I wonder at what point exhausting the hot air of the stove/oven/hot shower is beneficial over sucking out your air condition. I'm thinking 5-10 min after cooking/showering is over, you should stop.

yeah, I live in a first floor apartment in Houston. The only way I can get heat to rise faster in this place is to knock a hole through to my upstairs neighbor's place, and perform a 10th-level fire elemental spell to persuade the heat there's someplace less hot to go.

Air conditioning?!? Well, first we need the rain to cease for a week or two (Upstate NY) then the weather has to hit at least 85 for more than a day.

But for you lucky ones enjoying the heat... oh, what the hell, I'll just say it.

I hate you all.

I turn the AC on when it gets over 35, and the thermostat on the AC is set for 25. That is with 80-100% humidity, though.

/Japan

Ceiling fan. I put one in my bedroom and I swear it is 3-4 degrees cooler in there than in the rest of the house.

You can get them for like $50, and anyone with some handtools should be able to install it.

@corsec67: Don't be bringing your metric system around these parts.

@verucalise-T minus 16 days: you say that, but when you guys move down to the hot parts....all you do is complain about it. Damn yankees ;)

@FatLynn:

Well installing it is easy, it's the electrical wiring that is a bit iffy. I do like ceiling fans, but if it is already 80 degrees in your house, you are just going to be pushing around hot air.

I have a high performance computer in my bedroom that runs almost 24/7(Also very nice on the electrical bill) Although the computer has to be on and the small overhanging roof can reach 110 degrees at noon time, I have managed to keep my room around 78 degrees by using a box fan to blow the air out([www.amazon.com]). Then with my window open all the cool air from the rest of the house gets sucked up into my room and the hot air leaves. Plus when it cools down at night I open up the bottom half of the window and the vacuum effect brings the cool air in(it is a 2 part window the top half slides down and the bottom half can slide up).

I have an all electric house with a heat pump that provides my heating and cooling (resistance heat for the worst months). I cannot believe that people need this kind of advice. Cieling fans and open windows to circulate air? Heavens to Betsy!

All my houses windows are on the North or South side of the house, and it is always at least half in the shade. I bought the most energy efficient windows it made sense to pay for (ones that will still pay for the cost difference in 3 years since I'm not sure how long I'll have the house). These were not a deciding factor in buying the house, but they definately gave it bonus points. I'm shocked that people don't understand these things.

I don't yet have ceiling fans installed, but I have only run the heat pump for about 4 hours all year, and that was to cut the humidity, not so much cool the air.

@verucalise-T minus 16 days: What about those of us WITH the heat but not enjoying it?

Come visit Nebraska. We had a few nice cool days (the 4th, in particular, dropped to the low 80s), but otherwise we've been hitting the 90s where I am.

We have ceiling fans throughout the house, and supplement at night with small desktop fans next to our beds. The temp is always 80, unless we are not home and then it is 85. Get a programmable thermostat (cheap: $20-30) and program it to your schedule. If you're living in the south in a hot humid climate, you should be used to 100 degree temps by now, so 80 should feel pretty cool.

Also turn off all the lights in the house during the day. Crack the shades to let in enough light but not much heat. Get used to living in the house without it being as bright as the surface of the sun.

Shop around yearly for electricity. Go online and call as well. Ask for discounted rates, check resellers for new rates. 30 minutes can save hundreds per year. Last year we switched plans and our bills are 20% lower now (adjusted for usage). Set up an Excel spreadsheet and track your use and cost over the last 2-3 years to help you see the trends and set money aside for the expensive months.

Everyone in our city complains about $500+ electric bills, but it's because they crank it down to 75 or below all day. Our bill has never been more than $150, while our neighbor says his is $500 several months out of the year. We have the same size house.

@henrygates: Just to clarify, electric companies often have online-only, phone-only, or broker-only rates. The reps won't tell you about them (even if you ask) so you have to check these multiple sources.

@Saboth: Fans don't make a room cooler, however, they can make a person feel cooler. Moving air feels cooler to the body. (think wind chill)

@Saboth: I'd be curious too, since some of these lists include exhaust fans as a good thing. Though this one talks about running them an hour, which seems pretty excessive anyway.

@HomersBrain: You can cool your house by using a fan at night, then sealing up in the morning.

