Do you leave central A/C on if you go away?

GettinNervous · June 2010

For 2-3 days if it's in the high 80s? Just wondering if people turn it off or leave it on.

Heidisean · June 2010

I would not unless you have an animal in the house.

emiliemadison · June 2010

We do (at about 77) but we have three cats and want to make sure they dont boil to death

Heidisean · June 2010

The way I look at it is that you are cooling a house (wasting electricity) for what? Think of all the people that don't have central air.

belle204 · June 2010

We just went away for two days and I left it on 75. I'm glad b/c it would have been blistering in there had I not.

crzygirl · June 2010

I have only left the AC on twice during emergency evacuation from wild uncontrolled fires. Both times it took at 4 days to be allowed home and it really helped keep the inside of the house free of black ashes.

DevonPow · June 2010

We leave it on, but a lot lower than usual. We usually have it at 73, we would probably set it for 77/78 while we were gone. Our hosue takes a long time to cool down, so we don't like it getting super hot while we are gone.

brightning · June 2010

We do, but just warmer than we'd normally set it. If we're only going away for a few days, it's really not energy efficient to let the entire house warm up and then have to cool everything down when we get back.

Angela814 · June 2010

We leave it on at about 77-78. Normally we keep it at 74-75. But we have birds in the house that we usually leave if it's only 2-3 days and have someone come feed and water.

Mrs.Saxy · June 2010

I'd put it on 83 or something....it takes so much energy to cool a south Louisiana house down.

littlemermaid · June 2010

I do but I will just raise the temp so it doesn't turn on as much. If I turned it off then I would waste more electricity when I got back to cool the house back down, so it's more cost efficient to just raise the temp on it a few degrees so it only occasionally turns on.

eclaires · June 2010

At our old house, we had some high tech thermostat that had a vacation setting (MH is a mechanical enginerd and at the time he was working on designing furnaces for a living so he had some high end thermostat for free).

Anyway, the vacation setting allowed you to set the temp higher while you were gone, set the time you were coming back and the temp you wanted it to be - then the house would be cooled off when you got home.

So we did that. We don't mess with the one at our current apartment - just leave it on/set as it was.

Marce921 · June 2010

We do, but turn it up higher than if we'd be home. It would cost more to recool the whole house days later than it would to just leave it on.

hopefulmom · June 2010

Nope...not if it is just in the high 80's. We are in MI and even though the days might be in the high 80's it would cool down to the low 70's at night. Having the house closed up actually keeps it cooler. We have a cat but she has access to the basement which is very cool...probably about 65-68. Personally, I wouldn't even turn on the air if I WAS home if it was just in the high 80's. My DH would though. It has to be in the 90's before I would consider it. I love the heat though.

Want a personalized experience?

Do you leave central A/C on if you go away?

Re: Do you leave central A/C on if you go away?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards