Electric bills, new and old

[BoricuaMojao]

Utah VS. Florida

Utah VS. Florida

Damon,

You make very valid points, for the most part they also apply here to save energy, but there is one big difference in our climates... HUMIDITY

I do not know your house specifics, but I would hazard a guess that if your house was in Florida your AC would be severely oversized. A humid climate like ours is less forgiving on oversizing a unit.

We here are trying to get humidity out of the house, with outside humidity here as a rule stays above 80% (educated guess, I have not looked it up yet) and we get long stretches of over 90%. In your case, the outside air is already dry, some people even install central humidifiers for their house.

An oversized unit will not be able to remove humidity out of the house air, It ends up cycling off way to soon. It cools too fast, before removing humidity. You end up still uncomfortable and turning the thermostat even lower using more power.


BM

 

[cschweitzer]

What BM says is very true, that is why the elec companies around here tell you not to oversize the AC. Damon is right about some of the stuff, though, like points 6,7 and 8.

 

[thor32766]

yes, the humidity is the difference. Great point. Our humidity here makes a world of difference.

 

[schnell76]

BM is right on with the oversized unit thing. I design houses for a living and one of the major items people ask for is a big, oversized AC unit to cool the house better. Cool better it may, but your money would be better spent on a variable speed fan that ramps up from zero and then winds down once the house has reached the desired temp. Basically it does not just turn on and off. The faster you cool a house the less humidity is removed and as we all know humidity equals uncomfortable environment and leads to potential mold problems. It is best to let your AC company size your unit properly.

 

[jay24k]

The rule of thumb is 1 ton per 500 square feet roughly. Anything more and you will not pull the humidity out of your air. A 4 ton would probably do you well if you need your whole house cooled Macnreef. However, when having a large fishtank you need to consider the humidity from that alone also. When I'm done flipping this house, I'm going to be doing major improvements on mine. I'm swapping all windows out to the most energy effecient windows with low E. I already insulated my attic and garage to the most without going overboard. You can insulate too much. Since my house is frame, it is actually better insulated then a block house. I'll be upgrading my AC after I add on new living area of about 450 sq feet which will put our living at about 2200.

I think that alone should help quite a bit. Also sticking that BIG magnet on my meter should drop my bill alot j/k.

 

[BoricuaMojao]

magnet

magnet

Jay,

not any more, the magnet will only work on the old rotating disc type, not on the new digital ones :lol:

 

[jay24k]

Mine isn't digital yet. Also another note, many people have had their meters switched out because of their rising bill. I talked with our meter tech here at the city and he said 99% of the non digital meters that are switched out have actually slowed down. So, before you swap your meter, check first. Overtime electronics generally slow down. The same goes with meters.

They will probably be switching ours out but not for awhile. I just got their system setup for the ERT's where they can ride by and do it wirelessly. Now they just need to get those meters installed everywhere.

 

[duhfactor]

All of your points make sense, I'm not that familiar with high humidity situations, as here it rarely gets above 50%. My HVAC guy set up a humidity control in my fish equipment room, which is basically 14' X 14' room, with a 10 ft ceiling. All it really is, is an 8" round duct, vented to the outside of the house with a fan on it, which is controlled via a humidistat. I haven't run it yet, so I'm not sure how effective it will be, but he swears by it. He has set up a similar set up in his fish room, which is about 12'X8' and 8' high,and works extremely well. Again, our outside environment is low humidity, so this may not work at all in florida....Not to be rude...but I'm glad I live in an area of low humidity...that way I don't have to be too smart to figure out how to fix these kinds of problems!!!!

 

[schnell76]

Yeah, that humidistat and fan would not work here in FL. Once its humid you have to wait until like November for the humidity to go down! You can't just blow in less humid air unless it is from an AC unit. But when our humidity goes down thats when it is great to live in FL. I really like Park City area out in Utah though. I was out there last xmas and was skiing for a week. That was my first time there with family that had been there alot over the last 10 years. Now I want to go back during the fall season. That way we avoid the snow.......you kinda get used to not dealing with snow at all by living in FL :beachbum: