November has arrived and for me at home, this usually means I can stop having my air conditioner run throughout the night. Since returning from the US last January, my air conditioner at home is on all the time. Granted for about 6 months I did not have a window anymore so I was left no choice to have it on to help bring some fresh air into the room. I am out of that room now so I can again have my aircon turn off automatically between 2:00-3:00 AM.
When I lived in the Phu Nhuan District, I never turned on my air conditioner until between 7-9 PM and turned it off at 2 AM to help save electricity. I never ran it more then 6 hours a day. When I first moved to Vietnam in 2004, I only used the aircon for about 2 hours a day. Several months later I was in District 5 and again only used it for about 2 hours per day. I did start using it at night after I burned my arm in 2005 but again, I kept it on for roughly 6 hours per day.
I was a heavy fan user during this time.
Since I moved to District 1 last year, I have started to us the aircon nearly all day. Yeah, it helps that my electricity is included with my monthly rent which is why I am more inclined to use the aircon all the time when I am home. I think I am not averaging about 12 hours of aircon use per day which means when I am home, it is on. I will try to bring it down to 6-8 hours per day.
Unfortunately, even with my fans, I cannot live without the cool air. I am a Seattle guy so I guess I will always need some cool air to sleep with.
So how many hours a day are you using your air conditioner at home?
Guilty as charged! We are hopeless and they run most of the day and night. Thanks for the prompt. Perhaps we should just use the fan at night and see if we can reduce our carbon footprint.
What I do Dani is set the off timer on my aircon for 2:30 AM. You could work yourself and start from 4 AM and then get it back to 2:30 AM. This is the perfect time to start since it is so cool in the evenings.
You will find that when you stop using the aircon, your colds, fevers, and allergies tend to go away. The aircon filters are pretty nasty. When my nose is stuffed up, I clean the filters on my aircon.
When I’m at home, the air conditioner is on. I know it’s wasteful, and we could use fans instead – but we don’t. Also, the airconditioner does help to clean the air of dust and dehumidify, which is important for managing Martin’s asthma – so I tell myself I have an excuse.
Yeah, Vietnam is not a good country for asthma. Sometimes when I am sweating, the aircon will come on. Still, if my landlord made me pay for the electricity bill separately, I would only use the aircon for 6-8 hours a day.