Does anyone penny pinch house AC/Heat?

[Higgins909]

I was wondering if anyone tried to save money by cutting down on AC/Heat usage, for the house. How much do you actually save? What are your gas/electric bills like? I payed a electric bill for a little while and it was anywhere from about $200 spring/fall to $300 in the winter. Where I'm living now, they say the electric can be in the $400's in the summer. In both houses people where there 24/7 so the AC/Heat was always set at the same temperature. Where I'm living now is also a 3500SQF house if I remember right and the AC is kept at 68F which has it constantly on. I'm wondering what it could look like, for a single person with animals, with less lights, and setting the AC/Heat differently when not home. At work, it usually hits 80F+ in the summer and that's with AC on. Just give me a fan and I'm fine. I know how to layer up for the winter, but I hate it when I take a shower and the air is so cold, so I would turn it up before/during a shower...

I'm just trying to plan out some future housing expenses for when I get my own place.
TL;DR do you cut AC/Heat usage to save money? How much do you save? What are your bills like?

Thanks,
Higgins909

 

[Darkpriest667]

68 thats hilarious. I never set my thermostat below 74. No wonder your bill is in the 400s. lose some weight, gain some heat tolerance, and turn the thermostat up 6 degrees. Jeez.. 68..

oh my electric bill last month was the highest it's been in 4 years and it was 166 dollars. 3/2 with a double garage. The electric at my hous ein fort worth before I put solar panels in was NEVER above 300 and it was 3000 SF

 

[Vaquero]

68 is a heater setting.
75 is a cooling setting.

 

[Higgins909]

Yeah, I don't mess with the thermostat, I consider it other peoples property. (I'm rent free...) But I think something is going to be done about it, this year. In the summer when it's in the 100's, the AC really struggles. It gets to be 80-82 upstairs. Not really sure why, just a bunch of guesses. (it's a single AC unit and this house is huge)

 

[Lonesome Dove]

Bigger the house
Bigger the bills
In every aspect.

 

[Darkpriest667]

Yeah, I don't mess with the thermostat, I consider it other peoples property. (I'm rent free...) But I think something is going to be done about it, this year. In the summer when it's in the 100's, the AC really struggles. It gets to be 80-82 upstairs. Not really sure why, just a bunch of guesses. (it's a single AC unit and this house is huge)

Single AC unit is your problem, my house in FW had 2 AC units one for upstairs and one for downstairs. Your unit is working double duty. Upstairs is always warmer, but also things put off heat you dont think about. Every computer in your house is a miniature heater. The rule of thumb for residential is there should be a single AC/Heat unit for every floor that is 1500 SF.

EDIT-- I am NOT a professional AC heat guy, this is my anecdotal experience over the last 20 years.

 

[Higgins909]

68 thats hilarious. I never set my thermostat below 74. No wonder your bill is in the 400s. lose some weight, gain some heat tolerance, and turn the thermostat up 6 degrees. Jeez.. 68..

oh my electric bill last month was the highest it's been in 4 years and it was 166 dollars. 3/2 with a double garage. The electric at my hous ein fort worth before I put solar panels in was NEVER above 300 and it was 3000 SF

What kind of temps do you run in your house? Are you all electric? Do you have a lot electric devices? Houses I've looked at online, seem to be electric only. (Jarrell) I'll only have AC/Heat, water softner, lights, dish/clothes washer and dryer, and a gaming computer and a home server. The things I can think of. I'll be doing my best to keep everything off.

Edit: I won't have cable or a TV, but will have internet.

 

[ZX9RCAM]

68 is a heater setting.
73 is a cooling setting.

FIFY

 

[Vaquero]

FIFY

It's a dry heat.

 

[Bozz10mm]

$200 would be a very high monthly electric bill for us. But our house is small and we are old. Heat usually stays 72-73, cooling is 77-78 during the day, sometimes 76 at night. Our bill for 8 Dec thru 8 Jan is $166. 1680 sq ft., all electric. My 12 x 20 shed where I spend about 5½ hours a day has heat or AC running during that time and a second fridge, computer, and TV.

Lights and small appliances, refrigerator, TV, computer, etc. don't use that much electricity. After AC/Heat, the biggest users are the water heater, clothes dryer, and kitchen stove/oven.

