Is It Good To Leave The A/c On All The Time?

gcmiami

People are telling me different things weather its better to turn the A/C off or let it run 24/7 in terms of prevent mold?

AirPro

If the home will be vacant for a long period of time(over a few weeks), then the A/C should be left on to keep the humidity down. I ALWAYS recommend installing a dehumidistat to all my snow bird customers, it brings the a/c on if humidity level gets above the set point(normally 65%). It saves a ton of money on the power bill because the A/C is only brought on when the RH% gets too high versus just leaving the t-stat set on 80* all the time. I am assuming you are talking about south Florida of course.

If you are talking about just during the day when the home is unoccupied, I suggest a programmable thermostat set at 82 when unoccupied, and set to comfort temp at an hour or two before you get home. You won't have any mold/mildew issues if left off for short periods of time(a day or 2), but it will take a long time for the A/C to pull all of the humidity out of the air before the temp starts dropping considerably.

dirt diggler

i don't know about preventing mold ...

but ive always understood that it takes more energy to start and stop and start again when it comes to heating and AC --- than to just leave it on constantly


i could be wrong

atlas06

I will second airpro's opinion. Excllent response, it is indeed an excellent idea to have a RH sensor instead thermostat control alone.
Thanks