Now that we’re firmly into Spring, I thought it would be good to focus on a tactic that many of us don’t use enough — turning off the A/C unit in the Spring time until you absolutely need to turn it on.  

I’ll admit that I like to have a cool house in summer.  The thought of sweating inside my house during the heat of the summer is not pleasant.  My Dad tells me stories of his childhood where people would sleep on their front porches because the non-air conditioned houses turned into ovens during the heat of the summer.

Once we moved into our new home, we decided to see how long we could go during the Spring without turning on our A/C.  A little background:  we keep the house at 68 degrees (farenheit) in winter and 78 degrees in the summer.  I also have seasonal allergies which can cause problems with keeping the windows open.

However, the last few allergy seasons have been mild, so we’ve been able to open the windows and let cross ventilation through the house keep the house generally cool for 6 - 8 weeks during the spring.  Here are a few tips for making sure you take full advantage of this strategy:

• Turn the A/C unit “off”.  I’ve found if I leave it on, but merely on a high setting, I’m more likely to turn it to a cooler setting and thereby lose the energy savings.  This is one of those human behavior things. 
• Use the circulate function on your A/C unit.
• Open windows on opposite ends of the house to get a cross-breeze through the house.
• If you have a multi-story house, open an upstairs window to make sure the ventilation moves between the two floors.
• Be aware of safety concerns when leaving windows open.  We don’t leave the windows on the front of our house open at night or when we are gone during the day.  We also don’t leave any windows open if we will be gone from the house for several hours.
• Use ceiling fans and portable fans to provide circulation of the air through the house.  Particularly a portable fan can be helpful when place in front of an open window.

The number of weeks you can leave your windows open and leave the A/C off will vary depending on your geographic location and even the weather during a particular year.  We’ve gone up to 10 weeks without turning on the A/C unit.  Since HVAC costs are the single biggest electricity hog in our home, it makes sense to leave it off as long as possible.

Photo credit:  karenwithak