Air conditioning settings

[justabubba]

Almost everyone in Houston has their power back on, they are below 10,000 customers in a group of over 2 million.
People did live in the South before they had AC, I grew up in Southern Louisianan without AC until I was 10.
Fans help a lot!

I never attended any school that had A/C prior to college

 

[longview]

I never attended any school that had A/C prior to college

Now that I think about 5th grade was the first time I was in a school that had AC.

 

[Allan]

 

[Lord Tammerlain]

Mine is set to 23C/73F. Upstairs is just right, downstairs is a freezer.

Main floor is set at 21C and it is comfortable. Upstairs is too warm on hot days. The basement is to cold

Staying at a rental for a another year before moving back to Calgary. AC in Calgary might be needed 2 weeks a year

 

[Lord Tammerlain]

Now that I think about 5th grade was the first time I was in a school that had AC.

Calgary schools I doubt had AC when I was growing up. Furnaces yes, AC unlikely as it rarely got above 24 C in June or above 22 C in September.

 

[Lovebug]

During the winter, I set the heat to 68 (or 20C). Did I mention cheap bastard?

That's our temp in the winter. Husband wearing heavy sweats, dog's wearing a sweater and I'm in shorts.
In the summer we have temps usually at 78 during the day, nights 75.
I also make constant use of those ice packs for injuries. I don't just have hot flashes, I have power surges.

 

[longview]

Calgary schools I doubt had AC when I was growing up. Furnaces yes, AC unlikely as it rarely got above 24 C in June or above 22 C in September.

I think my school in Louisiana had heaters, but no AC, on hot days they ran the fan and left the windows open.

 

[Lovebug]

72° in the summer months...though I'd like to have it cooler since being on hormone therapy keeps me hot all the time...poor hubby freezes to death at 72°...66° in the winter...I'm thinkin' of movin' to Alaska or maybe the North Pole...

Can I come with you?

 

[Lovebug]

Downstairs: during the summer 76 in day, 74 at night.
Winter? I live in Texas, what the hell is winter?

Central TX? I lived there for a while. Cool place to be.

 

[RF667799]

The breezes are the nice part of the Caribbean. Sure it gets hot but the wind off the ocean really makes a difference. I've never had to turn the air conditioning on there.

We had window air conditioners in our rooms, but turned them on at night mainly to try to freeze out the mosquitoes.

 

[medi]

82. I also have ceiling fans in most rooms. While 82 isn’t exactly cool it’s a heck of a lot better than the 102-110 outside!

I made a decision toward the end of winter to try going the whole summer without using the air conditioner. Not for reasons of economics, but just because it seemed like trying to handle Mother Nature in a kind of 'I'm Not Giving In' sort of thing. But I focused on this south room, second floor and used a whole bunch of fans, with the key one being up near the ceiling to get at that layer of hot air that always rises in an enclosed space, like a room in a house. Have a very large south room window and was pushing air out at the top with a rather powerful fan and down low pulling air in with two smallish types. I wasn't worried about the computer as that is always assisted with cooling with a special fan I use here and the other house for cooling any computer I may use, and I do have quite a few. Had other fans spaced around the area of this work station to keep me sort of cooled off. And the whole thing wasn't so bad;

BUT then about early July we started hitting 37 to 38 centigrade in the Kanto area and I tried for just a few days of that and then gave up. Mother Nature won. Of course.

Now have the unit set at 25C unless I might have to be out and then I'll set it in the dehumidifier mode. Try sometimes to keep it off at night, if we have a heavy rain that can cool things down. Or keep it on the dehumidifier mode, if it isn't too hot outside air temperature. But rainy season was odd this year and I guess it is now over. Had to be out and about all day today, but was able to sort of keep things under control with vehicle air conditioning, and the hospital being cooled and then other buildings I had to visit.

Noticed a number of folks at the hospital today with some kind of little hand fan, I guess battery powered. But medical situation means I am not out so much, so I don't reckon I'll be needing one of those.

Bottom line is Mother Nature wins this round. But I suppose she always wins, right? It is pretty neat, though, that humans learned how to cheat with that air conditioning unit.

