 things (which in my opinion the realto we rented from should have know & said something about)
1. Our house isn't insulated
2. On a hot day, he a/c won't keep up, it'll run all day (due to the no insulation and attached in room)
3. There are closed off vents because the system is a maximum load
We ran the a/c almost that entire day. Shut it off are 7:30pm because it wasn't keeping the house cool. Yesterday I didnt run it at all, the temp hit 84 inside. Today's much hotter, inside temp is 88. Semi tolerable because the house it built to withstand higher temps and we have an almost constant breeze. However we are all feeling the misery lol
I checked out the electric company website and the day when the a/c ran from 10:30 to 7:30 we used between 80 & 90 kwh. That's a lot. When we were running the heat we were using an average of 38kwh a day. With no a/c or heat, we are averaging 22-23 kwh/ day. 80 for 1 day is insane.
Would ou put the a/c on or just suffer through? I was thinking about maybe just running it at night or early in the am do the house wouldn't heat up as quick
1 person likes this
4 responses
@ravisivan (14079)
• India
10 Aug 12
In India we switch on AC only rarely. We are normally used to ceiling fans. But during nights and during afternoons for a few hours we use to have AC. While here in usa-detroit AC is on always --temp is maintained around 75 deg. it helps.
@ravisivan (14079)
• India
10 Aug 12
You are from california. Hatley aunty from your place is not coming to mylot for the last nearly two weeks. do you have any idea about her? She was not well for some time two weeks back. (based on a discussion started by her).
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
10 Aug 12
75 is nice a temp. When we run the a/c we usually keep it at 77 so everyone is comfortable. Really 95 outside is pretty tolerable considering last year in Texas from June to October it was 115 almost every day.
no, sorry I don't know anything about Hatley Aunty.
@ravisivan (14079)
• India
11 Aug 12
thanks for the response. Here in Detroit today it was not that very hot. in fact it was cooler outside. --say around 70.
@freqspaz (220)
• United States
11 Aug 12
I am jealous on two fronts, ONE: you use so little electric and TWO: you JUST now need a/c. I am in VA and we've been over 100 for like ever. A/C has been mandatory to even breath.
What I would suggest is to turn it on AFTER 5, because from two to 5 is the hottest part of the day, and then leave it on till about 8 or 9, it SHOULD stay below 80 to sleep that way. BUT I could be completely wrong about that since your house is not insulated.
Or I would invest in a cold air humidifier. Because you said you have a breeze pretty much all of the time, it would give you a really light swamp cooler effect. At least enough to drop the temp of one room a few degrees, with out eating a lot of electric, and it's portable so you could move it from room to room with you.
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
11 Aug 12
Oh well, for 2 1/2 years we lived in Monterey a d it was cold year round. We pen 9 months of the last year in Texas and the immersion there were 115 and then almost over night snow lol
Honestly I was shocked to find out how cool San Diego is. We live just north of San Diego and they are usually 10 degrees cooler than us. My husbands cousin lives in the Cornado Navy housing and they don't even have a/c.
As far as usage, everything we own is efficient so it's easy to keep our bills pretty low. I do know people who have fewer people in their house with much higher bills though. My kids are great about turning lights off, short showers, ect...I wish I could say the same for my husband lol
Right now it's 7:30 and the thermostat says 82, but I'm in the living room a few feet fom an open window wearing jeans and drinking offer because the air is so chilly outside.
That's a good idea about he cool air humidifier. My husband mentioned ice water in a bowl in front of a fan.
I'm hoping this is the hottest weather, I looked at he 10 day forecast and the highs at the end of the week are projected at 83. Those are the kind of temperatures ths house is good or.
1 person likes this
@bjc66bjc (6730)
• United States
10 Aug 12
sedel, I am not sure what I would do in the situtation, I can easily
say I would switch the a/c on to get the house cool and then switch
it off once the inside has reduced in temperture...But paying that
bill is a real kicker....80-1 is truly insane...
So if you can handle the bill then deal with the A/C, but if its the
least bit of a burden, then I wouid just invest some circular fans...
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
11 Aug 12
The pain about this house is that even though it was built in the mid-70's in some ways it has construction like places built int he 1950. There a no ceiling lights in any of the bedrooms or the living rom. So I can't even go out and buy cheap ceiling fans to install. We have. 2 year old and cats, so box fans are out of the question. I was thinking about maybe fans o stands but I wor about them toppling over or the birds landing on them.
Last year we were in Texas and had central air. It was115 almost every day, but in the 70s at night and we just paid the $200 electric bill. To me, $200 is reasonable when you run the a/c and we never got over 1500kwh. However, here if we are using 80 kwh, over a month that is 2400 kwh that is insane! I don't think I even ran one load of wash that day. You know on a wash day it'd be much higher.
I did just check weather.com and it appears that to throw will be cooler than today and by the end of next week the highs will be in the low 80s. If that is the case and we are cooling down again, there is no reason to put the a/c on.
@Mark72125 (135)
• United Arab Emirates
11 Aug 12
AC is a very important thing here.We probably need to keep it on as long and as much as we can lol its just very hot.I would suggest you to not use the AC until it's too much for you to take I mean the weather being just very hot.But,I think its ok to have AC on as well.Depends,really on the situation.Anyway,I hope the weather get a little better for you.Thanks! :)
