Air Con Temperature settings

Forums › Off topic › Air Con Temperature settings

Technofreak

6530 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#138858 19-Jan-2014 22:34

Why is it people will merrily set 24 degrees on the the air con in the winter but find it necessary to set 18 degrees or sometimes less on a hot summers day and turn the room into an ice box?

An ideal temperature is around 22 to 24 degrees, varying slightly depending on whether or not you are sitting at a desk or moving about.

In the summer time one reason we feel hot is because of the relative humidity. With high relative humidity the sweat produced by the body cannot evaporate and so cannot cool the body.

One of the features of air con is that it generally dries the air out (reduces relative humidity). Just by drying the air it makes you feel cooler (the sweat can evaporate) without the need to reduce the temperature.

A lot of weather apps now give the temp with a feels like temp as well. This is because of the effect of the relative humidity.

It would seem that a lot of people don't really understand air con systems, since they see the need to turn the air con way down on a hot day.

What is other peoples experience with this?

Sony Xperia XA2 running Sailfish OS. https://sailfishos.org The true independent open source mobile OS
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6
Dell Inspiron 14z i5

1 | 2

3075 posts

Uber Geek

#969774 19-Jan-2014 22:48

I've never experienced this myself, usually I find that its the opposite. Summer = perfect, nice cool temp, not humid in an AC environment.

Come winter; BAM. Temperature cranked right up, sweating like a pig only so a few people feel comfortable.

vexxxboy

4243 posts

Uber Geek

#969777 19-Jan-2014 23:11

never turn my heat pump on during summer and i only go to 19 degrees in winter, theres only a week or so a year where it gets really humid and i just open all doors and windows and create a wind tunnel

Common sense is not as common as you think.

Geektastic

17942 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#969904 20-Jan-2014 10:44

vexxxboy: never turn my heat pump on during summer and i only go to 19 degrees in winter, theres only a week or so a year where it gets really humid and i just open all doors and windows and create a wind tunnel

You'd just get a humid wind...!

Geektastic

17942 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#969909 20-Jan-2014 10:51

Technofreak: Why is it people will merrily set 24 degrees on the the air con in the winter but find it necessary to set 18 degrees or sometimes less on a hot summers day and turn the room into an ice box?

An ideal temperature is around 22 to 24 degrees, varying slightly depending on whether or not you are sitting at a desk or moving about.

In the summer time one reason we feel hot is because of the relative humidity. With high relative humidity the sweat produced by the body cannot evaporate and so cannot cool the body.

One of the features of air con is that it generally dries the air out (reduces relative humidity). Just by drying the air it makes you feel cooler (the sweat can evaporate) without the need to reduce the temperature.

A lot of weather apps now give the temp with a feels like temp as well. This is because of the effect of the relative humidity.

It would seem that a lot of people don't really understand air con systems, since they see the need to turn the air con way down on a hot day.

What is other peoples experience with this?

In our B&B we find clients have no concept of how heat pumps work - we will find them set at 25 with windows open and that sort of thing.

The Romans invented central heating: why it is so rare here I have no idea. We lasted one winter sitting round a log burner, wondering why we had time-travelled to the 16th century, before we installed 4 heat pumps.

I run ours ( only one unit, the other 3 are in the B&B part of the house) at around 20 (set to 'Cool') on most summer days and around 19 (set to 'warm') 24/7 on most winter days. I turn it down to 16 overnight in the kitchen/family room, as the dogs sleep in there and don't like the cold. Also heat pumps use less power to move a space from 16 up to 19 than they do if you allow it to cool back to 9 or 10 overnight.

I light the log burner only for periods of extended coldness (as it makes the room too hot during the day if it is not a cold day) or for effect.

It is interesting that here there are no max/min workplace temperature requirements, whereas in the EU there are and staff must be sent home if you can't maintain them.

k1wi

484 posts

Ultimate Geek

#969945 20-Jan-2014 11:41

Sometimes I think it's because people use the AC to 'cool themselves down', rather than to keep them comfortable throughout the day. That is, a relief from a hot day. On hot (~35+ deg) days I admit I've been known to put the AC on full as I got home, in order to cool off, particularly when it's very muggy. It's then quite tempting to just leave it cooler than usual. Probably not 16 though - that's really icy.

Of course the other thing is that I've noticed how well the body adjusts to warmer weather after a week or so, so I wonder whether cranking the AC in that manner reduces it's ability to adapt...

On a side note, my partner and I argue about turning the AC 'down' and 'up', as when she says 'down' she means its too cold, whereas when I say down I mean it's too warm... Constant source of bickering.

