Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
I switched the thermostat off last Thursday evening 3/14 and haven't run heat since then.
We'll need some heat the coming week, but I might just use the gas fireplace as needed.
I let the temp drop to 66 at night, but this past week I've been taking all the solar gain I can get, driving the temperature in the evening to 76, and it only drops to 71 by morning.
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It's Oct 16th, and I still haven't run heat yet, though we've got a few days of rain in the forecast and cooler temperatures. My goal is to make it to November without running heat, but I've only accomplished that a couple times before.
I ran an experiment this year with the AC, using two, 15 SEER, one-ton window units upstairs. The goal was to utilize the 10 SEER five-ton less and hopefully somewhat even the upstairs and downstairs temperature.
Between May and August (4 months) the whole house AC ran for about 20 hours consuming 105 kWh. This compares to about 1,000 kWh in previous years.
The two window AC units combined consumed 504 kWh. That plus the whole house AC usage comes to 609 kWh this cooling season, saving about 400 kWh compared to only utilizing the whole house unit.
These results were good enough that I'll probably continue using window units in the summer.