Do I save more energy if I turn my air conditioner on at night vs during the day?
Answer:
Yes it does. Your air conditioning unit has to take air in (air intake) and the hotter the outside air, the harder it has to work to cool that air down to a desired temperature. This hot air goes into the unit, has to go through a cooling process(coils and fans and that's where the freon comes in). This liquid/chemical is what cools the air and then this is what in turn turns into the cool air blowing inside your home. The ideal A/C system, in theory, reuses the cold air it blows out - energy efficient systems do this supposedly - through the air return, so the A/C unit does not have to cool outside hot air anymore. Some people recommend that you turn off the A/C while you're not at home and turn it on when you come in, but that causes more energy to be used because the unit has to cool down a space that is hotter than it would be if you left it on all day. When not at home, turn it up a bit, maybe to 80 degrees or so. When at home, lower it to 77-76. A 2 degree difference from what almost everyone likes (74-75 degrees) is hardly noticeable by our body and will save a bit of energy. The night factor depends on where you live, is it a hot-humid area or a hot-arid area? Air temperature during the day vs. night may or may not have such a big impact. In hot-humid areas, the air is so saturated with moisture, it may seem like it's cooler at night but it really isn't. Hope this helps.
well u dont save energy beacuse the energy comes from the electricity. it has nothing to do with the heat outside lol ;)
U rnt saving more energy---all the same, during the day or night...air conditioner's consuming energy's source is electricity,
Not dumb (see the last paragraph).
It does take less energy to run your air conditioner when it's cooler out.
Heat flows from warm places to cold, exactly like water going down a hill. An air conditioner just pumps heat from inside your house to outside, nothing more. It's like moving that heat back up a hill. The higher the hill (the greater the temperature difference between your house and the outside) the harder it is.
Which is why it's better to turn your air conditioner off when you're not home. By letting your house warm up during the day, you're lowering the height of the hill, and less heat flows downhill into your house. When you turn on the air conditioner when you get home (or before, with a programmable thermostat) the air conditioner has less heat to move out to make you comfortable.
Bob is right. It is not a dumb Q. I can't believe the answers that say no because electricity is not energy. It is the largest energy source we have and the largest pollution source. All electrical use reduction is a good thing in that sense.
Yes, your air-conditioner have to work harder during the day time since the outside air is hotter. The refrigerant in the air conditioner is cooled by the atmospheric air in condenser. The heat transfer rate depends on the out side temperature
The best is to buy a digital thermostat, and set it so that it only runs the air conditioner for when you're home or awake. Because it may use less power to cool the home at night, but you're asleep, so it doesn't really matter. Same in wintertime if you have a furnace, you don't need it hot in the middle of the night.
A digital thermostat that's programmable will save you the most power either way, because it means it's not running when you're away, either physically or mentally. Or at least not running so much.
If you want to have a cooler home for even cheaper, then the next time you need to roof your home, choose lighter coloured tiles, it'll heat your home up less.
You can also paint the roof if you want, they do this in some places in the USA to reduce the amount of heat for people who cannot afford air conditioning, or people who don't want to pay through the nose for it.
First of all there is no such thing as a dumb question! When people stop asking questions they stop the never ending learning process. In my opinion you would save more energy when running your ac at night due to the fact that it isn't near as hot and the ac doesn't have to work near as hard to keep your house at a comfortable temp. However if you are at home during the day or have pets run it some just so it doesn't get unbearable. At my house during the day windows are open so we get a nice breeze and our ceiling fans are on. If we've been working outside, once we come back in windows get shut and we turn on the ac for a bit. But then we open the windows again after we have cooled down and it's just fine. I live in Texas so it's very hot here!
To understand this you need to understand heat transfer and air conditioning thermodynamics, which I will present in the most basic terms.
First, when air conditioning your house, it is colder inside than outside. So heat is coming in through every surface. Insulation, shading, and an attic fan will decrease the amount of heat coming into your house. The warmer it is outside, or the colder it is inside will INCREASE the rate of heat entering your house. So letting your house get warmer during the day will decrease the amount of heat coming into your house.
Secondly, humidity (the amount of water in the air directly affects how hot you feel. Air conditioners also decrease humidity. I can put you in a 72 degree room and make you feel hot, and a 78 degree room and make you feel cold (if the first is 100% humidity and the second is 0%). So even if it is colder outside, it is not always a good choice to open the windows.
The air conditioner itself acts as a heat mover, it moves the heat from the inside to the outside. This requires electricity. As the temperature outside goes down (or the temperature inside goes up), the amount of electricity required to move the heat goes down, therefore you use less.
Finally, from what I have read, most air conditioners require a certain amount of energy to start up and are more efficient to operate for long periods of time rather than starting and stopping repetitively.
I have read about a new technology to try to take advantage of the electricity "surplus" at night to create a brick of ice that would then be used for cooling during the day. This would result in minorly decreased energy use in theory, but if you get cheaper electricity during the night, would result in greatly decreased energy cost. However there is a significant setup cost.
I use a digital programmable thermostat and have seen significant savings from turning the A/C off during the hours of 10am to 3:30pm. Then it's cool when I arrive at home. I also use ceiling fans. Sometimes I have to force the A/C on to reduce the humidity though because when it isn't hot outside the A/C may not run for long periods of time.
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