For when I move, it's a pity Nest got bought out by google, as you can cede some control of it to their cloud in exchange for cheaper power from your utility [in the US].

But then I've seen effective DIY thermostat schematics and that appeals more to me than pre-google Nest.

Coil

6614 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#969958 20-Jan-2014 11:47

I have no A/C in my house only gas heating (Which is abused to death over winter). My room is upstairs in looks directly over takapuna and gets sun all day. I reaches 32-35 Celsius on an average day in summer. Talk about hot.

Technofreak

6530 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#969961 20-Jan-2014 11:54

k1wi:
On a side note, my partner and I argue about turning the AC 'down' and 'up', as when she says 'down' she means its too cold, whereas when I say down I mean it's too warm... Constant source of bickering.

Yep, know what you mean. I'm with you on the terminology

Sony Xperia XA2 running Sailfish OS. https://sailfishos.org The true independent open source mobile OS
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6
Dell Inspiron 14z i5

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

Kopkiwi

2617 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#969972 20-Jan-2014 12:41

So. How should they be used then? I am guilty of using the AC to cool me down in the summer, especially after a run. Heck yesterday it was 32 in Chch with stupidly high humidity. AC sat at 18. Then the AC in the bedroom was the same overnight.

Technofreak

6530 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#969980 20-Jan-2014 12:53

Kopkiwi: So. How should they be used then? I am guilty of using the AC to cool me down in the summer, especially after a run. Heck yesterday it was 32 in Chch with stupidly high humidity. AC sat at 18. Then the AC in the bedroom was the same overnight.

Using it to cool down after a run is OK but normally set a normal temperature and the air con will do the job by reducing humidity. No need to set at 18 unless perhaps at night when you might want it a bit cooler.

It's the humidity that's the killer, reduce the humidity and you're hot sticky issues are solved.

On a side note

Opening windows with the air con on doesn't work as you're then trying to "air con" the whole world: your air con unit isn't big enough for that.

Sony Xperia XA2 running Sailfish OS. https://sailfishos.org The true independent open source mobile OS
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6
Dell Inspiron 14z i5

ajobbins

5052 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#969992 20-Jan-2014 13:28

Mine sits on 23 degrees pretty much all year round.

Back in my flatting days, I used to have a flatmate who would come home from work in winter, crank the heat pump up to 30, because she felt it 'heated the room faster'. In reality, all that happened was the room got too hot, and then had to be cooled (what a waste of energy).

Trying to explain to her the correlation between what temperate the unit is outputting (constant) vs. the desired temperate set never seemed to set in.

Twitter: ajobbins

JayADee

2148 posts

Uber Geek

#970042 20-Jan-2014 15:19

Geektastic:
Technofreak: Why is it people will merrily set 24 degrees on the the air con in the winter but find it necessary to set 18 degrees or sometimes less on a hot summers day and turn the room into an ice box?

An ideal temperature is around 22 to 24 degrees, varying slightly depending on whether or not you are sitting at a desk or moving about.

In the summer time one reason we feel hot is because of the relative humidity. With high relative humidity the sweat produced by the body cannot evaporate and so cannot cool the body.

One of the features of air con is that it generally dries the air out (reduces relative humidity). Just by drying the air it makes you feel cooler (the sweat can evaporate) without the need to reduce the temperature.

A lot of weather apps now give the temp with a feels like temp as well. This is because of the effect of the relative humidity.

It would seem that a lot of people don't really understand air con systems, since they see the need to turn the air con way down on a hot day.

What is other peoples experience with this?

In our B&B we find clients have no concept of how heat pumps work - we will find them set at 25 with windows open and that sort of thing.

The Romans invented central heating: why it is so rare here I have no idea. We lasted one winter sitting round a log burner, wondering why we had time-travelled to the 16th century, before we installed 4 heat pumps.

I run ours ( only one unit, the other 3 are in the B&B part of the house) at around 20 (set to 'Cool') on most summer days and around 19 (set to 'warm') 24/7 on most winter days. I turn it down to 16 overnight in the kitchen/family room, as the dogs sleep in there and don't like the cold. Also heat pumps use less power to move a space from 16 up to 19 than they do if you allow it to cool back to 9 or 10 overnight.

I light the log burner only for periods of extended coldness (as it makes the room too hot during the day if it is not a cold day) or for effect.

It is interesting that here there are no max/min workplace temperature requirements, whereas in the EU there are and staff must be sent home if you can't maintain them.

So true! A lot of areas where I used to work were blimmin' freezing indoors! And I hate how some restaurants and cafés leave their doors or walls wide open. I just won't go there.

