I recently moved into a new place built in the 1930s that has three window units: one in the living room, one in the master bedroom, and one in the spare bedroom. Just got my first electricity bill and it's practically double what I used to pay around this time. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to keep costs down since most online resources say window units are cheaper (in the short run, at least).
I used to live in a small apartment with central air. Roommate and I kept the A/C somewhere between 76-78 degrees for most of the summer months (practically half the year in Texas) and rarely ran A/C in the winter.
In my new place, I've been keeping the window units at 80 degrees while I'm out and at 76-78 in whichever room I'm currently in. There's probably a few reasons why costs are this high, but I'd like to know which to tackle first (and which are most likely), and any other solutions that I'm missing:
- Subletter in the spare bedroom forgets to turn up their A/C when they leave and leaves it running at 72 degrees (although they've only lived here a week, so that can't fully explain it),
- There's a duct-taped hole in one of my (very old) windows that my landlord hasn't fixed yet,
- The change filter lights recently went on in 2/3 of the windows units,
- Whenever I cook or bake the stove heats up the entire living room and the window unit runs constantly,
- Also, this place was built in the 30s and is probably terribly insulated anyway.
I honestly can't afford an almost $200 bill every month. Is it cheaper to turn off all the window units when I'm out? What is the most likely reason for driving up the costs?
August 28, 2018 at 11:15AM
