I bought an air conditioner. This is not something I’ve ever needed, but my Mom is 100 + and summer in Maine is not what it was.
I read the docs and can automate it fairly simply but what I need is common sense best practices,
Mom is most comfortable at about 74 F/ 23 C.
I have it set on Eco Auto and 74F as the desired temp.
I know it’s best to let it run rather than turning it on when it’s already hot.
I know to shut windows.
What else do I need to know?
And thank you!
We have found that keeping the blinds/shades down on the East side of the house useful at least until after lunchtime. Our home faces the southeast with no trees to block the sun.
Ceiling fans are useful for moving air. I bump up the AC level to 76f at night and back to 74f during the day.
Sounds like you have this covered!
Ceiling fans are useful for moving air. I bump up the AC level to 76f at night and back to 74f during the day.
Because I sleep better in a cool room, I do the opposite: I raise the AC setting during the day and supplement with ceiling fans. Then, about an hour before bed, I lower the thermostat so the house is cooler at night.
As a Floridian who, for years, has spent at least two weeks a year in Maine during the summer/early fall, I couldn’t agree more. The temperatures are not what they use to be. It can get downright hot during the summer months.
My house has a central AC unit, two different vendor ductless units and a window style unit. Eco Auto is implemented differently by unit type/vendor. One unit may implement the Eco part by a wider temperature range. Another unit may implement the Eco part by time of day or energy usage. One of my units implements the Eco part by motion detection. To get the best of both worlds, cooler temperatures and circulating air, I put all of my AC units on Auto, not Eco Auto.
Is this a window unit or a central air conditioner?
If humidity is a big problem, you may want to try both “eco” and whatever “regular” is to see what’s most comfortable. Sometimes “eco” doesn’t do as good of a job at dealing with high humidity.
It’s a window unit.
To be specific, it’s a Midea Model MAW12AV1QWT-C, one of the recently recalled models with a possible drainage issue. A technicianis supposed to apply a fix under warranty.
This! My apartment faces south on one elevation and west on the other. Once real summer heat comes, we close the windows, pull down the blinds, and keep them pulled down until sunset. The rooms are substantially cooler than they would be with the shades up.
We installed solar shades on all our windows, which allows us to still get some light and enjoy our view when they’re drawn so we don’t feel like we’re living in a cave. We put blackout shades behind the solar shades in the two rooms with the fiercest sun exposure to pull down during the peak summer months for extra sun blocking.
Thermal mass. How quickly does the house heat up in the summer (or cool down in the winter)?
Presuming that the house does not heat up quickly, take this approach. Cool down the house in the early mornings to just below a comfortable temperature when the AC unit should not have to fight as much against the outside temperature. Keep the windows and shades closed. When the set point is reached inside, reset the AC to a somewhat more moderate temperature, e.g. just at comfort level. Throughout the day, the AC will work to keep the temperature at the moderate level rather than working to reach the moderate level temperature from an already warm/hot condition.
If you prefer colder at nights, wait at least until the sun sets to move the inside to the lower temperature. If you prefer hotter at nights, remember to reset to a somewhat colder temperature sufficiently sooner than you arise in the early mornings.
As far as ECO mode … my reading says that it is best when the outside temperature is only moderately above the set point. By example, the unit may deal well enough with working in ECO mode with a 10 oF difference, but you may want ECO mode off when the temperature difference is 20 oF or greater.
FWIW, when the house has a low thermal mass, you are fighting a battle between the BTU and SEER efficiency of the unit versus the heat flow. You may as well keep the unit running all the time without ECO mode. You will need the full power of the unit to fight the thermal losses. AFAIK, in such cases, New England states offer free residential energy audits with potentially free follow up services to insulate homes, increasing their thermal mass.
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JJW
Speaking from the dry west. We use swamp coolers. The water used is the issue not the electricity (we are grid inter-tied)
Having lived most of my life in passive solar and other less commonplace heating & cooling mechanisms. My suggestions, ceiling fans and keeping air moving are critical. Close blinds and windows on the sunny side, which changes over the course of a day. If you are into automation in your home there are many options for controlling automatic blinds and you can go wild with all sorts of home automation that senses the heat in the house and adjusts the blinds and the air conditioner accordingly.
We usually have a cooling wind at night so we open up all the windows. Swamp coolers need outside air to operate most efficiently so we open windows strategically to pull air in during the night. For us closing the house as soon as the sun hits the east side makes the biggest difference. We also have in-floor radiant heat, which means we have several inches of gyp-crete thermal mass. For us changing the thermostat between night and day isn’t helpful. We’ve gone for almost 2 weeks in the dead of winter before we figured out the heating system wasn’t working. It took that long for the house to cool down. Similarly once the house gets hot it can take several weeks to get the floor cool enough so it’s comfortable again. So we err on the side of to much cool in summer and too much warm in winter because it takes so long to sense any changes.