Unfortunately, we have had some deaths from heatstroke in some of the farming communities around Japan. I think one problem, in that respect, is a whole bunch of younger folks that in past years would be out in the fields aren't around. They scooted off to city jobs and the older folks try to keep up the farm work and deaths result. Quite sad, actually to see news of such deaths.

I suspect August will be a bad month in some areas of Japan, in the heat area. Typhoons haven't been so much trouble, yet. But that will likely change. Some of those can be mighty destructive.

I sort of wonder what the electric bills are like in some of your areas, if that sort of question isn't out of line. I just opened the latest one that came today and I was quite surprised it was only 7,000 yen. I remember, though, last year some of the bills were way higher than that. And now, with the yen being way, way devalued, I suppose 7,000 yen is a bit over 45 dollars. Is that a high electric bill?

 

[longview]

I made a decision toward the end of winter to try going the whole summer without using the air conditioner. Not for reasons of economics, but just because it seemed like trying to handle Mother Nature in a kind of 'I'm Not Giving In' sort of thing. But I focused on this south room, second floor and used a whole bunch of fans, with the key one being up near the ceiling to get at that layer of hot air that always rises in an enclosed space, like a room in a house. Have a very large south room window and was pushing air out at the top with a rather powerful fan and down low pulling air in with two smallish types. I wasn't worried about the computer as that is always assisted with cooling with a special fan I use here and the other house for cooling any computer I may use, and I do have quite a few. Had other fans spaced around the area of this work station to keep me sort of cooled off. And the whole thing wasn't so bad;

BUT then about early July we started hitting 37 to 38 centigrade in the Kanto area and I tried for just a few days of that and then gave up. Mother Nature won. Of course.

Now have the unit set at 25C unless I might have to be out and then I'll set it in the dehumidifier mode. Try sometimes to keep it off at night, if we have a heavy rain that can cool things down. Or keep it on the dehumidifier mode, if it isn't too hot outside air temperature. But rainy season was odd this year and I guess it is now over. Had to be out and about all day today, but was able to sort of keep things under control with vehicle air conditioning, and the hospital being cooled and then other buildings I had to visit.

Noticed a number of folks at the hospital today with some kind of little hand fan, I guess battery powered. But medical situation means I am not out so much, so I don't reckon I'll be needing one of those.

Bottom line is Mother Nature wins this round. But I suppose she always wins, right? It is pretty neat, though, that humans learned how to cheat with that air conditioning unit.

Unfortunately, we have had some deaths from heatstroke in some of the farming communities around Japan. I think one problem, in that respect, is a whole bunch of younger folks that in past years would be out in the fields aren't around. They scooted off to city jobs and the older folks try to keep up the farm work and deaths result. Quite sad, actually to see news of such deaths.

I suspect August will be a bad month in some areas of Japan, in the heat area. Typhoons haven't been so much trouble, yet. But that will likely change. Some of those can be mighty destructive.

I sort of wonder what the electric bills are like in some of your areas, if that sort of question isn't out of line. I just opened the latest one that came today and I was quite surprised it was only 7,000 yen. I remember, though, last year some of the bills were way higher than that. And now, with the yen being way, way devalued, I suppose 7,000 yen is a bit over 45 dollars. Is that a high electric bill?

No $45 a month is a great electric bill, but it depends on lots of variables, like the size of the home, age of the home,
how well it is insulated, or taking advantage of passive heating and cooling, etc.
My summer peak electric bills are now under $200 a month, but were close to $400 a month, I have reduced
them by improvements in AC efficiency, AC zoning, better windows and insulation, radiant barrier, etc.

 

[medi]

No $45 a month is a great electric bill, but it depends on lots of variables, like the size of the home, age of the home,
how well it is insulated, or taking advantage of passive heating and cooling, etc.
My summer peak electric bills are now under $200 a month, but were close to $400 a month, I have reduced
them by improvements in AC efficiency, AC zoning, better windows and insulation, radiant barrier, etc.

Well, I am pretty much alone in this location and so all electric stuff is basically turned off most of the time and I even changed to a small fridge, as I don't use the stove so much for cooking and don't really need super cold liquids and stuff. No electric heater units. Ofuro water heating is the gas company and their rates ARE way high. Well, shower, too. When I only use the shower. Ofuro uses way, way too much water. I guess that use of water is a selfish thing, if we want to delve into the planet's resources.