This assumes, of course, that it gets cool enough at night.

@HomersBrain: Yup. The axiom is "fans cool people, not rooms," so you don't want them on in a room unless you're in it. The exception being whole house fans or other arrangements wherein you're not just moving the air around within the room.

@HIV 2 Elway: 80-100% humidity is really 140-160% humidity in imperial units.

Take a cold shower, then lay naked in front of a fan.

Now that you all have that mental image for your morning...

Nice thing about living in New England and having our first really hot day YESTERDAY is my electric bills stay in control. We haven't run the A/C more than 1 day so far, and we've got a window unit. I have been running the fan only though in the evening when sleeping to improve air circulation through the windows.

@FatLynn: Anything added to your house to make it more "Energy Efficient" is tax deductable as well (Ceiling fans, window tint, etc.)

@spanky: You're meaning "and open the windows," right? That can help, but then you can run into another problem with the greater humidity of the night air. It's one of those judgment-call things.

@Saboth: Yes, but I can set my A/C to 77 instead of 73, and still sleep comfortably at night.

We have been in the triple digits here in San Antonio recently. If there is no one in the house during the day, set your thermostat timer to stay off until a little before you get home. My bill has gone down with this practice.

My grandpa (born in Mississippi in 1928) is still a fan of the block-of-ice-in-front-of-the-box-fan method. He friggin hates A/C and we have to make him use it - y'know, so he doesn't die of heat exhaustion.

How did that ellipses get in there?

My wife and I rent a home with vaulted ceilings. It does have ceiling fans but these pretty much drag the hot air down so we don't use them much.

Since she works from home, the house a/c has to work during the day. What we've done is put a small 110v window unit in our bedroom for night time and then turn up the house a/c to 80+ during the night. This seems to help some as our may-june bill was $150 versus what it probably could have been without -prior bills were under $90. We also run all compact fluorescent lights, insulated the hot water heater, and I rigged a box fan to blow cooler air up into the oven like attic from the un-airconditioned garage where the attic pull down steps are.

This is in the Nashville TN area so you know it is not that cool...

What? Am I really hearing this? "You lucky ones enjoying the heat"?? Oh yeah, 'cause heat exhaustion is soooo much fun. The heat index where I live in Florida has been above 100 for the last few weeks. You can't "open your window to let out the heat"...that crap just doesn't work here. It's not even 11am and the weather station on the top of my building is showing an index of 96.
I will, however, take summer Florida heat over six inches of ice on my winshield during the winter ANY DAY. Besides, ya get hot...find a beach or hit the springs...hmmmm, I wonder if that would work for my car when the A/C quits working? Can cars swim?

@floraposte: Yes, I left that part out, but we open the windows, too, to get up a good airflow throughout the house.

And I'm in Colorado, where it's rare for the humidity to get up into the range where our cheap home weather station even registers it. In fact, we have a swamp cooler for when it gets really really hot.

@formatc: Brr, Japan sounds cold.

I put thermal curtains in the house back in June, especially in the windows that get a lot of sun, and that did more to regulate the temperature in the house than anything else I've ever done. It used to be that we could set the A/C on 70, and it would be cold in the bedrooms but still uncomfortably warm in the kitchen. With about $60 worth of thermal curtains in the kitchen, it's comfortable in there now even when I set the thermostat to 77.

The curtains do block a lot of light and really darken a room, so if you want some natural light, open the curtains on the side of the house that isn't being bombarded with direct sunlight.

I imagine if you have newer windows than I do (mine are the old aluminum-frame windows that probably date to 1964 when the house was built), the thermal curtains would make less of a difference. I intend to replace the windows at some point, but curtains cost anywhere from $30 to $60 per window (depending on the size), as opposed to $200 to $800 to replace each window.

I live in Missouri, BTW. Not the hottest place in the world but certainly not the coolest either.

@spanky: Ah. I'm in the Midwest. The humidity/lower-temp conundrum is constant.

@henrygates: 80 degrees is cool? Are you kidding me? I tried that the first year I moved to Houston and it nearly killed me. Just try doing some light housework or use your kitchen/stove/oven/dryer/etc. Forgetaboutit!

