‘Did you know this?!’: Man finds out right way to use A/C in house. Then he checks his bill
A man said he discovered through TikTok that turning on and off his A/C was running up his electricity bill. He put it to the test.
His TikTok video is a stitch with 1.5 million views.
It starts with a different content creator saying, “How old were you when you realized you’re not supposed to keep turning your air on and off during the summertime? This is what causes the high electricity bill.”
Then, TikTok user Caden McDonald (@cadenmcdonald54) jumps in.
“You’re telling me this whole time, I’m not even supposed to touch my thermostat?!” he asks his 983,000 followers. “Every time I leave the house, I was always taught to turn the temperature up so the A/C doesn’t have to work as hard when you’re gone.”
After seeing the warning against turning the A/C up and down, McDonald says he tried to keep it consistent for a month. And the results shocked him.
“We tried it this past month, our bill was cut in half,” he shares. “Don’t touch your thermostat, guys!”
“When you go up and down with it at nighttime, it has to work twice as hard to bring it down to that temperature,” McDonald explains. “But if you just leave it at the temperature, it just coasts through the whole time. We’ve been getting scammed!”
Flabbergasted, he asks in the caption, “Did you know this?!”
The Daily Dot reached out to McDonald via Instagram direct message and TikTok comment.
Conflicting opinions
One A/C technician backed up the content creator. They said in the comments section, “We tell all our customers this. Keep your thermostat to a reasonable temp. 72-76 degrees. Put it on Fan Auto and you will put less stress on your machine.”
“It's easier to maintain a temperature rather than cool a house back down. How's that a lost concept,” another viewer agreed.
Some claimed that they tried this, and it didn’t work.
“It doesnt help. kept my air at the same temp ALL SUMMER and my bill was still $800 in july. these people be on here lying,” one user recalled.
“Well this year I left it on steady the entire winter and it's over 500 more than last year. so [I'm] thinking this is not true. and it was warmer this year,” another recalled.
So what’s the verdict?
Like the comments section, there's a lot of conflicting information out there. According to Blair’s Air Conditioning and Cooling, keeping your A/C on constantly is costly because of the energy needed to maintain a consistent temperature. Some other outlets state the opposite, claiming that turning it on and off all the time causes wear and tear on the system and increases energy usage, therefore also increasing the electricity bill. Ultimately, one must find which method is the most cost-effective for them.
@cadenmcdonald54 Did you know this?!
♬ original sound - Caden McDonald
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