Does super cooling your house work?
Let me tell you that super cooling your house absolutely works and can save you tons of money on your electric bill. Our neighbor first introduced us to the idea, shortly after moving into our new home. We went from paying around $400 per month in the summer, to $200 or less per month. Our yearly savings on our electric bill have been cut in half.
Here was our electric bill before super cooling: July 9, 2013
Here was our electric bill after super cooling: July 29, 2020
That is a copy of my electric bill for the month of July, in 2020 with 2 A/C units. As you can see, super cooling will save you tons of cash and keep your house cool. You might need to keep a sweater and sweatpants on during the off-peak hours, but that’s much better than sweating bullets.
Our house is powered by two separate a/c units, so we were expecting to have a pretty massive bill in the summertime. Super Cooling has allowed us to save thousands of dollars, which can be invested wisely.
What is supercooling HVAC?
Super Cooling your house is when you turn down your A/C to 65 – 68 degrees during off peak hours, then shut them off during the on peak hours (3pm – 8pm). Your house will retain the cold air and the temperature will slowly rise. By having your air conditioning unit turned off during on-peak hours, you are going to save a ton of money.
Basically, you freeze the house during off peak hours and shut off your AC unit during the on-peak hours.
How do I pre cool my house?
- Contact your electric company and get placed on an energy saving plan. Each company is different, but your local company should offer something similar. This is the most important aspect of super cooling.
- Our energy saving plan is called the Saver Choice Max plan from APS. On Peak hours are from 3pm – 8pm (This is the time of the day when you want to consume as little power as possible).
- Off Peak hours are from 8pm – 3pm, all day on the weekends, and all major US holidays.
The way to super cool your home is really quite easy. You crank down the air as low as you can stand it during the off peak hours and then shut down your a/c unit(s) while on peak.
- Turn your thermostat down to a low temp, around 65 – 70F at 6am.
- At 2:55pm, you will want to turn off your air conditioning unit and leave it off until 8:01pm.
- From 8:01pm to 6am, we run the temperature at 72 degrees.
- Weekends are off peak, so run the a/c at a comfortable temperature, ~72F.
By keeping your house so cool during the off peak hours, it will take several hours for the temperature to rise. The furniture, flooring, walls, all retain the cold and help keep temps low. By 8pm, our house is around 76 – 80F and we live in the hot Arizona sun. For us, this is a small price to pay for having our electric bill cut in half. This will be our third year using the super cooling method and we have saved thousands of dollars in the process.
Troubleshooting:
- You are not turning your A/C low enough for a long enough time
- Your house is not correctly sealed. If you can spot areas where air is leaking out, you will need to get this sealed.
- Opening the doors too much and letting hot air in
- Cooking for long h0urs
These are some reasons why your home might not bet getting cool enough. Or your house is getting hot too quickly.