re: Do your wives turn down the thermostat more and more thinking it makes a difference?

My wife is the opposite. She raises the temp to 78 degrees because she is cold at 73, instead of changing it to 74 or 75. One or two degrees makes a big difference. The AC stops running, the humidity pours in the house making it sticky, and she is now hot so she goes and turns the thermostat to 72.

Then the AC starts working in overdrive to cool the air and remove the humidity. The problem is that when cold air hits humidity, it feels much colder than it really is, so she then turns it to 78 after it has only come down to 76. Once that humidity is under control, the house feels very comfy, but it has to break through that barrier. I tried telling her why are you cold as ice when you get out of the shower? The cold air is hitting that water on your body. That is why.

I gave up arguing and instead sneak behind her and turn the thermostat down.

It’s a never ending battle.

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Do your wives turn down the thermostat more and more thinking it makes a difference?

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They all do that.

It’s because they don’t understand how things work.

Just like re-filling the turn signal fluid in the car.

Same, my wife weighs about 110 and always wants it on 75

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Put a lockable cover on the thermostat. Problem solved.

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In my office building, I had the three whole systems replaced about six years ago. Three new systems with programmable thermostats. I programmed the thermostats and then locked them down.

I’ve lost the codes for the thermostats but they’ve been diligently running since.

I’m tempted to replace all three thermostats to cover my tracks.

It's not just women. There are a lot of people who think it will cool more or cool faster if they rank it down lower.

No. But my wife isn’t a fricking idiot.

Sounds like she’s kinda slow. Apparently takes after you not having a proper ax to do its job and/or shitty insulation etc.

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I gave up

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"This is the way."

Yup, my wife used to think that. She also previously thought that you burn more electricity cutting the lights off and then back on within a few minutes. I might turn the lights on going into the basement, then turn them off when I came back up the stairs, and then a few minutes later turn them on again going back into the basement. My wife would get on to me telling me I was using more electricity and that I should leave the lights on if I am going back and forth. I finally had to Google it for her and show her multiple articles, etc. that she was wrong. That was a long time ago.

Just recently, I was putting up some string lights and there were more on the string that I needed plus I needed to cut the initial string light and several on the end off with wire cutters. I tried to explain to my wife that all of the lights are powered in parallel and I can cut the end of the string lights off with as many lights cut off as I want, plus I can cut the pigtail to any particular string light off. I showed her how just one bulb screwed in works with none of the other lights screwed in. I told her all that I needed to do was make a clean cut so that none of the exposed wires touched each other and then paint them with liquid electrical tape. She wasn't buying it, even though I have a degree in electrical engineering. So I just postponed the project until she was away and I hung the string lights cutting off the end with several lights plus another one and I painted the exposed wires with liquid electrical tape. She couldn't believe that it worked and I didn't burn the house down or get hurt. But now she likes her lights and believes me.

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lowering the temp doesn’t lower the temp of air coming out? Truly trying to figure this out. My house, I put it on 72, temp will be 72. My office in afternoons when it gets hot outside, there will be a differential for whatever reason. When we lower the thermostat it doesn’t cool any more…

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Getting your office out of the way first either your systems is running below peak efficiency (often a result of low refrigerant) or it is not properly sized.


Basic split system A/Cs have single stage compressors and they are either off or on and do not cycle like say car A/C systems do. Whether you set the hold temp at 1 degree or 20 degrees below the ambient temp at the thermostat the air coming from the vents will be the same temperature and volume. A little over 20 years ago dual and then multi-stage compressors systems started to become available in the residential market. Before this the OPs contention was true and still is for basic single stage compressors. We just changed out our units last year and the ones we put in are actually 5 stage units. They can provide between 25% and 100% of their cooling capacity based on the temperature delta between the hold temp and the ambient temp at the thermostat. The temperature of the air stays roughly the same from 2 stages up (it is a little warmer at the first stage because it is mainly clearing humidity) but the volume of air increases. So with any multi-stage compressor system setting the hold temp well below what you actually want will indeed cool the house faster because it will cause the thermostat to run the compressor at a higher stage and provide more cooling capacity.

In the case of a home with a multi-stage compressor A/C system the women the OP is talking about may indeed be correct even if they are right for the wrong reason.