When you leave on a week-long vacation, there are a few things home maintenance experts advise you to do: turn off your water at both the source and the laundry, put lights on timers throughout the house, keep outdoor lights on near entry ways, and turn your air conditioning up, not off.
Turning the air conditioner up to about 85 degrees will save you some money and keep the air circulating in the house. If you turn it off completely, you run the risk of the house getting progressively warmer throughout the week and taking longer to cool down when you return. Is this really a good way to save energy? On the surface, it makes perfect sense to turn off the AC if no one is in the house. That’s why there are “smart” thermostats that already help you schedule and regulate the temperature by a few degrees throughout the day, based on your lifestyle. These few degrees do make a difference in your energy bill.
When you arrive home from vacation and the house is a sweltering 88 degrees, are you inclined to turn the AC on full blast to cool the house down quickly? This is where you lose all your savings. Your system will struggle against the heat. If you gradually cool an average size house, it should only take a few hours to achieve your coolness goal. If you’ve turned off your air conditioning, your house will feel like an oven, with condensation building up inside and wood floors and cabinets taking a beating by holding in the heat.
A better and more efficient approach is to regulate your home’s temperature from your “smart” thermostat’s vacation settings. This way, when arriving home, you can program the AC back to its normal scheduled cooling without having to fight high inside temperatures and the unwanted high energy bills.
