Arizona Oddities

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Your Guides
  • Departments
    • Art
    • Dose of History
    • Culture
    • Natural Surroundings
    • Odd Observations
    • Weather Talk
    • Food & Dining
    • Small Town Scene
    • Recreation
    • Only in Arizona
  • Get the Books
  • Contact Us

logo

Arizona Oddities

  • Home
  • Your Guides
  • Departments
    • Art
    • Dose of History
    • Culture
    • Natural Surroundings
    • Odd Observations
    • Weather Talk
    • Food & Dining
    • Small Town Scene
    • Recreation
    • Only in Arizona
  • Get the Books
  • Contact Us
Weather Talk
Home›Weather Talk›To Run the AC, or Not to Run the AC?

To Run the AC, or Not to Run the AC?

By Andrea Aker
May 30, 2012
2130
2

Excerpt from Valley 101: A Slightly Skewed Guide to Living in Arizona, a collection of Clay Thompson’s columns for The Arizona Republic. (Originally published September 24, 2000.)

Q: My friend turns his air-conditioning off when he goes to work, goes on vacation or plans on being out of the house for more than a few hours. It gets up to 100 degrees in his house. Is he really saving money on his electric bill?

A: Coincidentally, as this is written, the air-conditioning is off here at the Valley 101 offices on the No. 9 parapet of the Dark Tower.

Our masters, who are sipping cool drinks and being fanned and fed grapes by interns, tell us this is a temporary malfunction, but in some of the more primitive areas of the newsroom there are mutterings of human experiments being carried out.

Nonetheless, brow dripping, we soldier on.

We have reason to believe that your friend—and we don’t mean to get too technical here — is a dope. We got partial confirmation of this by consulting with the estimable Scott Harelson, a Salt River Project
spokesman.

Yes, said Harelson, if you are going to be gone for a long time, like a couple weeks or so, you might savemoney and energy by turning the air-conditioner off. However, the unit is going to have to work really,
really hard to cool the place off when you get home, because the whole house—walls, floors, furniture, pots and pans and the goldfish—are going to be pretty well baked by then. So your savings might be
questionable.

But if you’re only going to work or going to be out for a little while, SRP recommends turning the thermostat up just 4 to 6 degrees above your comfort level. Turning the air-conditioning off for a short-term outing will not save money or energy because of the effort involved in cooling the house down.

Our masters insist the air-conditioning will be on again soon.

Meanwhile, they have called for more grapes.

(Visited 195 times, 1 visits today)

Related Posts:

  1. Roof Rocks Help Cool Hot House
  2. How Much Water Does My Swimming Pool Lose Through Evaporation?
  3. Frying, Not Flying, in High Heat
  4. Why is Tucson a Few Degrees Cooler than Phoenix?
  5. How Folks Kept Cool in Old Arizona
Tagsheatsummerweather

2 comments

  1. SaraD 2 June, 2015 at 12:52 Reply

    It’s not just about the outside temperature. It’s also about the ambient temperature. Your a/c doesn’t just cool the air. It also has to cool the internal structural components (e.g. walls, floor, ceiling), and the contents of the structure (e.g. furniture, carpet, appliances), all of which retain heat to one degree or another, depending on what they’re made of, and many of which generate their own heat, such as computers, televisions, refrigerators, clothes dryers, light bulbs, etc. Humans generate between 300 and 2500 BTUs (British Thermal Units) per hour, depending on what activity they’re engaged in. So, your a/c has to not only cool the air, but it also has to cool everything in the house down to whatever temperature you’ve chosen, meanwhile compensating for some things/people that are constantly putting out their own heat. Remember, also, that an air conditioner is working to pull moisture out of the air, and that makes the unit work even harder. The trick is not to turn off the a/c but to find a thermostat setting, for “away” times, that can save electricity but doesn’t require the a/c unit to work overtime on reducing the ambient temperature and humidity after you come home.

  2. Pete Szerszen 14 November, 2016 at 23:27 Reply

    You’re better off enrolling in “dynamic peak pricing” (“superpeak” as called by APS) and “super-cooling” your home (and contents) during off-peak times (7pm to noon and all weekend) and turning off during the peak hours. Especially if you’ll be away during the day and don’t mind coming home to an hour of 80 degree house. Cool your contents and walls and they will absorb the heat. The savings can be substantial and it helps distribute load on the grid which delays construction of additional power plants (and their associated environmental effects, though our power here is relatively clean with hydro and nuclear, other than the dirty coal plant up north). You can save a double-whammy if you have an electric car that you charge overnight. Wi-fi connected thermostats can really help you tweak your usage too if you have a variable schedule.

Leave a reply Cancel reply

Arizona Oddities Archive

Most Popular Posts

  • How to Keep Scorpions Away from Your Home
  • How to Keep Javelinas Away from Your Yard
  • What’s With All the Backyard Concrete-Block Fences…
  • Did You Know it’s Against the Law to Grow…
  • Four Deserts, One State

This Week Past Years

2019

  • 5 Facts About the Southwest’s Strangest, Smelliest Inhabitant – The Javelina

2015

  • A Beer Between the Forked Tree in Flagstaff

2014

  • Mow the Lake?

2013

  • Peach-Faced Love Birds Live in the Valley?

2012

  • Walk in the Path of Ancient Hohokam at Sears-Kay Ruin
  • Rest Stop Marks Border of Gadsden Purchase

2010

  • Why Do People Paint Citrus Tree Trunks White?
  • Elephant Feet in Northern Arizona?
  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • Find a Famous Writer and Explorer's Mountain Retreat in Greer

    Find a Famous Writer and Explorer’s Historic Mountain Retreat in Greer

    By Taylor Haynes
    July 31, 2020
  • thousands of Mexican free tail bats make Phoenix tunnel their summer home

    Thousands of Mexican Free-Tail Bats Make Phoenix Tunnel Their Summer Home

    By Taylor Haynes
    July 17, 2020
  • How to Keep Scorpions Away from Your Home

    By Andrea Aker
    January 3, 2011
  • Javelina

    How to Keep Javelinas Away from Your Yard

    By Andrea Aker
    November 23, 2011
  • Phil Motta
    on
    August 27, 2021

    Why Does Downtown Phoenix Seem to Have Two Downtowns?

    I know this post ...
  • Carol
    on
    October 17, 2020

    The Tucson Artifacts are the Southwest’s Greatest Hoax

    lol ... these "clues" ...

Follow us

© Copyright 2009 – 2023 Aker Ink, LLC :: Arizona Oddities is published by Aker Ink.