Quote Originally Posted by johncar54 View Post
Think about the air-con units I understand your reasons for running them but try to minimise the stop-startload.

I think that is maybe a myth. I saw a program on TV about switching light bulbs on and off, and the power used switching on and off was considerable less than the cost of leaving the light on, even for a few minutes.

Turning off the A/C when you go out is much cheaper than the cost of re-cooling when you return. SO if you are gong out for an hour or tow turn off the A/C. If you have a timer set it to restart 30 minutes before you get back

I live on Costa del Sol. In the summer it gets fairly hot, but ceiling fans are just about all we use rather than the A/C. A ceiling fan runs for about 10 hours for I unit of electricity., but don't leave in on when you go out as a fan does not cool the air. It cools you by evaporating the perspiration on you skin, the room temperature stays the same (or even gets a fraction hotter from the heat of the fan motor, but its minimal).
Yes I think so too, Inverter style aircon units have a variable speed compressor, ordinary aircon units run the compressor at full power or off with nothing in between, it's the on off, on off, full power drain of these units that is the problem.

People often run this style of aircon unit at way to high a setting so it hardly ever switches off and therefore consumes a horrific amount of power, you can usually get a room cooled reasonably with a very low setting and a slow fan setting on the old fashioned units.