Updated at: 25-10-2022 - By: Sienna Lewis

The summer months in Texas can be quite hot and humid. It’s a fact. There’s no denying it. Keeping your monthly energy expenditures low or keeping your home’s thermostat at a suitable setting is a question that arises. What temperature should I set my air conditioner to in summer? You may be considering your options and asking yourself the same question that other homeowners have asked repeatedly:

Even while there isn’t a single number that fits everyone, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) does have a guideline, which we’ll discuss below. With their suggestions as a starting point, it’s easy to determine how to get the temperature just right for you, whether you’re looking for energy savings, personal comfort, or a happy medium between the two. To keep your cooling expenditures in check, we’ve outlined the ideal air conditioner temperature for you, as well as some additional energy-saving tips.

What Temperature Should I Set My Air Conditioner in Summer?

We get a lot of inquiries about the ideal temperatures for a home:

  • When it’s hot outside, what is the ideal temperature setting for my air conditioner?
  • Temperature: What temperature should I set my thermostat at?
  • What is the maximum temperature I can set my air conditioner to before I get too hot?
  • At a temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit outside, how cool should my home be?
  • It’s a good idea to use air conditioning at 72 degrees Fahrenheit.

To begin, let’s look at the summer and winter housing temperature recommendations provided by the U.S. Department of Energy. 68 degrees Fahrenheit is the ideal temperature for a home in the winter, according to the Department of Energy. 78 degrees Fahrenheit, on the other hand, is the optimal temperature for an air conditioner in the summer.

While these temperatures are a good starting point, they only apply when you are at home and awake.

What Temperature Should I Set My Air Conditioner In Summer?

How Do I Slash My Electric Bill While Keeping My Home Cool?

Set your thermostat to varying degrees throughout the day to save money on your electricity while also keeping your house cool. Think about these things before setting your air conditioner’s temperature for the summer.

What Is the Outdoor Temperature?

Consider the average outdoor temperature when deciding on the temperature of your thermostat. Your heating and cooling system (HVAC) will consume less energy if the temperature differential between outside and inside is smaller. Your electricity cost will be reduced if your HVAC utilizes less energy.

What’s the Best Temperature to Ensure Humidity Control in Your Home?

If you live in an area with a lot of humidity, you may be at danger of mold and mildew because of the excess moisture in your home. Additionally, we’d love to minimize rotting wood, peeling paint, and other humidity-related issues. Running an air conditioner, on the other hand, can assist reduce the humidity. It is best to keep the humidity level in your home between 30% and 50%.

To monitor your home’s humidity level, some humidifiers come with a built-in humidistat. If not, most hardware stores and Amazon have hygrometers for under $20. It is a good rule of thumb to set your thermostat at a level that is comfortable for you, but not so high that you risk overheating.

What’s Your Ideal Indoor Temperature for Comfort?

In the summer, 78 degrees Fahrenheit may be a little too much for some people, especially those who are trying to avoid the worst of the heat and humidity.

78 degrees Fahrenheit is a good starting point for determining your personal comfort level (or 68 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter). Adjust your thermostat by one degree at a time if you find yourself too hot or too cold.

On Average, How Often Are You Away From Home, and How Many Hours Do You Sleep Each Night?

While it’s important to keep an eye on the humidity in your home, there’s no need to keep the temperature where you prefer it to be while you’re gone. As a result, most people have a varied optimal temperature for sleeping and waking up.

Changing the temperature of your thermostat throughout the day can save you a considerable amount of money. To save money on your electricity bills, you only need to change your thermostat setting by 7°-10°F for 8 hours a day to save 10% a year. When it’s warm outside, it’s colder inside. In general, the larger the savings percentage, the closer your thermostat comes to the outside temperature.

Best Summer Temperature Settings When at Home

You can take a pleasant break from the searing heat thanks to air conditioning. In the heat of the summer, the best setting for your thermostat is the cool one. It keeps you dry and comfy throughout the season.

How much temperature should be maintained in a thermostat in summer?

The last thing you want to do is spend a lot of money on your energy bills in order to maintain a cool and pleasant environment in your house.

When it’s hot outside, the U.S. Department of Energy suggests maintaining the thermostat at 78 degrees. When you’re home, just use this temperature setting on your thermostat.

What Temperature Should I Set My Air Conditioner In Summer?

