How much money does it cost to run a window A/C unit?

Question

Ok, my mom lives in a 2nd story apartment building in Wisconsin (Plymouth). She has a Window A//C unit, its a medium sized one, and its a smaller apartment. Its an older unit. (probably 10 years old...) we'd want the temp at around 68 degrees. How much would it cost per day to run it? on the economy setting?

thanks!

Answer 1

Oooh, ooh! I love math questions!

Ok, so Wisconsin is in the UPper part of the United States and it gets cold there. Oh, shoot - what floor does she live on? Is it just a one-story apartment? Darn. (MORE INFO PLEASE!)

Hold on a minute, on economy setting? And it's a 10-year old unit? I don't believe they knew about economy settings back then when we all thought bigger was better driving ourselves around in Hummers and SUV's. But I'll bite.

Ok, so here's a kind of backwards way of finding out a CLOSE APPROXIMATE:

Watts = Volts x Amps (if you don't know your wattage for appliances, take your volts and multiply that against your amps)

If it is a 480 watt appliance, you can assume that it will be the same as running 4x100 watt lamps + 80 watt lamp.

If you google how much it costs to run a 100 watt lamp, you get about $2.35/month. Times that by 4.80 and you get $11.28 - so, your appliance will cost you about $11.28 to run for 10 hours a day for 30 days.

Answer 2

$3

Answer 3

One possible way to estimate the cost, although incovenient ,would be to unplug every electrical appliance in the house, not just turning them off, but unplugging them (computer, toaster, microwave, clock radio,lamps, etc... since they all use electricity in stand by modes).  Turn off all lights also. Write down the meter numbers when stopped.  Then run only the air conditioner for one hour, turn it off, and then write down the meter numbers then compare to see how many killowatts were used per hour, then multiply by what her electric company charges for usage.  Long answer but it can be done.

Answer 4

How many BTUs?  How many hours a day?  How hot it is outside?  How well insulated and how large is the room?  How much does electricity cost where you are?

Answer 5

Simple math to calculate your energy consumption. 1 BTU = 3413 Watts.Find how many buts is your moms ac and how many hours she runs it. For example a 6000 BTU X 3413 w / 1000 w = 20478 watts or about 2.5kWh X $ rate per kWh u get consumption.

Answer 6

There's no way to know that without knowing so many variables that only you can compute.  It does cost quite a bit to run any kind of air conditioner.   But most people would do whatever they could to be able to run an air conditioner, considering the alternative.