When Should You Keep Your AC On High?
If you love to feel the cool air blasting out of your vents during the hot summer months, then you probably love your air conditioner. However, air conditioning can get quite pricey if you want your home to remain as cool as possible for several months at a time. If you have noticed your electricity bills rising, then it may be wise to raise the temperature in your home to about 78 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the lowest temperature that you should keep your home, according to Energy Star. There may be some times when you really want to boost your air conditioner by a few degrees, and there are several different situations where this may be the right choice. Keep reading to find out what these situations are.
When You Sleep
It may seem like a waste to turn up your air conditioner when you are sleeping, but this is a good idea if you want to get a good night's sleep. The ideal sleeping temperature is between about 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit. When your body gets ready to doze off, your temperature drops. Your body temperature continues to drop to about 96 degrees Fahrenheit as you sleep, and it rises as you wake up. If your body is unable to cool down properly, then you will experience a fragmented sleep cycle. This means that you will be unable to get enough REM sleep, and you may not feel rested in the morning.
Since your body cools down continuously throughout the night, keeping your air conditioner on while you sleep is a good choice. If possible, program your thermostat to turn on the air conditioner about an hour before bed. This way, your room is cold enough when you lie down. This will help to trigger your sleep cycle. Have the AC turn off about an hour before you wake up. Your body will need to warm up before you feel fully awake, so this will help you to get out of bed in the morning.
Keeping a temperature around 67 instead of 60 can help you to save on your cooling costs. If you choose to set your AC to a higher temperature, then make sure to cover yourself with a thin and breathable blanket at night to keep yourself from becoming overheated. Cotton and linen blankets are best to keep you cool. If you want to cover up with a comforter, then opt for a down variety. Down comforters contain less dense fill material, and this means it will trap less of your body heat close to your body.
When Using Spot Ventilation
Many homeowners have spot ventilation systems that remove hot and humid air from the home. Ventilation hoods in the kitchen and ceiling ventilation systems in the bathroom are common. If you have your AC running all day and then take a shower or use the stove, you may decide not to use spot ventilation. The thought is that cool air will be pulled out through the ventilation systems. However, the vast majority of the air will be hot air since hot air rises. This means that the warmest air will be removed from your home. This means that you can and should turn up the AC when using spot ventilation, because you will not lose cool air.
Keeping your AC system and your ventilation system on at the same time can actually reduce your electrical costs as well. The cool air will push up the warmer air towards the spot ventilators. The vents then remove the heated air instead of your air conditioner cooling the warmer rooms. Since the ventilation fan will typically only use about 60 watts of power to run and an air conditioner uses 3,500 watts of electricity, this can keep your electrical costs relatively low.
Using AC and ventilation at the same time can also help to make your house feel cooler. Cooking and showering activities produce a great deal of moisture, and the ventilation fans remove the moisture with the air. This is ideal, because humid air feels warmer because it forces the body to conduct more heat. For more information about the best heating and air conditioning, contact a local professional.
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