Well, my summer started right on schedule! Time for some AC action!

For me the beginning of summer is anytime I finally have to crank up the AC. That occurred, for the first time on June the 23^rd which was pretty close to the official start of summer on June the 21^st.With temperatures forecast to approach 100 Fahrenheit (Fahrenheit assumed for all temperature readings) over the next few days, I thought it prudent to try and keep my home at around 80, if at all possible.

Earlier that morning I was out riding my bike at 8AM and could tell, or more accurately feel that the day was going to end on a warm note. Overnight the temperature had dropped down to a cool 63, but by early morning with a bright sun and light south easterly winds, the temperature had hit 82 by 10AM and was climbing fast!  After getting home and as I turned on the AC, I reflected on the fact that my average power consumption had been running at about 14 kilowatt hours for most of the spring, but that now I would be lucky to keep it in the low to middle twenties. This increase would be reflected in a much higher electric bill if I didn’t figure out something real soon. After the AC had run for about an hour and the inside temp was down to 78.6, the unit finally turned off. In order to get the house down from 80.2 to 78.6 had required about 4.5 kilowatt hours of power (roughly equal for half a buck of electricity). Now the game will be to see how well the house can maintain that level (and at what cost) as the outside gets pretty toasty. (One side note; it generally costs a lot less to cool a house than it does to heat one).

As the day wore on, it became evident that we might, in fact, see 100 as the temperature at 1PM was already at 94! Traditionally, the hottest part of the day occurs sometime around 3PM. In addition, I had already surpassed the 14 kWh mark for power so I’m now figuring the day will end up with something like 28 kWh by midnight. That’s something like $3 in electricity for just one day and doesn’t bode well for this early in the hot season. I might just have to execute my backup plan which would be to relocate into the basement for the summer. That would be a hassle, but it would be doable.

The high for this date was 98, which was plenty hot enough. Even hotter weather looks to be in store for Sunday, June the 24^th.