The particular money-saving idea I’m about to present is a timely one. It’s beginning to get warm outside. Soon, the prospect of turning on the A/C will begin to nag at even the frugally-minded. So I’m just going to jump right in and make a suggestion some people might think is crazy:
Stop using the A/C.
I’m also going to suggest that you refrain from purchasing any other cooling device to replace your air conditioner - except for maybe a cheap electric fan, since the running cost for fans is negligible.
I’ve estimated using spreadsheets created by Energy Star that I might spend $140 annually if I ran an energy-efficient room A/C unit, or $216 if I ran an energy-efficient central cooling system (FYI, here’s the spreadsheet for central air and here’s the one for room A/C). That’s too much money to spend on something that’s totally unnecessary. That’s right, I said it: air conditioning is unnecessary. You don’t need it and it wastes money.
Air conditioning technology has only been around for about a hundred years. That means that for hundreds of thousands of years of human history, people got by without A/C. And they liked it!
Okay, I’m not sure if they liked it or not, but my point is this: our culture has fairly strict standards about what constitutes “comfort,” and these standards aren’t by any means the only ones a person might choose to live by. If you adjust your own standards downward, you’ll save money, and this applies not just to air conditioning but to many choices all of us have to make every day.
But the idea of adjusting your standards downward is kind of depressing, isn’t it?
I don’t really think so - because the concept of what “upward” and “downward” mean is totally dependent on your perspective. As I pointed out in this recent post, you can change your personal finances for the better by changing your perspective.
If you start living without air conditioning, you’ll find you don’t need it. You can sit in your room and chat online without running the air conditioner. You can watch TV without running the air conditioner. You can have a conversation with a friend without running the air conditioner. You can even get a good night’s rest without using the air conditioner. I’ll admit that it takes some time to get used to that last one - but at this point I, having deprived myself of A/C for a long time, find that I don’t at all need it to get to sleep.
I assert that once you’ve adjusted your standards downward, you generally get used to it quickly and you stop even noticing the adjustment. It’s not “downward” anymore at that point, it’s just normal.
I would go so far as to assert that this applies to any choice you might make that does not directly impact your health, as I don’t advocate ruining your health for the sake of a couple bucks.
So what do you think? Is this idea too extreme?
If you try turning off your A/C this summer, I think that you’ll be able to adapt to the situation - and save some cash!
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May 12th, 2008 - 8:25 am
I run my fan too instead of using the a/c and it saves me lots of money. I open the windows and have the fan going in the room I am in. The fan has a remote control so I can easily adjust it as needed.
If I do need to run the a/c when friends come over I make sure the vents in unused rooms like the bathroom are closed.
May 12th, 2008 - 9:33 pm
Conserving energy is easy on the energy bill and easy on the environment. Everyone wins!
Ice pops in the freezer help, and it’s a good reason to spend time outside your home being active (like staying cool in the river or a pool).
May 12th, 2008 - 9:40 pm
Thanks for mentioning the environmental benefits. Many of the strategies I write about are good for the environment. I plan to start mentioning this a little more frequently!
Also, you’re right, an excuse to buy ultra-cheap ice pops is always nice.
May 15th, 2008 - 4:54 am
This is a practice that I’ve been following for years now. However, I’d like to point out that while you mention that “for hundreds of thousands of years of human history, people got by without A/C. And they liked it”, you also need to keep in mind that living conditions have changed in the past few centuries. It is quite practical to live without an air-conditioner or even a ceiling fan when you are in a (comparatively) isolated house. However, people now mainly live in cities which do not allow for free movement of breezes. Also, in the past houses in hot climates were designed with thick walls and high ceilings … a practice which has unfortunately fallen into disuse.
When we purchased our current apartment, one of the major factors in our decision was it’s open layout which offered complete cross ventilation. Even at the height of summer (I live in Pune, India, where temperatures in May can touch 45 degrees C / 113 degrees Fahrenheit) I rarely need to run the fan at more than 2/3 it’s maximum speed.
My ways of beating the heat while saving power include:
* Avoid using the air-conditioner. I mainly switch it on only when we have guests over who aren’t used to the heat.
* Leave all the windows open to maximize ventilation.
* Drink lots of fluids. I avoid drinking chilled water from the refrigerator as it’s too cold. Instead we cool water in an earthen pot which makes the water cool while not excessively cold.
* Taking cold water showers frequently. It keeps you healthy too!
May 15th, 2008 - 2:26 pm
It depends on your situation. I would normally agree with you, however I had an experience last summer where, while I lived without a/c, I did not sleep a full night for almost two months.
I live fairly far north, so hot summers are a rarity. A/C is not standard equipment (though, as the summers get hotter thanks to climate change, it is getting more common), so our cheap apartment didn’t have any. What our apartment did have, though, was large, east facing windows.
This meant that every morning in the summer when the sun came up (around 5am) the room would start to heat up. A lot. In the peak of the summer, an unusually warm one, it never got below 40ºC in there. We had fans, blasting 24/7 which, thanks to the cooling effect of evaporating sweat made it bearable, but we were tired, cranky, and unable to sleep much from mid-June to mid-August. I would have bought A/C, except that we’d already agreed to buy a condo that came with it, and I certainly could have justified the operating expense, though only during the night…I can spend the day outside or away from home.
But that’s a specific case. My parent’s house is well insulated, so even on the hottest days doesn’t get past 30ºC, and circulates air better, so it cools down at night. There’d be no reason to use A/C there.
May 30th, 2008 - 7:33 pm
Five words, no, no and hell no! I am cheap, I live in a house that is 20% of what I could afford. I grow a garden, I take my lunch to work, etc. Oh yea my net worth is over one million dollars. So I really am living below my means, but one thing I won’t give up is my AC.
Is it necessary? No it isn’t but I am not going to sit around sweating my ass of in the 110 degree Texas heat. I will pay for the power to be comfortable.
I respect your view but personally this is one thing I will NEVER give up. Many other great tips on this blog though,
Cost Cutter
June 1st, 2008 - 4:01 pm
I lived through several humid Chicago summers A/C-free…last summer my apt was quite small and the air was stifled. I took walks at night and when it got too intense inside, would place frozen bags of vegetables on my chest, neck and under my armpits - cools your core temp down.