more fun with air conditioning

From: J Jensen (jjensen14_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 07/22/04 

Date: 22 Jul 2004 12:16:36 -0700

In regards to the recent posting I saw about running the a/c or opening the
windows, I would like to list several statements that people have made to
me about air conditioning. The location is Texas, where the temperature
is about 75 F at night and 100 F at the hottest part of the day.

1. Keeping the a/c cooling the house all day uses less electricity than
   turning it off and then back on in the evening or when you return from
   a vacation.

2. Running the a/c a few degrees colder at night cools the big cement slab
   that the house is built on, and thus saves electricity during the day
   (the a/c is set back to normal living temperature during the day).

2b. If the temperature inside the house reaches 78 F at 10 AM on both days
    with the a/c set colder the previous night, and also when it was just
    set normally the previous night, then that proves setting it colder made
    no difference.

3. The a/c uses less current at night ( you measure it with an ammeter as
   it is running ).

4. The a/c uses less current if you spray the outside unit with the garden
   hose and then measure it with the ammeter.

5. Shading the outside unit (compressor and condenser) does not reduce
   electricity costs [Assume shade does not block air flow].

6. If you have high ceilings and ceiling fans, it is more energy efficient
   to leave the fans running at low speed all the time to pull down hot air
   and get it to circulate through the a/c system.

7. It isn't worthwhile to check on the amount of Freon (or whatever) that is
   in the system -- all that matters is measuring the temperature of the
   cold air coming out (say 62 F) and the outside temperature or maybe the
   attic temperature.

--Jeff

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