uh oh, what was that sound
My AC gave up the ghost 5 weeks ago.
I’m watching Happy Gilmore 2 as the crew installs a new one.
Central Europe here. We had like two weeks of scorching hell and then it has been raining ever since.
Northern Europe here, same.
And Jesus said: “Don’t share thy bread nor thy fish, for it is socialism, and it is wrong.”
I used to live in a small apartment building without individual mailboxes so we could just see each other’s power bills. The first time they arrived, I was dumbfounded by how much everyone else paid. I’m not gonna give exact numbers because it means nothing unless you live in the same country and state but it’s enough to say their bills was literally 10 to 15 times what mine was. It was a very warm place so I just assumed they ran the AC all the time until we went through a particularly hot summer and I decided to just eat the bill and ran it 24/7 as well. My bill was a little over 3 times the usual amount. WHAT THE HELL WAS EVERYONE ELSE IN THE BUILDING DOING?!
without individual mailboxes so we could just see each other’s power bills.
Really? Them bills didn’t come in named envelopes?
Growing weed.
My experience is slightly different:
me listening to my air conditioner run non-stop
Goddamn fucking condensation shorted the fan controller, again. Hijo de PUTA
Which is more expensive, your A/C running 24/7 or it suddenly stopping?
Well it’s free after it suddenly stops it only costs you money to get it going again.
An example: old AC running 24/7 keeping the house around 80 degrees. Electricity bills between $250-300 per month.
System replacement was ~$15k. System runs regularly now and monthly electricity bill is about $150-200 and keeps the house at 75.
So it’d take 25 years to have enough savings on the power bill (saving $100 a month for 6 months of summer)
Assuming the power company never raised rates in the coming years.
That’s not quite the right comparison. You can’t expect the old AC to keep working for 25 years. For stuff like that, it’s really a question between replacing now versus replacing later, and the net present value of the combined cash flows when you compare replacement timelines.
“You can’t expect the old AC to keep working for 25 years”
Bullshit. A properly installed system will outlive the person that installed, easily. Even 25 years ago, the compressors were made so well that most of them are still electrically and mechanically sound.
Most refrigerants from ~25 years ago have long since been banned, and the units themselves may not be suitable for use with modern ones.
Unless you’re referring to an evaporative-style cooler, but they’re practically useless in exceptionally hot weather (anything north of like ~33 degrees Celsius).
It doesn’t matter if the refrigerant is banned.
A properly installed system is hermetically sealed. All the refrigerant it will ever need was put in the day it was installed.
I still regularly service 20+ year old R22 systems that are still trucking along just fine. And just because a refrigerant is banned doesn’t mean you cannot get it. I just bought a new tank of R-22 a few weeks ago. It was ridiculously expensive because they don’t make it anymore, but it’s perfectly legal to buy. And there are drop in replacements if a system does get damaged and develops a leak.
A week ago I retrofitted my neighbors R22 unit to 407C because the lawn guys hit the suction line with an edger. Cost my neighbor a thousand dollars to do it, but still cheaper than a new unit. He plans on selling the house in 5 years, so the electricity savings from a new unit don’t interest him, and his current unit is perfectly serviceable.
Most of these companies that say you “need” a new unit, are just out to make a buck. Unless the unit is physically destroyed or you plan to keep the house for 20+ years for the energy savings, there is little reason to get a new unit. Don’t get scammed.
A new AC here costs 400$…
Consider that the other option is having no AC in Texas though.
Oh, Agreed 100% when it’s broken beyond repair. But replacement of a working (yet now inefficient old) AC doesn’t save money necessarily. Not when new units are so expensive.
We are in the south, not Texas, and really need to replace our almost 25 yr old AC. We’ve been repairing and trying to get another season out of it for the last 3 years.
That’ll pay for itself in 10 years give or take
But that’s assuming your bill is that high every month when really in winter it’s probably much less of a difference. But I don’t know where you live to be fair.
Also depends on what type of heat you use
I have a heat pump, so my air conditioner is my heater, heat pumps are basically just an AC running in reverse.
In general, my wife and I don’t mind it being cold, we’re willing to let the temperature in our house get down to about the mid-low 50s (F, obviously) in the winter, so we do end up using a lot less electricity in the winter. But if we tried to keep our house at a warmer temperature that most people would find comfortable, it would probably be about the same.
Our gas bill over winters is over $200/month (AUD), due to our gas central heater
Comparatively, our three split-system ACs (2 bedrooms, main living area) over summer at most cost us ~$50/month.
Yet even still, trying to convince the missus that we’re better off running the split-systems in heater-mode would be more efficient and cost-effective is an uphill struggle.
Yeah I live in Florida. Our winters it might get close to freezing, some days. Maybe a little under overnight.
