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Comment by dreen | Hacker News Reader

Please tell me you don't heat/cool your house 24/7. Other than that I can't agree with you more.

Some people don't have a choice, in Florida during the summer time if you aren't running your AC full-time the humidity and heat will ruin your home. It stays in the 80's even overnight (both temp. Fº and Relative Humidity %).

Sounds similar to the climate here in Buenos Aires, maybe slightly warmer. To my knowledge people generally don't keep AC's running when they're not around, in the summer. I've never heard of a building being ruined by environmental humidity.

Homes in Buenos Aires don’t have hollow walls made from wood and flimsy drywall panels. One good plumbing leak can destroy a house in the US.

Fair enough. I knew homes in the US where typically made of wood, but not that that was also true in Florida. Wood is not a traditional material here because it's obviously going to rot in a humid environment.

Yup. Cheap 2x4 framing + drywall. Residential building/construction is more or less the same across the entire US regardless of native climate.

Wood homes are easy to build, maintain and modify. They are far better in earthquakes than masonry construction (because they flex). On the other hand, there are issues like susceptibility to humidity and fire risk.

Yeah, only the exterior of Florida homes are concrete because we get seasons of natural disasters that like to throw palm trees everywhere. Interior & roofing is still 2x4 construction

Black mold is a massive issue in Florida.

26C at 80% is a good day in most of Asia, for what it's worth.

Many climates require it.

May through August in Atlanta it doesn't really make sense to turn the AC off while out of the house (down a few degrees, sure - but not off). You're going to either pay for the ac to run normal cycles while you're out, or you're going to pay for the ac to run full blast for an hour at 6pm when you get home to bring the temp from 90+ back down to ~78 (which is still in the peak power rate times for GA power - 2pm to 7pm).

The house heats up more and more until it reaches temp equality with the outside. If reaching equilibrium takes longer than you're out of the house... you save basically nothing by turning the system off. It's going to either pump the heat out slowly over the day, or all at once when you get home, and there just isn't much savings to be had.

That's not even talking about the condensation and expansion/contraction issues that will damage your home.

Turning the AC or heating completely off when you're not at home is never recommended. To save power, you just let them run at temperatures a few degrees outside your comfort zone when your away, and it will still have enough thermal inertia to quickly get back to comfort levels when you're back without the risk of condensation/mold.

Where I live, this is even written in my rental agreement, that when I leave home for long winter vacations, I must leave the heating ON.

this is probably more due to pipes freezing

Nope, in EU pipes are very well insulated inside the walls. It's to prevent condensation and mold formation.

Where I live if you don't heat your home in the winter it gets mildew. If it goes on for longer then the water pipes will crack because of ice.

Yes, you can go a bit colder if the house is empty.

That is a glib response that sounds great, but it is wrong! If you have good insulation it can at best save very little energy. If you have bad insulation it can save a lot, but the solution is fix your insulation not play with the HVAC controls.

In addition to what others have said about potential house damage, many people also have pets which need adequate heating/cooling.

As a Canadian I don't have a choice for most of the winter. The cold will creep in and start causing problems if I leave it unheated at -20 (C or F, take your pick) for 10 hours. I certainly reduce the heat, but I can't turn it off.

I certainly don’t turn the system off when I’m not home, but try to remember to jam it to low heat or high AC if I remember.

Where I live, it’s not really good for the home to leave it very long without at least the dehumidifier running.

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