For those of you who live in hot areas but lack central air, I have a question: do you leave your AC on all the time? Do you turn it off during the day? If you do, do you have pets? Does it cost you a fortune? I want to know everything about your AC units, anything goes.
Oh, and that reminds me, if you haven’t already seen it, please stop by Cool Props. We have a few more.
Now, about your AC…
We have three window units in our three bedroom house. We only leave one on during the day so that we don’t come home to find toasted dogs. I think we’ve been paying about $60/month this summer.
Yikes! Yes, toasted dogs are only good if they are inside a bun and covered with cheese.
we have two, one in the dining room window and one in our bedroom (which is a converted attic so it gets real hot up there). We leave the dining room one on during the day for our three (and usually now four) doggies and then turn the upstairs one on at around 6 so its kind of cool when we go to bed. but we put them on “low cool” and set the thermostat so that its keeping things cool without running the condenser too much. that seems to help. I’d say overall our power bills are up $20 or so from the winter (we have oil heat).
We bought a beautiful hand made cedar dog house this year, so when we leave the house for the day we leave the dog in the back yard with plenty of water. Even on the hottest days, there is plenty of shade for Kinch, and his house is ideal for escaping the sun or an afternoon rain. Gracie the cat lives in the cool basement, so we don’t need to air condition the house for the pets.
However, we usually leave the a/c on during hot spells even when we’re out of the house. We like to live in a cool home, but foturnately we don’t have to worry about too much heat up here in Buffalo. There may be a total of 4 weeks a year when we run the a/c 24/7. Open windows are usually sufficient.
I have no idea how much it costs. Our electric bill is automatically deducted from our checking account; I pay no attention to it. I think if I replaced the 2 bedroom units we have, I’d probably save some $ in the long run, as they are ancient.
i have no AC and i live on the top floor. i leave all the windows open AND the balcony door for the kitty to go outside during the day. with the wind blowing a little bit through the place all day it’s not that bad. i just sweat and get nekkid in bed = my electricity bills are fine :)
Jersey City is way cooler than NY and everything is free here. Hi from Cass and baby Cal !