Balto gas and electric is offering cycling thermostats. It would be set to turn off air conditioning during peak times of use. Then it would save me money. My problem is I am not well (ie. I have Fibromyalgia and allergies). I need to save money but I don't want to make my health worse because of the lack of air conditioning. I don't keep it that cold, but I do keep it on in the summer. Any ideas on this thing would be appreciated.
I am not sure how this will work, but I do know that for about 10 years, our electric company furnished a radio control unit for us to hook into our system. They could turn our air conditioner off with this unit. I loved it, because it saved us a lot of money, and they only turned it off for a few minutes at a time. And your house stayed cool. The only time you really knew they had it on the OFF cycle, was if you had been away and adjusted your thermostat to not be quite so cool. If you happened to come home when the unit was turned off, and it was a little warm, it would not begin cooling until the unit was turned back on. They only turned it off about 5 minutes out of each hour during peak usage hours. Like 5 o'clock when everyone was getting home from work and turning the air conditioners down. I wieh they still did that in this area. Harlean from Arkansas
I've found that the cold really bothers my fibromyalgia a lot more than the heat. We all need to save money, but not at our risking our health or causing additional problems. Can you use this thermostat only during certain months or will you be locked into it all the time? For me personally, I find it easier to just keep track of my thermostat myself. After a while, it's just like turning a light off when leaving a room. I keep it where it's just barely comfortable, allowing me to change the setting at bedtime, when I leave the house, etc. I also use fans during the summertime and sweaters in the winter, and they seem to help a lot. There are so many other ways to save. While we'd like to do them all, most of us can't, so we just do as many as we can. I've also found that as some become routine, it's easier to add to my list.
I would just try to conserve in other ways. Check for drafts where air escapes and plug them up, moniter the weather to see if it would be possible to turn the air off at night and put a fan in the room, close off vents in rooms that are not being used, try to not cook in the heat of the day, make food ahead of time and just microwave it during that time. I have gone as far as sleeping during the hot part of the day, and doing what has to be done at night when it's cooler. Sometimes savings are not really savings if your health suffers; there are many other ways to save money to off-set the cost of staying healthy. Check the energy-saving web-sites for more ideas. Good luck.
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