Electricity use is mostly confined to this south room these days.

And I see from your post that 200 dollars could be a peak and I suspect mine could be just about that for the next one, so maybe our electric rates here in the Kanto area aren't so bad. I can't recall making any comparisons in the past. Some reason I thought TEPCO's rates were high compared to other nations, but maybe I have that wrong.

Appreciate that feedback. Might have to correct false assumptions I had.

But I haven't had recent information from my wife in the other house, so I obviously need to study a little better. Except she'll get angry if I start asking her what the bill is there. She'll think I am micro-managing family money. Maybe my daughter can sneak the information to me. Your feedback has me kind of curious now how Japan's rates compare to other places.

 

[longview]

Well, I am pretty much alone in this location and so all electric stuff is basically turned off most of the time and I even changed to a small fridge, as I don't use the stove so much for cooking and don't really need super cold liquids and stuff. No electric heater units. Ofuro water heating is the gas company and their rates ARE way high. Well, shower, too. When I only use the shower. Ofuro uses way, way too much water. I guess that use of water is a selfish thing, if we want to delve into the planet's resources.

Electricity use is mostly confined to this south room these days.

And I see from your post that 200 dollars could be a peak and I suspect mine could be just about that for the next one, so maybe our electric rates here in the Kanto area aren't so bad. I can't recall making any comparisons in the past. Some reason I thought TEPCO's rates were high compared to other nations, but maybe I have that wrong.

Appreciate that feedback. Might have to correct false assumptions I had.

But I haven't had recent information from my wife in the other house, so I obviously need to study a little better. Except she'll get angry if I start asking her what the bill is there. She'll think I am micro-managing family money. Maybe my daughter can sneak the information to me. Your feedback has me kind of curious now how Japan's rates compare to other places.

Based on what I can find,
Fuel Cost Adjustments, etc. included in Electricity Rates for March 2024
it looks like the utility costs are slightly higher. What matters is your rate per kWh and how much electricity you use.

 

[medi]

Based on what I can find,
Fuel Cost Adjustments, etc. included in Electricity Rates for March 2024
it looks like the utility costs are slightly higher. What matters is your rate per kWh and how much electricity you use.

You are triggering an old and slow brain, because I just remembered that TEPCO recently changed their system to something like a higher rate when a customer hit a certain level of usage. But I am not at all able to remember how that worked. I know that the system is a tad delicate, though, because when we had that bad tsunami and the Fukushima Daiichi plant got all messed up we had scheduled power outages for a few months or so as TEPCO didn't have enough power plants working. In fact, I think there are a lot more coal plants being used these days. Maybe the government doesn't like to broadcast that information too much. I'm not so sure how the planning on using the fancy solar plant things are coming along. And I think those wind type things are trouble because of the threat of typhoons. A bad typhoon would rip one of those wind type things to shreds.

I wonder if that is true for Florida? And you folks in the U.S. have a lot more land for those solar panel things.

There are a lot of dams in Japan, though. Plenty of water here, most of the time. Had a few dry years, but not so often.

 

[longview]

You are triggering an old and slow brain, because I just remembered that TEPCO recently changed their system to something like a higher rate when a customer hit a certain level of usage. But I am not at all able to remember how that worked. I know that the system is a tad delicate, though, because when we had that bad tsunami and the Fukushima Daiichi plant got all messed up we had scheduled power outages for a few months or so as TEPCO didn't have enough power plants working. In fact, I think there are a lot more coal plants being used these days. Maybe the government doesn't like to broadcast that information too much. I'm not so sure how the planning on using the fancy solar plant things are coming along. And I think those wind type things are trouble because of the threat of typhoons. A bad typhoon would rip one of those wind type things to shreds.

I wonder if that is true for Florida? And you folks in the U.S. have a lot more land for those solar panel things.

There are a lot of dams in Japan, though. Plenty of water here, most of the time. Had a few dry years, but not so often.

Yes each geography has it's own unique challenges. Off shore wind in the Gulf of Mexico looks like would loose a lot of turbines to
hurricanes, but Solar is a real possibility.
I am still in the early stages, but are trying to get Solar to heat and cool my garage, such a concept would go a long way
towards removing the heating and cooling from peoples electric bills, or at least offsetting it.