How much energy will I save by increasing the setting of my air conditioners thermostat by one degree?
Because conditions vary, there is no precise answer to this question. The electricity consumed by an air conditioner varies depending on a variety of factors. Generally, you can expect to lower your energy consumption by about 15% with this change. A rough calculation is as follows. The amount of heat transfer is proportional to the differential between the interior and exterior temperatures. Setting the thermostat at 27ºC when the outside air temperature is 35ºC (the standard design condition for air conditioners) results in a temperature differential of 8ºC. Setting the thermostat to 28ºC results in a differential of 7ºC. A simple calculation shows the amount of incoming heat is 7/8 – in other words, 0.875 – indicating that the air conditioner needs to remove 12.5% less heat. As the temperature differential decreases, the air conditioner is moving heat between two locations that have less difference in temperature; therefore, a smaller amount of work is required to move the same amou
