The short answer is yes, it is cheaper to leave your air conditioner on all day. But this does not mean that you should leave it on full blast, keeping your home so cold that you need a sweater or jacket to be comfortable.
"It's more energy efficient to keep the unit on but turn the temperature setting up," she advises. Turning off the AC unit during the day is not necessarily a bad thing — it is a myth that the AC unit has to work extra-hard to cool off a hot house.
No, it is in fact not bad to keep turning your AC unit on and off. It might seem like a waste of energy to keep tampering with the AC settings throughout the day, but it can actually save you money on your energy bill. Air conditioners work best at cooling and dehumidifying when they run at full speed.
Being smart about your thermostat settings can make a real difference to your energy consumption year around. By reducing your home's temperature to 68 degrees Fahrenheit and under during winter and about 78 degrees Fahrenheit during summer, you can conserve energy and cut down your energy bills for good.
Energy Saver recommends setting your air conditioner to 78 degrees when you wake up, 85 degrees during the day, and 82 degrees when you're sleeping to save the most money. Kureczka suggests bumping the temperature up to the highest setting you're comfortable with.
Keeping your home at a constant temperature generally means that your HVAC system will run constantly to meet it. This means that your furnace or air conditioner may run when you're asleep, at work, or out of the house. This wastes more energy than the minimal amount that you might save by having it constantly run.
Choose the right temperature
As per the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), the ideal temperature for the human body is 24 and any AC will take less load to achieve that target. So, it is better to set the AC temperature around 24. This will save more electricity and also cut down the amount of bill.
When you are trying to find a balance between comfort and savings, it needs some trial and error to find the best AC temperature in summer. Although 78 degrees is the recommended setting for the maximum energy savings, you could raise or lower the temperature according to your needs.
Your AC will actually run longer overall if it is left on all day instead of being shut off. If you turn it off for part of the day, it runs less and results in more energy savings for you. In almost all cases, it will save you money to shut off your AC while you are away from home.
Energy Efficiency
This will cause an increased electricity draw, which will increase your power bills. It may be costing you a lot more money by running your unit this way. Switching your air conditioning unit over to AUTO will use less power and be more efficient.
Turning up the A/C while you're away from home is an excellent way to save on utility costs. During milder summer days, you might even consider turning it off.
This means an AC unit could cost you from $5.17 to $5.94 per day to run. Or about $155-$178 per month you're running it. Let's say you still have an ideal home setup, but a home that's a little bit less than the size of the average home – around 1900 square feet.
Repeatedly starting and stopping an AC unit is also less likely to damage it than allowing it to run continuously for long periods of time. The strain may not have an immediate impact, but it can shorten the lifespan of your AC unit in the long run.
While many homeowners may say that they set their home temperature to 72 degrees in the summer, the Department of Energy states that number is too low and recommends setting your home to 78 degrees during the summer.
If the weather has not yet adjusted to this point, running your unit can actually cause major damage. Also, on nights where the temperature may dip below 60 degrees, remember to turn your AC off. There is an ideal temperature you should keep in mind during the summer and that is in the 70-72 range.
Just because the outdoor temperature is above 100, the Ideal temperature to set your AC unit to doesn't change — it's 78 degrees. Higher temperatures in the home are to be expected when the weather is hotter than usual, but your thermostat can still be set the same as if it were a lower temperature outside.
Sleeping in a room with the air conditioner set to an appropriate temperature is important for quality sleep. The ideal AC temperature for sleeping is around 65°F (18.3°C). However, this may differ between individuals, who might find their ideal AC temperature lies between 60 and 67°F (15.6 and 19.4°C).
If your area is currently at the design temp, your AC should run the “average” 12-16 hours per day. If it is five degrees higher, it will run 14 to 20 hours per day. At 10 degrees over, it will run 16 to 22 hours per day. At 15 degrees over, it will most likely run all day.
It's true that air conditioners do have limits when the outside temperature is extreme. This means that your air conditioner may be able to keep your home at 77 or 78 degrees when it is 104 degrees outside. But it might not be able to cool it down to 70 degrees during the heat of the day.
Start by setting your air conditioner high
And, the best spot to do it at is 78 degrees Fahrenheit. According to Energy Star, it's an ideal temperature. 78 degrees keeps you fairly cool and comfortable during the day. It also shouldn't make your electric bill skyrocket.
Additionally, if you set your thermostat a few degrees higher when you sleep (76-78), you can save energy (which means saving money in cooling costs). But, be careful not to set your thermostat too high, as your unit will struggle to return to your comfort level.
Ideally, your AC should run for 15 minutes on nice, warm days. Only on those rare triple-digit temperature days should your air conditioner be running almost all the time. If your AC isn't following this pattern, you could have a problem.