window AC vs central air

My apartment has central air which is pretty awesome but we really only use it at night in our bedroom which is upstairs

We still occasionally use it when we are down stairs but the majority of the time it is used when we are sleeping.... 7 plus hours

Now my apartment is not climate controlled and it gets stupid hot in the bedroom without the AC on.... So avoiding AC for us is toigh...The electric bill gets quite pricy in the summer

So my question is having a window unit in the bedroom for when we are sleeping help out with the electric bill?

I figured yes because it is only chilling one room except the whole place... But I'm not an expert.... And would the decrease be worth the AC expense which is 120 from home depot

We run an AC 24/7 in our bedroom from mid- to late June through to as late as September (Northern Maine)... neither of us can sleep when the temp is much above 60.

No real noticeable difference in the electric bill.

Of course, we use electric heaters during the winter to "take the edge off" since electricity is a lot cheaper than heating fuel.

How many btus would you recommend?

Base that on the size of your bedroom and what the AC packaging recommends. We've been running an older 5k BTU in our room the past number of years.. I happened to stumble across a newer 5500 BTU unit about a month ago, so we'll be "upgrading"... hopefully lower electricity costs (even if it's only slightly) and more cold for our buck.

Oh, and I now have an AC for my ferment chamber. ;-)

brewmcq said:

We run an AC 24/7 in our bedroom from mid- to late June through to as late as September (Northern Maine)... neither of us can sleep when the temp is much above 60.

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My dual heat pumps have a hard time maintaining 80F in the house when it gets to above 100F in SC.

MC

Misplaced_Canuck said:

My dual heat pumps have a hard time maintaining 80F in the house when it gets to above 100F in SC.

MC

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Been there, done that. I was stationed in Memphis and lived awhile in NC. When you're sitting on a heat index of 120F+ during the day and 100F+ at night.. that's just brutal, especially for a Yankee boy like me.

The down side is that I still can't handle high temperatures.. but I can no longer handle the extreme lows up here. Ugh.

Well I will tell you this. My wife and I have survived 2 summers in this house with a broken central A/C system. We only have 1 Window ac unit in the bedroom (5,000 BTU) and one (8,000 BTU) in the living room. We do not start running them until the day time temps stay at or above 90F here in Central Virginia.

When it is hot we generally run the bedroom A/C with the door closed to maintain about 75F in there and at night leave the living room unit OFF but instead open the other windows and run window fans to circulate the 65 degree night air through the house. This allows the temp in the house to start out in the morning in the high 60's which is much easier on the A/C unit during that day. When I leave for work I turn on the living room A/C unit on 78F and close the windows and curtains to keep out solar heat.

Our house is 2,000 sq ft and the highest summer monthly electric bill I saw last year was $90 (2 of us living in the house).

Jayhem said:

Well I will tell you this. My wife and I have survived 2 summers in this house with a broken central A/C system. We only have 1 Window ac unit in the bedroom (5,000 BTU) and one (8,000 BTU) in the living room. We do not start running them until the day time temps stay at or above 90F here in Central Virginia.

When it is hot we generally run the bedroom A/C with the door closed to maintain about 75F in there and at night leave the living room unit OFF but instead open the other windows and run window fans to circulate the 65 degree night air through the house. This allows the temp in the house to start out in the morning in the high 60's which is much easier on the A/C unit during that day. When I leave for work I turn on the living room A/C unit on 78F and close the windows and curtains to keep out solar heat.

Our house is 2,000 sq ft and the highest summer monthly electric bill I saw last year was $90 (2 of us living in the house).

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90 bucks for 2000 sq ft?! Mine is 100 for 600 sq ft with no AC and non electric heat... I'm doing something wrong or I'm getting screwed

Wow. I really need to replace my windows this year. I have a 1400 sq ft house and it costs up to $200/month at the worst of the VA summer (dang humidity) Of course I know my primary problem is the windows. large 1970's single pane windows with an old AC unit does hurt a bit.

Window units are nice when you need just the one room cool. I would not use it when not in the room though. Instead I would set the house to a reasonable temp (80's) and cool the room a little before I need it.