# making the room cooler do you.... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 13, 2014, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-room-cooler-do-you/692980 "2014-07-13T05:28:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-room-cooler-do-you/692980/21 "2014-07-13T22:05:35Z")
I turn the ac down in my central air in the house to make it cooler. However I turn up the air in the car to make it cooler. That’s just the way it is. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-room-cooler-do-you/692980/22 "2014-07-13T23:27:20Z")
c. Turn down the thermostat. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-room-cooler-do-you/692980/23 "2014-07-14T00:02:56Z")
Wife of a former HVAC person checking in… I had to be broken in (at least, by the industry standards here in east and central Texas) about this, lo some twenty-odd years ago, but according to him, it’s “turn it down” if you want it colder. Gah. I’d be shot if I did the reverse anymore. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-room-cooler-do-you/692980/24 "2014-07-14T00:38:26Z")
Um – I turn ON the air conditioner. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-room-cooler-do-you/692980/25 "2014-07-14T00:45:31Z")
For me, I use up or down to mean the direction I want the temperature to go, but I know that this is ambiguous. Usually I try to fix this by specifying “turn the thermostat up” or something like that. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > You turn up the air conditioner because you’re setting it to work at a higher rate - which results in the temperature in the room going down. The work being done by the AC and the temperature are going in opposite directions even if the former causes the latter. Systems may vary somewhat, but in general you are not changing the work done/power consumed or the rate at which it cools. You are only changing how long it continues running. Most heating and cooling systems aren’t on some kind of “throttle” but just work at full capacity until they reach the target temperature. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-room-cooler-do-you/692980/26 "2014-07-14T01:07:29Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Um – I turn ON the air conditioner. Yes, but that wasn’t the question. ---
**Author:** ![PurpleClogs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f04885/32.png) [@PurpleClogs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleClogs)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-room-cooler-do-you/692980/27 "2014-07-14T03:10:01Z")
We call it wind. As in, “Can you make more wind?” Strange I know. But we have all these odd metaphors for common things. AC is one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-room-cooler-do-you/692980/28 "2014-07-14T05:11:52Z")
I voted “turn down the air conditioner”, but what I really mean is I turn down the thermostat. ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-room-cooler-do-you/692980/29 "2014-07-14T08:15:47Z")
Turn the air con up, ie crank it up to make it colder, turn that baby all the way up to blizzard (inset tim the tool man grunting) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-the-room-cooler-do-you/692980.md?page=1)