I love spring, but right now we’re at that “in-between” period when I don’t know whether to turn on my air conditioning or not. One day it’s 88 degrees and humid. The next night it gets down to 40.

If it were up to me, I’d just close up the house and call it summer, but Guy likes to have the house open and fresh breezes blowing through. He grew up with no air conditioning so he thinks we should all grin and bear the heat and humidity. He also doesn’t like to spend money.

I’d like to find a happy medium. Our two little boys are super cranky when it’s humid and there’s no air moving in the house. So I’ve been turning on the A/C for a day or two, and then turning it off on cooler days.

But then I got the electric bill.

So I put in a call to Gerald, the best HVAC guy in the world, to get his take on the situation. He said there are two logical choices:

1. Don’t turn on the A/C at all. Close your west-facing blinds in the afternoon, and use fans to pull in the cool evening air at bedtime. You’ll save a bunch on your energy bills.
2. Turn on the A/C and keep it on. Turning it on and off every few days creates a whole lot more work for the unit.  He said to set it at 75; since air conditioning pulls the humidity out of the air, the house will feel cool at that temperature. Every time you turn on the A/C after an idle period, it has to cool off everything in the house all over again – the air PLUS the furniture, draperies and floors.
   
   Gerald also mentioned that we’re going to be surprised by the energy savings now that we’ve installed our super-efficient new Evergreen motor.
   
   So the decision is pretty clear to me that we need to turn on the air conditioning and leave it on. This will definitely help our oldest boy’s allergy issues, and I feel better knowing it will cut down on our energy bills. Bring on the summer heat!