I have a screened in porch and it’s open all day along with the windows in winter, A/C set to fan only. Close the porch/windows at night but no heat. It’s pretty cold in the morning but I’ll take the $50 electric bill lol
Just to chime in, here in Israel I’ve never seen an air conditioner without a heating mode. “Heat pump” isn’t ever talked about because it’s a bog-standard feature of every air conditioner on the market. It’s just “putting the AC in heat mode”.
Our summers are brutal (especially in recent years, fml with climate change) but winters aren’t nearly as cold as European or American, so we don’t really have much call for a whole dedicated heating system. I’m guessing this is why ACs just add heating since it barely affects manufacturing but is a massive selling point (or glaring omission) for the roughly 100% of houses that don’t have other heating solutions.
It’s pretty ironic that we ended up with the most efficient heating solution being ubiquitous specifically because we barely need heating.
Of course, a ton of people (including my mom) still choose to use electric space heaters in the winter. I prefer AC but I can’t deny that the air feels different so it’s a valid preference, if somewhat wasteful. Not as bad as gas or fire though.
A Heat Pump isn’t just a “bog-standard” feature especially if it’s older than 10 years old.
There are many ways Central Air can heat the air in a home. A Heat Pump is only one of them.
Interesting, it never occurred to me that that might be the case. What other methods are there (besides the obvious resistive heating), and is there some way to check what method my AC uses?
I still would assume all new AC units here function as heat pumps, isn’t it just the cheapest solution to manufacture? Keep in mind that it never goes below freezing so there’s no need to deal with frost and ice.
12.5 years.
TBF I paid even more to have my system replaced. And I think it’s definitely worth it. But will I live here long enough for it to pay for itself? I don’t know.
Winter bill is usually $50-60, but gas fuels the heater. I will know the difference after this winter
Bay Area checking in. We have had a mild summer somehow. I feel bad for the rest of you tho.
that was me until i realized my roommate set the fan to on instead of auto
I’m using a swamp cooler. Not ideal, but my power bill stays lower.
Must be nice living in a climate dry enough for those to work.
Normally it’s dry here but the humidity has been 60-80%, which doesn’t do much for swamp cooling at the moment. I’m hoping things dry out.
They have a limit. So like it’s 110° outside, the best my swamp cooler can do is 90° inside.
That is the best most Air Conditioners will do as well???
Florida here. My AC only runs non-stop if all of this hits at once: I let it get hot inside, it’s 95F outside, and it’s late afternoon where I catch zero shade.
The spray foam attic insulation under the roof is the bomb. If I had my druthers I’d force that in all new construction. Insane that we still use fiberglass and other crap.
I heard spray insulation voids your homeowners insurance. Is that still true?
Haven’t heard that. I can say this, we have a Habitat for Humanity home and the insulation, structure, windows, etc. are well above code. They don’t play. The mission is to put people in homes they can afford, from the day you sign the mortgage, into the future.
Yeah, the faucets, doorknobs, lighting, carpet, linoleum, all that is shit. But again, they don’t fuck around with structure (hurricane zone here) or insulation. Most energy efficient place I’ve ever lived.
How you qualify for one of those homes?
Who can afford insurance in FL? 😏
My understanding is that it’s not bad when done correctly, but if they screw up the install it can be a nightmare and a huge safety issue. They screw up the mixture and now you’ve got extremely hard to remove foam stuck to everything that’s going to off gas dangerous chemicals for 20 years. It can go bad enough to completely condemn the home.
IIRC it can also cause the structure to rot if they get the vapor barrier details wrong.
My understanding is that’s true of basically all insulation. Old structures were built with the assumption that they’d breath, and insulation wasn’t as important since they’d be heated by fireplace in the winter (either directly or using the fire to heat water for radiators) and air conditioning wasn’t a thing yet.
During the day go out
During night use an air conditioned sleep pod (cheaper than cooling the whole home)
Go out where? It’s too hot outside
Libraries, movie theatres, parks with a strong breeze and plenty of shade.
The first two are a bit better. Good way to spend a smaller amount of money to be in AC.
Some cities also have advisories for people to stay cool without needing AC running, or provide other resources for the hottest days.
Air conditioned sleep pod
You mean those eggy things, one uses to go to sleep forever and an alien plant clone of you takes over your life?
I would love to make the switch
Is this the plot of the sims
Imagining the body snatcher coming back to the eggy pod and waking us up… “screeeech this sucks, take your life back, too much stresssssss” as they shove us out and climb into the eggy pod.
Personally, I can’t do this, have pets.
Also, my heat advisories are so bad during the summer, they tell us to NOT go outside unless we have to.
This is why you get a whole house fan… if you are able to have one installed.
So a fan instead of a roof?
I miss my attic fan I had in the previous house. The amount of airflow from that thing was insane.
