Let\u2019s say you\u2019ve just come home after a particularly warm day, and your home\u2019s temperature offers no relief from the heat and humidity outside. Your natural reaction may be to go to your thermostat and turn the thermostat down to as cold as you can bear.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, this is an ill-fated effort to achieve the cooling effect you desire. In fact, if the temperature of your home is\u2014hypothetically speaking\u2014currently at 82 degrees and you set your thermostat down to 68, your air conditioner is not going to work any faster <\/em>than had you set it to 77 degrees.<\/p>\n Lowering the temperature in your home too much can <\/em>in fact do more harm than good. You are wasting energy by allowing your air conditioner to continually run, in an attempt to achieve your desired temperature.<\/p>\n When you set the temperature too low, your AC system does not work efficiently In fact, most air conditioners cannot reach temperatures any lower than 20 degrees of which it is currently in your home, so you are simply wasting electricity on an AC system that\u2019s attempting to reach a setting that it can\u2019t reach.<\/p>\n The recommended air conditioning temperature setting from the Department of Energy is 78 degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature is one which the average person can feel comfortable with yet does not use an unreasonable amount of energy.<\/p>\n Of course, different people have different cooling needs, particularly if your home has multiple occupants. It\u2019s best to sit down with your family members and find a temperature that everyone can agree on, but that doesn\u2019t stray too far from 78 degrees.<\/p>\n To reduce strain on your air conditioning system, you should make sure that family members don\u2019t make any changes to the thermostat settings too much. Additionally, when nobody is home you should raise the temperature by about 10 degrees to improve efficiency. However, this should be less if you have pets in the home.<\/p>\nSo It Does No Good, But Does It Do My AC Harm?<\/h2>\n
Choose the Right Temperature for Your Home<\/h2>\n