Your thermostat

[wuapinmon]

I decline to enter this iteration of CUF penis-waggling, but I'm pretty sure our electric bill would rival anyone's. And that's keeping our thermostat at 82. Austin summer plus city-owned utilities plus 75-year-old 2600 s.f. house makes a perfect storm for exorbitant utility bills.

I feel your pain. You could see light through the floor in New Orleans, and there was zero insulation in the walls.

[Sullyute]

72 during the day, 69 at night.
Winter: 62 during the day, 55 at night.

That is where we keep ours in the winter. If ye'r cold put on a sweat shirt!

[FMCoug]

I decline to enter this iteration of CUF penis-waggling, but I'm pretty sure our electric bill would rival anyone's. And that's keeping our thermostat at 82. Austin summer plus city-owned utilities plus 75-year-old 2600 s.f. house makes a perfect storm for exorbitant utility bills.

Probably now but my Texas bill would give you a run for your money.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Wow, so many people getting royally hosed on the utility bills.

As I mentioned before, my electricity bill peaks at about $90 during the summer. I had a bill that ran between April 20 and May 20 that was $46. I have about a 2400 square foot home that's almost 3 years old. It's not like I skimp with the thermostat either. If I was setting it at 83 degrees I would probably be paying $46 every month during the summer.

It's the winter that kills me. Stupid heat pump, though I suppose a gas furnace would have ended up costing me more up front since we built our house.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

It's now been running for two hours straight. I honestly think it could run all night and still not get the temp as low as they like it.

How old is the AC unit? Does the humidity adversely affect an AC unit's performance or is the unit just old?

[Babs]

How old is the AC unit? Does the humidity adversely affect an AC unit's performance or is the unit just old?

We bought it in January. I think they must have ignored us when we said we would pay whatever we had to to get a unit big enough to cool the house. Also, did I mention it was 105 yesterday?

[FMCoug]

We bought it in January. I think they must have ignored us when we said we would pay whatever we had to to get a unit big enough to cool the house. Also, did I mention it was 105 yesterday?

Did they do a heat load? Lazy or "rule of thumb" A/C guys piss me off.

[Babs]

Did they do a heat load? Lazy or "rule of thumb" A/C guys piss me off.

I don't know, but they were here for hours. Did some kind of pressure test or something. They gave us a five-page print-out of results, but of course it was like Sanskrit.

In Oklahoma we had a heat pump, and I liked that a lot better. To be fair, though, we never tried to run the heat pump at a 35* differential between the outside temperature and the thermostat.

These guys said not to go with the heat pump, because it would be too expensive to run in the winter. In retrospect it occurs to me that Austin does not have winter.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

I don't know, but they were here for hours. Did some kind of pressure test or something. They gave us a five-page print-out of results, but of course it was like Sanskrit.

I would have hired someone that gave results in English. Seems much more practical that Sanskrit.

[Katy Lied]

In the summer, 74 during the day (sometimes 72). 70 at night, but we force most of the air upstairs where the bedrooms are so they get a bit cooler before the thermostat turns off.

In the winter, we usually set the heat at 68 or 70 during the day. At night, we set it at a very brisk 68 or 70. We like to sleep cool and pile on blankets.

We do this.

[FMCoug]

I don't know, but they were here for hours. Did some kind of pressure test or something. They gave us a five-page print-out of results, but of course it was like Sanskrit.

In Oklahoma we had a heat pump, and I liked that a lot better. To be fair, though, we never tried to run the heat pump at a 35* differential between the outside temperature and the thermostat.

These guys said not to go with the heat pump, because it would be too expensive to run in the winter. In retrospect it occurs to me that Austin does not have winter.

For a true load calc they would have spent a lot of time measuring windows, writing doors and window locations down, figuring out what direction the house faced, type of construction, type of insulation, and so forth. The "rule of thumb" / lazy way to do it is X tons per square feet, etc. Which is BS.

http://www.tombling.com/cooling/heat...lculations.htm

[RC Vikings]

In Rexburg during the summer you just open the windows at night and it will cool down the whole house. In winter we keep everything buttoned up tight and run that heater.

[Portland Ute]

I decline to enter this iteration of CUF penis-waggling, but I'm pretty sure our electric bill would rival anyone's. And that's keeping our thermostat at 82. Austin summer plus city-owned utilities plus 75-year-old 2600 s.f. house makes a perfect storm for exorbitant utility bills.

That's hot!

[Scott R Nelson]

I normally set my upstairs thermostat to 75 degrees in the daytime and 78 degrees at night. I turn the downstairs one off and let the cool air sink down into the lower half of the house. We have ceiling fans in most rooms to keep air moving.

But when my daughter came to visit a few days ago with her three little kids, we've had to change things a bit. We keep more doors closed to keep the kids in/out of various rooms and don't get the same circulation, so I've had to enable the downstairs air conditioner too.

I haven't lived in this house in the winter yet, so I don't know what I'll want to set it to. I figured I would only have to heat the downstairs, but since our bedroom is upstairs, that might not work. We'll see.

[wuapinmon]

Our June bill was $368 however we had an abnormally hot June (67.1% more cooling degree days than normal). July has been much cooler so far so the bill should come down.

With your mild-by-Houston-standards Summer, how much was this year's versus last years?