I Set My AC to 74
There's been a flurry of discussion in social media lately about how to set your AC. There's consternation that the US Department of Energy recommends you should set your thermostat no lower than 78° F. That already seems kind of hot. What's got people especially lit up is the recommendation the DOE couples with it that you should set your AC to 82° F at night "for comfort" "while sleeping". 🥵
First off, about that 82 F figure (28° C): I've lain in puddles of my own sweat at 82° F unable to fall asleep too many times to ever waste another hour trying to sleep in that if I can otherwise afford it.
So, what's a reasonable temperature? Well, even the DOE's lower figure of 78 seems absurdly high compared to the prevailing wisdom from when I was a kid. Back then all the talk was, "Normal room temperature is 68° F." A lot of people in my neighborhood growing up who were fortunate enough to have good AC in their homes would cool them to 68 in the summer. Even as a kid I recognized there was something wrong with that. My friends and I would walk in from 90+ temperatures outside and immediately be chilled.
In hindsight I believe what happened was that a recommendation of 68 as the minimum for comfortable room temperature in the winter was widely misunderstood as being a desirable year-round set point. Though it also didn't escape my young awareness that a lot of the same people who thought it fashionable to super-chill their houses to 68 in the summer also found it too cold in the winter, when they'd super-warmed their houses to 78. Even as a child, that seemed to me like dick-waving to prove theirs was bigger than Mother Nature's.
BTW, my family was not one of the affluent ones that could afford dick-size competitions with Mother Nature. Our threshold for using AC in the summer was an indoors temperature of 85°. 🥵
As I got older with more ability to control my own environment I found that 68 is actually a touch too cool and 78 is on the warm end. I found that "normal room temperature" is really best around 72-73. ...Or maybe I should say "normal office temperature" as that's where it's comfortable to be dressed in business attire and not worry about unsightly sweat stains on one's clothing. At home, where I can dress in shorts and light shirts and bare feet during the summer, I handle it being a bit warmer indoors.
That brings me to where I have my AC set right now: 74° F.
That's the temperature on the middle floor of our house, though. We have 3 floors and one thermostat. 74F is comfortable for that main floor, though it does mean the temperature upstairs, where we have our home office and our bedroom, climbs to 78 in the afternoon, occasionally even 80. At 78 it's just tolerable for desk work... in shorts and bare feet. Fortunately it's cooler in the evening, after the sun goes down and outdoors temperatures drop, as 78 is too hot for comfortable sleep. Even 74 is a bit warm for sleep. I prefer 72 and being able to use a light sheet for coverup.
First off, about that 82 F figure (28° C): I've lain in puddles of my own sweat at 82° F unable to fall asleep too many times to ever waste another hour trying to sleep in that if I can otherwise afford it.
So, what's a reasonable temperature? Well, even the DOE's lower figure of 78 seems absurdly high compared to the prevailing wisdom from when I was a kid. Back then all the talk was, "Normal room temperature is 68° F." A lot of people in my neighborhood growing up who were fortunate enough to have good AC in their homes would cool them to 68 in the summer. Even as a kid I recognized there was something wrong with that. My friends and I would walk in from 90+ temperatures outside and immediately be chilled.
In hindsight I believe what happened was that a recommendation of 68 as the minimum for comfortable room temperature in the winter was widely misunderstood as being a desirable year-round set point. Though it also didn't escape my young awareness that a lot of the same people who thought it fashionable to super-chill their houses to 68 in the summer also found it too cold in the winter, when they'd super-warmed their houses to 78. Even as a child, that seemed to me like dick-waving to prove theirs was bigger than Mother Nature's.
BTW, my family was not one of the affluent ones that could afford dick-size competitions with Mother Nature. Our threshold for using AC in the summer was an indoors temperature of 85°. 🥵
As I got older with more ability to control my own environment I found that 68 is actually a touch too cool and 78 is on the warm end. I found that "normal room temperature" is really best around 72-73. ...Or maybe I should say "normal office temperature" as that's where it's comfortable to be dressed in business attire and not worry about unsightly sweat stains on one's clothing. At home, where I can dress in shorts and light shirts and bare feet during the summer, I handle it being a bit warmer indoors.
That brings me to where I have my AC set right now: 74° F.
That's the temperature on the middle floor of our house, though. We have 3 floors and one thermostat. 74F is comfortable for that main floor, though it does mean the temperature upstairs, where we have our home office and our bedroom, climbs to 78 in the afternoon, occasionally even 80. At 78 it's just tolerable for desk work... in shorts and bare feet. Fortunately it's cooler in the evening, after the sun goes down and outdoors temperatures drop, as 78 is too hot for comfortable sleep. Even 74 is a bit warm for sleep. I prefer 72 and being able to use a light sheet for coverup.