However, the temperature at which a person is comfortable varies from person to person based on their own personal preferences. The ideal temperature for cooling is 78 degrees Fahrenheit, according to experts. Temperatures should be set as high as comfortably practicable so that you may enjoy a pleasant interior environment without racking up astronomical utility costs.

Ideal Summer Temperature Settings When Away

It is best to leave the thermostat set at a setting that prevents your home from overheating and lowers your energy costs while you are away from home. As a precautionary measure, you may want to turn on your air conditioning to prevent damage to your home and maintain a healthy humidity level in your home.

Turning your thermostat back 7-10 degrees for eight hours a day, as recommended by energy.gov, can save you 10% annually. As a result, 85 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit is a good range to aim for when you’re gone on summer vacation. With the average summer temperature hovering around 78 degrees, a thermostat setting of 88 degrees is the ideal middle ground for your savings.

In addition, a temperature this high slows down the rate at which heat from the outside enters your home. Your house won’t lose heat as quickly as it would if the temperature differential between the inside and exterior environments were significantly greater.

If you’re going away during the summer, you may want to turn off your air conditioning fully. Before coming home, if you have a smart thermostat or AC controller, you can use geofencing or scheduling mode to turn on your air conditioning for about 30 minutes.

Best Humidity Level in Summer

When it comes to keeping comfortable indoor temperatures, humidity is a critical consideration that is all too frequently overlooked. Even if you have the thermostat set to the perfect temperature, you may still experience discomfort due to an inadequate level of humidity.

For a peaceful summer, humidity levels should be kept between 40 and 50 percent in the home.

Mold and germs can thrive in environments with high humidity levels, which can also cause a significant deal of discomfort. Dryness is caused by low humidity levels. Condensation, mold growth, respiratory issues, and even allergies can result from high humidity, which can also be caused by a lack of air movement. Consequently, it is essential to keep an eye on the humidity levels in your home while keeping the temperature stable.

Achieve the Perfect Summer With a Programmable Thermostat or Smart Air Conditioning

In this day and age, with all the technology advancements at our disposal, it is incredibly simple to enhance our comfort and convenience. When it comes to summertime humidity and temperature management in the average home, smart thermostats and AC controllers can be a huge help.

By connecting your HVAC system to WiFi, a smart home device like a thermostat or smart controller allows you to control it from your phone. This adaptability ensures that your home’s temperature is always just right, no matter what time of day or where you are.

A smart air conditioner can be built at home!

Exciting Features of Smart Air Conditioning!

If you’re looking for a way to keep your home at a comfortable temperature all summer long, Comfy Mode is for you!

Even if your daily routine is unpredictable, you can program your thermostat to raise the temperature to 88 degrees Fahrenheit while you’re gone if you leave the house at the same time every weekday morning. When you get back home, you can set a schedule to bring the temperature back down to 78 degrees. For added convenience, you may set up your air conditioner to use location-based controls, which will adjust the temperature as you get close to your house.

This isn’t the end of the story. There is a lot more that smart air conditioning can accomplish. Using Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, or Siri Shortcuts, it can be integrated into a smart home system for voice-activated control.

You may also keep an eye on your usage patterns and save even more energy by checking the status of your air filter. You can use it to keep track of the next time you need to clean your air filter.

Your home’s summer temperature can now be set to the perfect level from virtually anywhere, at any time.

Air Conditioner Temperature and Energy Usage

Energy consumption of air conditioners is well-known. Energy consumption increases with usage and decreases as the temperature is reduced.

You’ll see a considerable increase in your utility expenditures if you use your air conditioner frequently. Despite the fact that certain AC units are more energy efficient than others, adjusting the temperature to a suitable level and turning the units off or up when they’re not in use are the most important ways to save on AC-related energy costs.

How much does it cost to run an air conditioning unit and leave it on overnight?

How to Save Energy While Still Enjoying AC

It’s critical to conserve energy, but on particularly hot summer days when the heat may make being inside your home intolerable, it’s also necessary to utilize air conditioning. Here are a few suggestions for conserving electricity while still taking advantage of your air conditioner:

  • Setting your thermostat to allow for a variety of temperatures is a good rule of thumb.
  • Your AC can be switched off or set to a higher temperature when no one is at home by using a smart thermostat.
  • Open all of the windows and doors in your house to let the central air circulate throughout the entire interior.
  • When it’s time to get a new air conditioner, look for an Energy Star model.
  • Try utilizing a dehumidifier and ceiling fans in addition to your air conditioner to reduce the amount of time you spend in front of the AC unit.

