– Doesn’t the AC use the same amount of electricity if you have it set to 68F or 70F when it’s 100F outside? If it’s on its on right?
In: Technology
Sort of, it will use the same amount of power, but it will need to stay on LONGER to achieve a lower temperature. The larger the difference the longer it needs to stay on.
AC’s don’t typically run continuously, but cycles on and off. It runs at same intensity but for longer or shorter times to reach the desired temp. Maybe it runs 30 min of every hour to cool down to 68, while it only needs to run 20 minutes per hour to get down to 70.
If it’s always on, it’s never getting to 70 or 68 inside the house. It could be always, say, 75, cause the ac can’t keep up with the demand.
If it’s going into fan only or turning off at times, then it is hitting your set temperature, and 2 degrees will use more or less energy.
An air conditioner (AC) generally has an on-off switch. You turn on the AC and it cools. It take several thousand Watts to operate the AC.
You turn it on, and the temperature in the room (or house) drops. The temperature drops until you decide to turn it off.
But, since it is not always convenient for you to stand around until the temperature is comfortable for you, you can let it shut off automatically. You could put a timer on it, and say that it should turn off after 3 hours of cooling, for example. Or you could put a thermometer, so that it shuts off when it turns off at a certain temperature.
And that is exactly what most thrmostats are. They have an off switch that once a certain temperature is reached the AC is turned off. So the AC is consuming just as much power regardless what temperature it is set on, until it the thermostat turns it off.
Because it take longer to cool a room down to a lower temperature than a higher temperature, the AC is on for a longer amount of time, and thus, uses more energy.
For example, if you have a 4000 Watt AC, and it takes 3 hours to cool your house down to 70 F, but it take 3 hrs 15 minutes to cool it down to 68 F, then you are paying for extra 15 minutes of energy. At 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, 15 minutes at 4000 Watts will cost you 10 cents.
If its on its on, as you said, but remember that it will run longer if you set the temperature to lower.
Its simple, really.
It will use the same amount of electricity cooling down from 100 to 70. At this point it will shut off and use NO electricity.
However if you have it set to 68 then it will continue to run until it reaches 68 and *only then* will it shut off.
The difference in energy usage is in how much energy it takes to cool it down the extra 2 degrees. On hotter days this takes more energy than colder days because the house is heating up faster and thus requiring the AC unit to cycle on more often.
It uses the same amount of electricity if it’s on for the same amount of time. But obviously when you set it to 68 vs 70, it would take more time for the house to reach 68 than it would to reach 70.
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