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those govt recommendations are always a head scratcher, and i suspect they are never made by anyone living in the tropics. 78º is way too hot to be considered “cooling”. It also doesn’t take into account the volume of the rooms and whether you have to cool an open plan space, or sep rooms.
we stayed in an airbnb last year and she had a 3hour limiter on her system. We found this a bit annoying but i can fully appreciate why she did it. We have one old window/box style a/c unit in our cottage, doesn’t get used much but too many guests will turn it on and leave it running when they go out.
Some people might want 65 sure. But there are also people like me who don’t want to be cold in the summer (or hot in the winter) and may not run it at all. I don’t turn on the AC until 93 or so. I’m at the other extreme obviously, but I believe that it basically averages out.
To me, it doesn’t seem worth the trouble or the potential savings. I imagine it’s possible that I might save a bit on the electric bill but not enough to account for the loss caused by uncomfortable guests (and the reviews that they leave). I think it’s preferable to raise your nightly rate a bit to account for the cost.
However, I know that some hosts do successfully limit the temperature. I think that you would have to have direct control over the thermostat to do so (with a smart thermostat). Making a house rule or a request to keep the thermostat set above or below a particular would not be useful. It would be like having a rule that dogs cannot get on the furniture.
you’d have to go outside and stand in that heat (assuming humidity cos 92 is not terrible in a dry climate), and then come inside to find it “cool”. That’s what we do when we think the cooling isn’t working! Whilst i generally try to be careful with the temp of our a/c system on truly awful days we’d be setting it to 19ºc ~ 21ºc (67-71f).
I’m in a brand new build with 2 zones. I set my bedroom at 70 and the rest of the house at 72, sometimes 74 if I’m in a room with a ceiling fan.
In my former home, I always turned the temp to 68 at night.
If you have the option of a leaving the system fan on then it will circulate cooler air from the lower levels.
I still have fresh drywall and was advised by my builder to keep the temperature range between 60-78. Otherwise I would have used 55 and 80 as away temps when I’m gone for more than a few days. I would not be comfortable sleeping at 78 degrees and would never expect that of a guest.
Living in Phoenix where the summers are almost always triple digits (and often upwards of 110º) this is a very important issue. We have Nest thermostats in all our rentals so we can monitor how they leave it. Unfortunately without any regulations or rules guests will have the “hotel mentality” of just leaving it freezing cold like they would in a small motel room, even when gone. I mean, if it’s all paid for then who cares right? That is the point. Therefore we take meter readings immediately before each arrival and after each checkout. We give guests the choice of unlimited usage (at $6/nt. additional charge) or we allow for $25/week in normal weather and $35 in the summer. If they do not opt for unlimited then whatever goes over our “deductible” comes out of their security deposit. This is stated in our listings, contracts and on the wall by each thermostat.
Those that do go over usually never do so by over $3/day but we still give them the choice. Not only does this prevent us from having outrageous electric bills (especially in the summer where our rates are very low and guests from colder climates often overcompensate and freeze up the units) but the psychology helps them be more responsible (or pay extra if they are not).
With the energy crisis in the southwest U.S. and rivers & lakes that are drying up, this is quite necessary and reasonable to me. Growing up we weren’t even allowed to keep it below 80º, though I would sneak it to 78º when able. I don’t think those here who do not live in extreme heat understand that 78º is quite cool when it is 30-40º warmer outside, and that is indeed what power companies and conservationists recommend as optimal. I myself like it at 77º and can’t imagine why anyone would need it below 74º (I’m a full-sized grown man who gets hot easily and women, older people and lightweight people tend to get colder much more easily). We suggest anywhere from 76º-80º, and let them know anything below 74º could freeze up the coils and shut down the system all together – and it is up to them if they want to be without any AC when it is triple digits outside until we can get it serviced, which is often at least a two-day wait in the demanding Phoenix-area summers.
I think your method is a reasonable one, and also makes those who don’t choose the “unlimited” option more conscious of wasting resources. And as most of us are aware, wasting resources is more than just an issue of whether someone is willing to pay for them or not.
The only thing I’d do differently is not peg a guest going over a certain amount of usage to a dollar amount, but to the #of KWHs used, with the charge per KWH attached. Just because rates can go up and if they have between the time a guest books and when they check-in, extra usage might cost you more than you banked on and guests would balk if they were asked to pay more than the original understandiing.
Well it is based on KWh used, but we have a spreadsheet which converts that into dollars at or below the going rate so it is never inflated. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to assign a dollar-amount to withhold when necessary. We had some guests who stayed two months and ran up a $600 power bill in a 2 bed/2 bath 1100 sq. ft. condo, which is double the allotment! Unfortunately they caused so much damage that the security deposit covered that but nothing else and we had to recoup as much as possible thru AirBnB.
I had some housesitters once who managed to wrack up an electric bill that was twice as much as it normally is, even when I have guests in my private room listing. I don’t even have AC or anything that are heavy electric draws. The kitchen stove and the water heater run on propane. I have no idea how they managed to use that much electricity.
A lot depends on the humidity— here in central Virginia, hot and humid, I’d melt at 78 degrees— my husband lobbies for 76, I’m happier at 73-74.
I let the guests decide. Cost of doing business.
Nah. They were NY city slickers, digital nomads. And they were only here for 9 weeks. My neighbor said every light in the house was blazing all the time- I think they were scared of the dark quiet countryside. And both probably had their laptops plugged in constantly and maybe used a hair dryer a lot.