 

[FireInTheWire]

Summer 75
Winter 70

You hot inside in the summer.... go outside for 30mins.
You cold inside in the winter.... go outside for 30mins

Fans are your friend. Change directions each season.

Our bill has never been over $300 in the 6yrs we've lived in our house.

 

[EZ-E]

If you have 1 unit in a 2 story you have to adjust your dampers on the collars where the flex connects to the plenum in the attic.... if the AC guy spent the extra money for them when the house was built. If you dont have them then you have to adjust the vents themselves.

Also get an A/C guy out to check freon & if coils are dirty in the air handler upstairs & the condensor outside.

 

[Younggun]

I set my AC/heat to keep me comfortable, electric bill be damned.


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[JColumbus]

HELL YES. We have blankets and when we're asleep, we're less likely to wake up for being a little "too" cold. So I keep the heat off as much as I can. Heat is over rated. I choose to practice for the temperature I'll be when I'm dead.

 

[BigTexasOne]

Ok, heat settings are 68* in the evenings, 6:30 - 10:00 and then down to 62 through the night until about 7:00am, then back up to 68* until around 9:30 am, then back to 62 for the remainder of the day.

A/C settings, from wake up until bed time we keep the house at 78, for the sleep time it's set at 68

 

[GPtwins]

In the winter I run the heat 66 degrees during the day and 64 at night for better sleeping. We keep a small oil space heater in the master bath to warm it up for morning showers. I usually turn it on during a midnight bathroom break. Getting old sucks.

During the rest of the year we keep the house at 74. This is a compromise between my wife who would keep it at 66 and my wallet. My gas usage normally does not break $100 and during the summer it generally stays under $200. Two people, 2200 sqft home.


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[Axxe55]

If by myself, my electric bill is a little over a $125 a month. Our house is very well insulated and will retain heat or cold pretty good. The problem is the wife! She likes to use the thermostat to control her body temperature. I like to use clothes, or lack of and fans to control my body temperature.

Get into a habit of turning off things electrical when you don't need them or aren't using them. Changing out lightbulbs to lower energy use ones can help. Motion activated lights outside for security or convenience can help. Ceiling fans, box fans, or floor fans to circulate the air will help a lot on energy costs. Small portable heaters can be a huge energy saver. I use on in our bathroom when I take a shower. Instead of trying to heat up the entire house when taking a shower to be comfortable because I'm wet. I use a portable to just heat up the bathroom.

 

[ZX9RCAM]

In the winter I run the heat 66 degrees during the day and 64 at night for better sleeping. We keep a small oil space heater in the master bath to warm it up for morning showers. I usually turn it on during a midnight bathroom break. Getting old sucks.

During the rest of the year we keep the house at 74. This is a compromise between my wife who would keep it at 66 and my wallet. My gas usage normally does not break $100 and during the summer it generally stays under $200. Two people, 2200 sqft home.


Sent from Mordor using an iPhone.

This is curious to me.
It sounds like your gas usage goes up in the summer, I would expect it to be the opposite.

My current last month gas bill is $48.
Gas heat, stove, water heater, and dryer.

 

[Axxe55]

In hindsight, I wished I had now spent the extra money for having a plumber install the piping for a gas stove, instead of having an electric stove. Problem was, the location of the kitchen made it very difficult to run the plumbing for gas to the stove. The plumbing contractor doing all the plumbing for the general contractor for our house didn't want to do it, so I contacted another licensed plumber to give me a bid to do the job, He quoted me over $5000 to do the job. I thought that was ridiculous and thought he was trying to scam me, so I contacted another licensed plumber and he quoted me over $4000, plus materials. So no gas plumbing got installed.

My next energy saving project will be a wood stove for heat. Still in the planning stages.

 

[MarkTheNewf]

So we get our power via Griddy, which is market-driven power pricing. It's generally pretty low but can spike during times of high power usage. The trick is to tailor your usage to maximize off-peak hours (whatever that is in your region).

I have a network-connected thermostat which I've set up to talk with a system which monitors the price of power. When the price goes over a certain amount, the AC / HEAT (I have a heat pump) gets changed to prevent usage during high pricing. Once that price spike passes, it'll tell the thermostat to go back to the normal settings.

Even with me working at home due to the 'rona, our power bills have actually dropped a bit over the past 6 months since I got it all up and running.