While our bill went up up up and up for our electric/gas/trash/water, all in one utility bill, I had found Crunchy Chicken and her wonderful challenge. While we had already bought a programable thermostat and were using it, we could still do better and with the cost of utilities rising, that was just the rest of the push we needed to start. And while I'm environmentally minded, others here are not, so using the rising cost of utilities gave my idea the go ahead. Plus, no one here noticed the change until my son said something about 2 weeks before the END of this challenge. Just like a male! So, here's what we did:
I didn't start up the air conditioning until it was over 80 degrees in the house and then I had it set up for 4 different time schedules.
At 5am it kicked in to cool the house to a nice 78 degrees. (And for those of you saying, well, 80 is only 2 degrees more, why bother turning on the air? I have one word: HUMIDITY!!!) Then from 9am til 4pm it was set to 80 degrees (just cause we're not home doesn't mean the sweet kitties have to suffer during the hottest time of the day. From 4pm until 10pm it was set to 78 degrees again and from 10pm until 5am, it was set at a nice warm (actually comfortable) 82. We also kept all the ceiling fans going as well.
Not too bad, plus, with the cooler weather we actually had, it didn't feel bad at all. I'm not sure how we would've done had there been ALOT of the 100+degree with 80-100% humidity days. Maybe not as well, though I could be surprised about that one.
And yes, we will be participating in the Freeze challenge as well!
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