Moved this past year, and the rental I live in has a very old (1980) central air unit. Not only does it have the inefficiencies of old technology (probably about 40% of modern tech), but it also has certainly degraded from nearly 40 years of use.
On top of that, the rental itself isn't insulated all that great, though I've done a decent job with weatherstripping, blackout curtains, and even bubble wrap on the windows. This has all made a big difference.
This is my first summer here, and I'm thoroughly unimpressed with the electric bills for the amount of cooling that I've had (I've been keeping it a bit warmer than I'd prefer, but tolerable). Some of the rooms are quite stuffy, and I'd have to really kick the temperatures down to get them nice.
Even when the air conditioner isn't kicked on, I continue to run the ventilation fan to pull cooler air from the basement (this is a 2-story house w/basement). I also put floor fans by the vents to direct the cooler air from the basement or a.c. towards where I sit or sleep.
Regarding winter, it wasn't great but not bad enough for me to gripe about. Putting on a heavier shirt was no biggie.
Dear frugal, my options seem to be:
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suck it up for this summer, and move once my lease is up. My lease will be up in the spring next year. This time, I'll be more thorough on checking things like insulation and a.c. vintage. This of course means moving expenses.
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get a few window units. These will, paradoxically, be more efficient than the central air and will also be more localized
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just deal with it as it is. This will involve trade-offs between high electric bill, some level of discomfort, and fan noise. But I will avoid moving expenses and dealing with the costs or hassle of window units.
Tl;dr - trying to cool a somewhat poorly insulated rental house with a 40-year old air conditioner is a losing battle. What should I do?
July 17, 2017 at 11:05AM
