For those who run central a/c around the clock, where do you set temp when you're at home?

68 or 69 when I’m awake, 62 when I’m sleeping.

72 during the day, 68 at night. I’m hot natured. The heat is kept around 62 in the winter, and I’m perfectly happy with that.

Jimmy Carter told me that if it were below 78 I was wasting energy, so I’m a 78 kinda guy. Always surprised by how warm some people think this is…

Holy fucking shit i would be in absolute hell living in such temperatures around-the-clock. I keep it at 70 during the day! Nighttime sees temps no higher than 65 degrees.

So, you basically don’t go outside during the summer?

Reread what i wrote, guy.

I’m not even sure my aircon can even get the house to 65 in the summer. It struggles to get it much below 74 if it’s in the 90s outside.

This is so interesting, because I would be in hell if the a/c was set at 70. (I keep it at 77 most of the time.) Well, not hell, but the North Pole.

Hi, OP! Another Texan here. mops brow

I’d be happy at 75 or 76, but the boyfriend is hot unless there are penguins scampering about, so we go with 73 or 74 and he has a ceiling fan blowing onto him at all times.

Fun anecdote: we had a [del]freeloader[/del] houseguest for a while last year, who was personally insulted that the house didn’t reach the target thermostat temp … in mid afternoon, in July/August. When it’s 103 outside. I pointed out that the A/C compressor didn’t shut off until well into nighttime - the poor thing labors nonstop for about 20 hours a day - but she couldn’t grasp that there wasn’t more the A/C could do, to cool her off.

She kept turning the thermostat to mid 60s. Like that would, I dunno, make the compressor run 150% of the time?

I was woken up this morning at about 5:30 a.m. feeling cold. It was a brisk night, so I decided to open up the windows and air out the house before I went to sleep. When I awoke, I was cold enough that it was bugging me and woke me up. I closed all the windows and checked the indoor temp: 72F.

It’s a bit bizarre, as I’m the kind of person for whom 50F and overcast is the ideal climate, but once it gets to boxers and tee shirt sleeping/lounging around the house weather, 74-75 is just right, and anything even a couple degrees cooler feels freezing to me. (And, conversely, in the winter, that’s a sauna to me, though the wife and kids like it warm, so I keep it at around 72.)

I read what you wrote. That you would be in absolute hell to live in those temperatures around the clock.

How long could you spend outside in 90 degree weather before you consider it absolute hell?

When it is above 78 degrees outside, how long do you have to be outside before you consider it absolute hell?

The electronic control on my thermostat broke about ten years ago and is now permanently set at 74. Given total freedom of choice and the willingness to bother repairing something so minor, I would set it a 75 – close enough.

I hear ya!

Even at 77, my compressor runs at least 20 hours a day when the outside temp is 88-ish or higher. Right now it’s off, 'cause it’s 69 outside–OOPS! spoke too soon. It just came on.

Mine is set at 75 as a compromise. I would prefer about 78-79, and my SO would prefer 73 or perhaps lower. The default setting for our thermostat is AC ON, so when it gets too warm it automatically kicks in.

We’re in SE Texas so that’s about ten months a year. On occasional breezy days with mild temps usually sometime between October and April, we’ll switch it off and open all the windows and doors even if the ambient temp is in the 80s.We don’t get as hot as ThelmaLou because the gulf breeze moderates things somewhat, but highs are in the low 90s with constant humidity and nighttime temps sometimes don’t go below 80.

The upside is that we only need heat about ten or twenty days a year and can go years without a freeze.

Heh heh, but that’s kinda’ me. Only go out when I have to. Yard work, chores, getting provisions. No activity is pleasurable if I’m uncomfortable. Fuck that shit. I work outside for a living.

Coming in after “my” weekend, we always ask each other “how was your weekend?” “What did you do on your weekend?”. When it’s hot and muggy, I steal the line from ‘Office Space’: “I did nothing, and it was everything I hoped it would be”.

Let’s see, since “around the clock” generally means “all day” or “24 hours”, I’m gonna say “all day” or “24 hours”. I hope this makes my post clearer. :slight_smile:

We run 67 all year except when we can open windows for a few weeks (hopefully in Spring and Fall, N/W AR.) I need fans/air movement 24/7 to be comfortable indoors or outside.

We have a tight house and once everything is that temperature We personally, with our all electric house & Heatpunp vs Furnace, and Electric Company pricing, it is cheaper operating this way over a years time. ( We discovered this while we were living in Central AR. {works out that way here also} and had gas filled double pane windows installed and went with a straight heat pump.) No natural gas available in our area and propane was too expensive in that location. This house is not as good as the one down South so it will go to 70°F if the temp gets up over 100°F. The one down South could go even lower with high temps and high humidity. Over sized unit which always had power to be able to cycle. The present house pump will cycle until it goes over 100° F outside. Not that often right in our little valley and with all the tree shade around us on the side of the mountain.

We are old, I am a hot running person and the wife likes robes.
Out side work when we feel like it or have to. A breeze is needed for all things except care for the critters. We care for them regardless.

“It’s a thermostat, not an accelerator!”

As a rule of thumb, a properly functioning central air unit is designed to cool the house to about 20 degrees less than the outside temp. I keep mine set to 75 during the day and 72 at night. 75 should be achievable without overworking the AC unit too much on all but the hottest GA summer days. If the outside temp is expected to exceed 95 for a significant period of time I’ll bump up the thermostat to 80.

I’m okay at 72, my wife likes 68. We reached compromise at 68.

I find myself doing that too. Problem is in the winter it’s too cold to go out, in the summer it’s too hot. And the spring and fall is often rainy/hot/cold. That leaves about 5 good weekends a year to really get stuff done it feels like.