Quote for the day:

To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true!—H.L. Mencken

I thought I’d be clever this year and only turn on the AC in those areas where I was using it. As I spend much of my day upstairs in the den, I only had the AC on in there. I only turned on the larger unit downstairs when I was eating breakfast or lunch or when I went down in the evening to watch TV.

And then I noticed that my electric bill seemed to be about the same as last year.

Hmm.

Well, Peco sends me a note every week with a daily summary of my usage. Why not turn the AC on some days and see if it makes a difference? So that’s what I did. 

Here’s the usage for last week. See if you can tell which days I had the AC on all day downstairs and which days I only turned it on when I was actually down there.

OK, time’s up.

The answer is, Monday through Wednesday I kept the AC off downstairs except when I was actually down there. Beginning on Thursday, the AC was on all day.

Apparently it doesn’t make any difference in the electricity usage. I guess once the compressor is on, that’s the big power drain, and it doesn’t matter whether I’m cooling the whole house or just one room.

Live and learn.