What Other Energy-Saving Tips Can Help Maintain a Reasonably Priced Energy Bill?

To help you save money on your power bill, we have a wealth of information on energy efficiency. The most effective ways to save energy range from modest fixes and lifestyle changes to substantial investments. However, they all have one thing in common: They save energy and lower your utility expenses.

The following are the top four ways to save energy when using your air conditioner and lower your power bill:

  1. Ceiling fans should be installed in the living areas of your home.
  2. Install a programmable thermostat, such as a smart thermostat.
  3. Avoid using your air conditioner at a lower temperature than usual in an effort to swiftly cool off your home.
  4. You may want to consider purchasing an Energy Star-certified air conditioner.

In order to understand why these suggestions work, let’s dig further.

Energy-Saving Tip #1: Install Ceiling Fans

Nearly half of all electricity in the United States is used for space heating and cooling. It’s easy and effective to save energy in your home by installing ceiling fans in the rooms where you spend the most time.

Compared to air conditioners, ceiling fans use far less energy, and the airflow they generate helps air conditioners run at their best. Using less electricity results in cheaper utility bills as a result of better energy efficiency.

As a bonus, ceiling fans allow you to raise your thermostat by four degrees Fahrenheit during the summer months without sacrificing your comfort level. Energy savings of up to one percent per degree are possible, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, which add up over time.

Energy-Saving Tip #2: Install a Programmable Thermostat

Depending on your schedule and the time of day, you may think that adjusting your thermostat to a higher or lower temperature on a regular basis is too hard. Installing a programmable thermostat, on the other hand, makes it simple to construct a schedule. Programmable thermostats allow you to simply “set and forget,” which eliminates the need for constant attention. Temperature settings can also be manually overridden without impacting the remainder of the software.

Installing a programmable thermostat also has the benefit of allowing you to pre-heat or pre-cool your house before you leave or return. You won’t have to put up with the discomfort of walking into a hot house and having to wait for it to cool down.

Thermostats that can be programmed using a smartphone or tablet are known as “smart” thermostats. You can adjust your home’s temperature from anywhere in the globe using smart thermostats. Programmable thermostats can be set to automatically adjust at various times of the day, exactly like regular programmable thermostats. However, there are a slew of additional advantages to using a smart thermostat.

You can control your home’s temperature and humidity levels with the press of a button. Additionally, smart thermostats can do more than simply adhere to a user’s chosen temperature. Your schedule and preferences can be learned by them. Automatic temperature adjustments are made based on a variety of criteria, including the current weather and the amount of people in your home, to help you conserve energy.

As soon as your smart thermostat learns your temperature preferences, it will automatically keep your house at that setting. There are certain versions that can detect A/C unit faults, remind you when your air filter needs to be changed, and track your energy consumption in real time. Check to see if you’ve turned off the lights with some models.

The installation of a smart thermostat is almost guaranteed to save you money and energy because heating and cooling prices can vary by 5% and 3%, respectively, for every degree that you move your thermostat.

Energy-Saving Tip #3: Don’t Adjust Your Air Conditioner Settings for Quick Relief

Avoid using your air conditioner at a lower temperature than usual in an effort to swiftly cool off your home. In principle, this may work, but it’s not truly effective and will not speed up the process of cooling down your property. Excessive cooling, on the other hand, could lead to extra costs.

Energy-Saving Tip #4: Invest in an Energy Star Air Conditioning Unit

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the United States launched the Energy Star program to assist American consumers in purchasing energy-efficient items. This initiative is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, which has two main objectives:

  1. Reduce pollution caused by wasteful energy consumption and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions.
  2. Help Americans conserve money and energy without losing comfort, performance, or other advantages by making it easy to purchase energy-efficient products.

If you install a high-efficiency AC unit, you can save up to 50% on your air conditioning energy costs! Instead of wasting the water that’s used to cool your home, energy-efficient air conditioners recycle it.

Additionally, most of the top-rated devices are able to function in harsh temperatures, which is a nice perk (as high as 131 degrees Fahrenheit). Several types can be powered by a generator in the event of a natural disaster.

How Does an Air Conditioner Work? | Howard Air Conditioning

Don’t Wait for Summer to Get Started

To save money on your heating and cooling, there’s no excuse to put it off any longer. Begin today by determining your favorite temperature range. Learn how a simple task like changing your light bulbs can make a major difference in your energy costs by reading this guide.

JustEnergy.com is the source of this information.

All pictures from Adobe Stock were used.