It’s Electric!

This week while I was showing property and working on my online listing presentation and Matthew has been working on my online buyer’s presentation. I had my own housing question.

I found a link at the Rappahannock Electric Co-Op Webpage for energy audits. I emailed Energy Expert. Here was my question:

In the evening, is it cheaper to run my thermostat at 74 and then run a wall unit in my upstairs bedroom at 68  OR is it cheaper to run the thermostat at 66 to cool upstairs enough to sleep?

The response was this:

I would need more information before I could answer that question with total confidence.  But if you need the bedroom at 68 deg to sleep and you keep the house at 74 deg, It will likely be cheaper to get a window AC unit to cool the bedroom to 68 at night and leave the house at 74.

I found a 10,000 BTU window unit that will cool a 450 sf room.  This unit will consume about 1,725 watts maximum when running.  A 5,000 BTU window unit will consume about 600 watts.  The window units will cool the bedroom pretty quickly at night.  A 2.5 ton central AC unit consumes about 3,800 Watts and would need to run quite a while to cool the entire house from 74 down to 66.

And a further email…

A 10,000 BTU unit should cool a 20’ x 20’ room.  If you get a unit that is too big, the room will be cold and clammy.  AC that only runs for a few minutes at a time will not remove the humidity and “short cycles”.  It will cause the room to be cold/ hot/ cold etc.  A properly sized unit will run more often but it will keep the room much more comfortable and it will not necessarily use more energy just because it is running more.

Here are links to the Information that Richard Mialki Jr. from Rappahannock Electric Shared with me. I hope there’s something here that will help you with your energy questions!

• Energy Saver’s Booklet from the Dept. of Energy
• Energy Info Web links
• Heat Pump Efficiency Tips
• Heat Pump Q&A