If I keep my air conditioner on "Medium" as opposed to "High", will that use less electricity ?

Question

I am trying to keep costs down this summer, especially my electricity bill.

Answer 1

It will because the A/C consumes power only while it is running. If you set the temperature knob to medium it will shut off more quickly than if you set that knob to high.

However if you are talking about a fan speed knob then the fan will use more power while running at a higher speed (it's doing more work when moving air faster) and more air will need to be chilled by the A/C which makes it slower to shut off.

Answer 2

Agree with the previous two answers. Whats takes most energy is the compressor. The fan just distributes the the cool air. If you want most efficient use of electricity, turn the fan to high and then set the desired temperature. Obviously, higher temperature you set, lower the electricity usage.

Same works for car, if you want to save fuel, turn the fan to max to cool it fast and then turn on and off the ac button. I usually wait till its cool enough and then turn the ac off but keep the fan going at medium. When it starts to send warm air, turn the ac on and crank up the fan.

:)

Answer 3

Is this a window air conditioner unit? Most of them have one control for fan speed (low, medium, high) and another one for setting the actual temperature. (Contrary to what previous posters have noted, the operator generally doesn't have the ability to manually affect function of the air conditioner compressor. ) If your unit has separate fan speed and temp controls, turning the fan speed from high to medium won't have much of an effect on your electricity bill. Moving the temp control to a warmer setting is what will actually save you money.

If you have a central air conditioning system with a variable fan speed mode, it is usually best to let the system computer automatically set the speed to correspond with the temp, for maximum efficiency. But you will still save money by turning the thermostat up to a warmer temperature.

Answer 4

Yes, it will save energy. When you set the air conditioner to medium, the compressor (the part that uses most of the energy) will operate at reduced speed, or only half the time, or something to that effect. In either case, you save energy, but your house won't be cooled as much.

Answer 5

No it wont because it will keep running until your house is cooled to the desired temperature.

To save money, turn to temperature up.

Answer 6

Yes it will affect a lot to the power consumtion of the AC