Help! - We have a home in South West Florida which is unoccupied m...

HOMEOWNER CRIES FOR HELP...

posted: September 8th, 2008 - 2:04pm

QUESTION:
We have a home in South West Florida which is unoccupied most of the time. When we are away from the house we use the following settings. Humidistat - 65% Thermostat - 75 degrees and 'COOL' Fan, AUTO As far as I can guess the above settings will mean that the air conditioning will be controlled by the humidistat and will only switch on when the humidity reaches 65%. Even if the temperature goes above 75 degrees the air will not switch on as the humidity is the controlling factor.The reason I'm asking is that we have been using these settings since we purchased the house in November. In November the electricity bill was $13 (cooler less humid weather + no-on in house).
The bill has steadily risen as expected given rising temperature and humidity to the point in June where the bill was $28 (house unoccupied), however the bill for July was $85 (house still unoccupied). Our homewatch lady says that the settings are as above and that the temperature in the house is 'comfortable'. This has rang alarm bells with me because as I see it the temperature in the house should be quite high as the humidistat should be controlling the air conditioning not the thermostat. It looks like the thermostat is keeping the temp down to 75 and the humidistat is not working.

ANSWER: First of all you need to figure out what your humidistat is controlling a humidifier or a dehumidifier and if as you believe it is a dehumidifier is it a whole house dehumidifier or is it supply air tempering (bringing on the heat to generate a need for cooling to run cooling longer and thus dehumidify without dropping temperatures to an uncomfortable level). In any case I am sure when your house gets above 75 degrees regardless of the humidity your ac is coming on the way you have it set and in any case in florida at this time with a setting of 65% you would be running all the time anyway.