We have heat pumps which in winter are typically set to 22 degrees but when I'm home all day I prefer the wood stove. It has a dryer, more pleasant heat.

In summer, we open all the windows and I find I often go outside to warm up in the sun. :) For some reason it stays cool in here even during scorchers so we never use the air con side of the heat pumps.

Kopkiwi

2617 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#970043 20-Jan-2014 15:22

Technofreak:
Kopkiwi: So. How should they be used then? I am guilty of using the AC to cool me down in the summer, especially after a run. Heck yesterday it was 32 in Chch with stupidly high humidity. AC sat at 18. Then the AC in the bedroom was the same overnight.

Using it to cool down after a run is OK but normally set a normal temperature and the air con will do the job by reducing humidity. No need to set at 18 unless perhaps at night when you might want it a bit cooler.

It's the humidity that's the killer, reduce the humidity and you're hot sticky issues are solved.

On a side note

Opening windows with the air con on doesn't work as you're then trying to "air con" the whole world: your air con unit isn't big enough for that.

So if I am reading this right a summer temp of around 22 is more beneficial and a winter temp is maybe 24 is more preferable to blasting a 26/27 on the dial?

rayonline

1734 posts

Uber Geek

#970063 20-Jan-2014 15:51

In Wellington we've never had to this summer consider the aircon, the previous summer a few days only. For me I think the winter is to cool down when we are too hot and for winter to warm up when we are cold. Not to set a particular temp with it ... A bit like in winter we go for longer showers b/c we want to warm up....

Geektastic

17942 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#970122 20-Jan-2014 16:37

JayADee:
Geektastic:
Technofreak: Why is it people will merrily set 24 degrees on the the air con in the winter but find it necessary to set 18 degrees or sometimes less on a hot summers day and turn the room into an ice box?

An ideal temperature is around 22 to 24 degrees, varying slightly depending on whether or not you are sitting at a desk or moving about.

In the summer time one reason we feel hot is because of the relative humidity. With high relative humidity the sweat produced by the body cannot evaporate and so cannot cool the body.

One of the features of air con is that it generally dries the air out (reduces relative humidity). Just by drying the air it makes you feel cooler (the sweat can evaporate) without the need to reduce the temperature.

A lot of weather apps now give the temp with a feels like temp as well. This is because of the effect of the relative humidity.

It would seem that a lot of people don't really understand air con systems, since they see the need to turn the air con way down on a hot day.

What is other peoples experience with this?

In our B&B we find clients have no concept of how heat pumps work - we will find them set at 25 with windows open and that sort of thing.

The Romans invented central heating: why it is so rare here I have no idea. We lasted one winter sitting round a log burner, wondering why we had time-travelled to the 16th century, before we installed 4 heat pumps.

I run ours ( only one unit, the other 3 are in the B&B part of the house) at around 20 (set to 'Cool') on most summer days and around 19 (set to 'warm') 24/7 on most winter days. I turn it down to 16 overnight in the kitchen/family room, as the dogs sleep in there and don't like the cold. Also heat pumps use less power to move a space from 16 up to 19 than they do if you allow it to cool back to 9 or 10 overnight.

I light the log burner only for periods of extended coldness (as it makes the room too hot during the day if it is not a cold day) or for effect.

It is interesting that here there are no max/min workplace temperature requirements, whereas in the EU there are and staff must be sent home if you can't maintain them.

So true! A lot of areas where I used to work were blimmin' freezing indoors! And I hate how some restaurants and cafés leave their doors or walls wide open. I just won't go there.

We have heat pumps which in winter are typically set to 22 degrees but when I'm home all day I prefer the wood stove. It has a dryer, more pleasant heat.

In summer, we open all the windows and I find I often go outside to warm up in the sun. :) For some reason it stays cool in here even during scorchers so we never use the air con side of the heat pumps.

Too many flies to leave the windows open (at least apart from the 2 that have fly screens). Both my dogs and I hate flies with a vengeance and being rural, there are plenty around in the summer. Besides the dogs like the a/c being on just as much as me ;-)

I've been amazed at the reduction in heat in my office since I swapped my Mac Pro workstation for an iMac with Fusion drive and replaced all my external storage with fanless drives. Also FAR quieter in there.

xpd

Geek @ Coastguard NZ
13765 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#970127 20-Jan-2014 16:50

23 usual setting, but come winter, one guy cranks it up - thing is, I sit in line with the unit, he dosent, so I cook while he complains its cold. If he took away the partitions around him, he may figure out why I keep turning it down during winter....

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

LinkTree

1 | 2