How to Keep Your House Cool in the Summer

We have a problem when we need to run our air conditioner especially at night. It is always about three to four degrees warmer on the second level. So during the day we set the thermostat to 77 degrees and feel pretty comfortable on the first level. The second level is about 80 or 81 if it is set to 77 degrees. Ceiling fans on this level really help a lot because any room that is 80 degrees or above, can get uncomfortable.

We find that no matter how low we turn the thermostat at night, once it reaches that temperature, it stops running completely or for a long time. Even if the temperature is set in the low 70's, if the air conditioner stops running, the house starts to get stuffy. Many times I need to get up and lower it even more just to get it running again. The ceiling fan does help somewhat, but on a real humid night nothing really works well but the air conditioner. It may vary from house to house, but if I really want to be comfortable on the second level at night, I have to lower the thermostat to 70. Then if it stops running, at least the temperature is 73 or 74 degrees where I am sleeping.

Then in the early morning when I get up, I raise the thermostat to 77 degrees and keep all the windows shut if it is going to be another humid day. This keeps all the cool air in then it is set to go on again when it reaches 77 degrees which is usually by late morning. If it is not too hot of a day, it may go on in the early afternoon. We do not need the air conditioner to run at 70 degrees from early in the morning and we do not want the hot air to come in by opening the windows.

I have made this mistake many times. I figured that it would get too stuffy if no air was on so I just opened the windows and let all the hot air in. The problem with doing this, is when the temperature reaches 75 degrees in the morning, I am ready for the air conditioner to start running that low because I let all the hot air come in. So to get the air conditioner started, I have to set it to 74 degrees to get it running. Then eventually, everyone in the household is freezing because they are not used to keeping it that low during the day. The best thing is to just keep windows shut on a real humid day. I tried doing this today and it worked well. I had set the thermostat to 72 degrees last night. I got up this morning around 8:00 and raised it to 77 degrees, and it did not go on until about 1:15pm. It was very comfortable in the house, especially with the ceiling fans.

If you also leave your shades down and block the sun throughout the day, your house will also stay cooler. This is easier said than done because most people, like myself, like plenty of natural light during the day.

It took some time to experiment, but I finally found a solution that works. This way the ac is not running constantly either. It gets a few hours break in the morning. Everyone knows the cost of keeping it on continuously.