Hello.
I live in NY.

I am wondering if it is better to leave a central a/c unit running during
the day when no one is home, either at the normal temperature or at a few
degrees warmer -or- use a set-back thermometer when leaving for work in the
morning and have the A/C unit start up again an hour or 2 before coming home
later in the afternoon?

I use a set-back thermometer and it takes my unit 3 hours of continuous
operation to bring the temperature down 8 degrees.

Some people have told me that it makes more sense, energy wise and cost
wise, to not set the thermostat warmer in the morning and have the unit
struggle for hours on end in the afternoon trying to get back to the
original comfortable temperature. Instead they say to leave the A/C on as
it would probably cost the same if not less to periodically cool an already
cool house instead of cooling a house that is not cool at all.
Con Edison says to turn off the A/C when no one is home but I think they
refer to window units (as they also say to turn the AC back on again via
auto-timer a half hour before returning - a half hour would do nothing for
me)

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Walter