I remember swamp (evaporative) coolers—we used them when we were stationed in the Philippines. It looked very much like this one:
Although they’re more effective in arid climates (setting aside water usage concerns), they do a good job of lowering the overall temperature. If you want to go down a rabbit hole, this study from the International Research Journal of Advanced Engineering and Science is interesting.
New ones are very water efficient. Water use is a critical issue for us too.
PS The water usage about a gallon per hour of operation.
I’ll jump in as a Canadian, just for fun. It’s common here to have central A/C and central heat. (This can vary by province; I’m in Ontario. Other provinces do it differently. East coasters, like Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, have radiators for heat, and I don’t think A/C is a given.)
In the summer, it’s not that uncommon to be 30 degrees (86 F) or above here, and very humid. Today’s high is 34 degrees without humidity (93 F), and probably 37 (99 F) or so with it.
So A/C is common. Not everybody has it, because of the age of some homes or condos, but let’s just say those without it like to seek out those who have it.
We just leave it running almost all the time, unless the temperature is in the mid 20s or below and it’s not crazy humid. (Anything below 80F we might just open some windows, basically.)
However, there is great debate among Canadians about the “right” A/C temperature. Our thermostat is in Fahrenheit, for some reason. We set ours to 76 during the day, and 72 at night. A lot of Canadians keep theirs set to 68F or so. My wife and I both find that too cold; we want the inside temperature to not be sweaty, but we don’t want to need sweaters when we walk in the door from being outside either.
Almost all Canadians have basements (we need to dig below the water line to avoid issues with our homes, so we have concrete basements that we all finish). I know many American homes have basements now, but I also know there’s a good chance an American home does not, so it might be worth adding a little bit of A/C context regarding basements.
My studio is in our basement, and our home theatre is too. We spend a lot of time on hot summer evenings, if we’re not outside, either watching the sun set with the windows open, or, if it’s too hot (like it is this week), we camp out in the basement and play Zelda. Other Canadians camp out in the basement and watch TV. Most households seem to have a basement TV and a main floor TV, and I genuinely think most people have a basement one just because it’s so much cooler in a basement during the summer.
If you’ve never been in a basement during the summer, it’s a bit of a revelation. Our main floor, where the thermostat is, is 76. It’s probably 78 or 79 on our upper floor. We live in a backsplit, so the “upper floor” is only half a floor up from the main floor.
Our basement is about 5 feet below the surface, so we have window wells down there. And in the basement, I’d wager it’s no warmer than 70F. It might be closer to 68 down here most of the time. Concrete walls and floors + rising heat = a much colder area. Sometimes I wear pants instead of shorts down here during the summer, because the cold air conditioner can really make it cool down here.
Anyway. I think when it comes to A/C, set it where you feel comfortable and leave it there, and see how it goes. I agree with @Bmosbacker that people sleep better at night when it’s a little cooler (even if they don’t think they do, science disagrees with them). So set it a little cooler at night.
Best practices are very different in Europe, so it really is contextual depending on your location. Italy has laws around A/C temperatures, for example. (For geopolitical reasons as well as environmental, which is a wild situation to be in from my privileged North American position.)
Thank you all. I do know the things one does with blinds and shades, fans, and windows, to keep cool, I’ve just never needed air conditioners before.
This is coastal Maine. Not that long ago, it was remarkable to have temperatures in the 90s in August. This was today:
The air conditioning was huge; my mother was comfortable and able to cope with excessive heat and humidity.
Glad your mother was comfortable! This is very close to what our temperature was today too. I went for a walk in the heat of it, just to get some fresh air after being cooped up for a couple days during this heat wave, and thought my skin was going to melt off my body.
What doesn’t heat up doesn’t need to be cooled down (as much); keeping the sun from shining on your window panes prevents heat build up behind it. I use a patio roller curtain mounted outside under the eeves to prevent the sun on the windows (and also close blinds inside. Home depot has them in a variety of sizes and colors. (Look for patio cover roller shades)
This. I was the client on two building projects where the architect specified “brises-soleil” — fixed thin, angled shades above each south-facing window that allowed the sun in during winter, spring and autumn but which shaded the window in summer. He said that he had retro-fitted to his own house and was very glad. They cost very much less than any air conditioning and worked well.
they’ve become quite common on commercial buildings in the UK and most people don’t even notice them. I don’t often see them on residences, which I think is a shame.
One of the plastic planters on the patio melted a little.
ah yeah, that happens. the little plastic tray on my barbecue is getting droopy!