Having said that, your house must be huge! Mine's about 1800 square feet and a 75 degree setting led to my highest bill ever last month of $200. I thought that wasn't too bad, considering the heat wave we've been having.

@verucalise-T minus 16 days:

I hate YOU. It's supposed to be 96 on Friday. The water in my pool will be like a bathtub. Come on down if you dare. ;)

@Dave-Farquhar:

I live in MO also, and I have the same kind of windows. My little house was built in 1952 so I know what you are talking about.

My kitchen is on the south side of the house, and that's where all my plants are. I can't cover the windows or they wouldn't get any light. But I put a fan in the living room by the door to the kitchen (the kind that's on a tall stand) and when I'm home I run that to get cool air in the kitchen. Also, I don't use the oven unless I have to.

All my ceiling fans have quit working. They're old and came with the house. I don't know how to fix them or who to call. Since my ceilings are low, they help a lot when they actually work.

Proliphix Ethernet thermostats ftw.
www.proliphix.com

Email reminders when fan has been running for 30/60/90 days. The fan counter is reset when you tell it you have replaced the filters.
Remote management.
3 Setback schedules.
With www.inthrma.com you can adjust anything via blackberry or iPhone. inthrma also provides historical trending including outside temp and humidity.

Remote temp sensors with averaging etc... They are really cool thermostats.

That's how a true geek rolls HVAC.

@Slack: Great suggestion! A great thermostat with proper controls can really save you a lot of money in the long run. Home automation FTW! Also pay an HVAC guy to move your return air duct from below the thermostat to above. Hot air pockets near the ceiling, and by doing this you will actually return hot air, not recently conditioned air.

@spanky: Swamp cooler you say? what is that? I live in the swamp, almost literally, so we wouldn't need one....I don't think. Maybe if it cools swamps.

@econobiker: the fans may have a switch to have them turn the other way and pull more hot air up..may.

@floraposte: I wonder that too. I run a bigger fan than my exhaust hood in my bedroom window, and at night, it can barely lower the house more than a few degrees, and never to the ambient temp outside.

@corsec67: The Metric system is a tool of the devil!

@HomersBrain: I must disagree. My house has a distinct thermocline. The upstairs has ONE vent and zero returns, save for one on the staircase. As you walk up the stairs, you can feel the change in temp from the bottom floor to the top floor. I installed a vornado fan over one of the vents which pushes the AC and Heat up onto the 2nd floor, and there was an actual change in temp, as it circulates the air around, and allows some of it to get sucked into the returns.

@floraposte: Does your AC have a condensate pump on it? Mine does, so when it runs, it sucks some humidity out of the air and drains it outside.

@You know what ole' Jack Burton always says: I moved to Colorado from the east coast with my family when I was a kid.

Sometime after we moved out here, my parents realized they didn't need their dehumidifier anymore, so they tried to donate it to Salvation Army or something, but nobody there had ever heard of such a ridiculous contraption. They were like, "It does WHAT?"

But now we come full circle! Now I am the smug arid climate snob, and I laugh at you people in damp locales who don't know what a swamp cooler is.

Ha ha!

From Florida, we keep the blinds and shutters closed 90% of the time during the summer. We have an upstairs AC unit that is not tied to our main unit so we can cool that rising hot air without ACing the whole house. Fans in every room that stay on even when we are out of the room and not home (yes uses energy but keeps the house cooler and less AC energy is necessary). Insulate.

@formatc: I say we tweak the imperial system to instead use the more intuitive metric system of "grams of stuff that sticks to my hand" or "number of coils per curl in my friend's hair."

@TheyCallMeStacey_GitEmSteveDave: I thought all air conditioning systems also dehumidified because of how they worked? That's why you get water dripping on your head in the city and see a puddle of water underneath a recently parked car with AC.

@Psychicsword: Out of curiousity, I've always wondered if watercooled computers were better at keeping the room cooler. It'd probably be true if they would pipe the water to a radiator in a closet or out a window.

My laptop becomes unusable for games in the summer, making me play outside instead like some kind of Amish gentleman. Do you find your computer having trouble in hot weather? I've been debating getting a desktop to act as a gaming machine once my laptop gets too old to run the new stuff.

@Shadowfire: Just find a shock site that makes you break out in a cold sweat. The last thing you'll be thinking about is the temperature...