Stormin Mormon wrote:
When you leave the AC on, it has to work harder to keep the house cool
(versus keep the house warm). This uses more electricity.

However, if the recovery time is very long, it might be more important
to keep cool, compared to the energy saving. Since you describe it
"struggling", I'd leave it on. I'd also call a HVAC company to clean
and service the unit. Might be running very inefficently.


I had a unit that ran almost constantly even with a setback thermo. It
got so bad that if more than two people were in the house (i.e.
grandkids came over), we had to go escape to the mall to get cool. AC
bill more than doubled. Time for a new unit.

Now in spite of at least 50% increase in electricity rates, house stays
at a reasonable temp and AC bill is staying close to the peak before the
old unit got REALLY bad.