Way too hot..
 

Are there things we can do to conserve energy in this extreme heat?

Should we leave garage doors open or closed and if we have attic stairs should we pull them open to let heat escape from the attic?

Neither of those things will help much to reduce your electricity cost. The best thing you can do is to add blown-in insulation to the attic space above the conditioned areas, especially if your existing insulation has settled to an inadequate thickness. Some people think adding insulation above unconditioned spaces, like the garage, will save energy, but it really doesn't help much, if at all.

Another idea is to buy a portable AC unit (floor standing) to use in the bedroom at night, so you can reduce the thermostat setting, assuming there is no need to cool the rest of the house.

Just got back from walking six miles. Publix at the halfway point--a quick bottle of ice-cold Gold Peak unsweetened tea and I'm all primed for the last three-mile stretch. We come from Minnesota: 72 years of living on Da Tundra up there entitles me to all the Florida sun I can get!

I have owned many window AC units and one floor standing unit. In the floor standing units, there is a fundamental inefficiency, and I cannot recommend them. If you are standing outside, you can feel hot air blowing out the exhaust vent. The origin of the air used to produce this hot air is the inside of the room. Thus, the unit is creating a vacuum inside the room; air infiltrates from outside into the room to reduce the vacuum. It's like running AC with the window open. Window units do not suffer from this flaw.

I've slept with a free standing AC unit. It was incredibly noisy.

I got ecobee smart sensors from Amazon a few months ago. They have made a big difference in temperature control in my house. I have been able to set the thermostat a degree or two over what it was before because I have better control of the temperature in individual rooms. The smart sensors act as thermostats and motion sensors for individual rooms or spaces. You can program your ecobee thermostat to pay attention to the specific space or spaces you want at different times of the day. At night, my thermostat only pays attention to the temperature in my bedroom and cools accordingly. If the smart sensors don't detect movement, they don't switch on the AC as quickly as if they do detect movement, so the AC doesn't cycle as often.

Extreme heat?????

This is the norm, welcome to Florida.

Conserve energy!
You dont live in the north anymore where the electric company was incapable of providing juice in a heat wave.

Florida is a comstant heat wave.

Sit back nd lower your themostat. Gotta get out of those old north habits

It’s warm
 

Stay cool, stay hydrated and stay out of the heat. If you are exposed for lengthy time periods, rehydrate quickly and enjoy a good book in the AC for a while. This heat can be dangerous for the elderly and I’m including myself. No one is immune to heatstroke.

Good plan! Wisconsin transplant and now an 18 year Villager. Most important fact to remember, YOU DON’T SHOVEL HUMIDITY!!!!

Look at the bright side will cool off in October

We run one in our enclosed lanai and I find it very efficient it cools the room down rapidly. My only complaint is that it is loud.

Flipped on the Pool Chiller this morning.

Pool water 94 degrees at 7am By 10am a very comfortable 79 to swim laps.

Modern tech is so worth it.

Back in the day (University days 1970, to be exact) we had a one-room apartment on the second floor above a Western Auto store. About the size of a telephone booth. Got hot up there in July and August. There was a place you could buy these blocks of ice: put one of them in a plastic tub, turn the fan on it and Presto! Air conditioning! Good for a couple of hours anyway.

Didnt know there was such a thing. Our local pool does get rather warm in this weather. Thought of bringing about 1000 pounds of ice with me one day

The solar on our pool is turned off and the water hasn’t gotten above 87 during the hottest time of the day, and we have southwest exposure? The chiller sounds nice, but not really necessary. That being said, I swam laps Friday evening at the La Hacienda sports pool and the water was pretty warm and looking a little greenish. After a half mile, I bagged the swim and went home to finish my swim tethered to the super swim pro (which is nice, but not the same as swimming in a regulation 25 yard pool). The sports pools can get pretty nasty this time of the year with the masses of people participating in group activities while drenched in suntan lotion.

now THAT is know-how! kudos on something i'd never think of. as for the OP stating leaving gargage doors open, i removed a 4ft black racer from the lanai. it must've snuck in while the door was propped open for unloading packages.

Way too hot? You are kidding correct? You moved to Florida and enjoy it. Can get all the cold and snow you want up north.

53 degrees in my neck of the woods yesterday. Smell of wood stoves around the lake. Doesn't get any better than this.

Missy, I open my garage door, the window, and also my back door and it creates a nice flow thru breeze. Yes. critters get in, but they will get in anyway ( the smallest of cracks). i have a full size freezer in the garage, so I want to keep the heat down as much as possible, and it works out fine

This is not the norm for Florida if one has lived most of their life in FL.

The weather industry has created a NEW term, "heat dome" for what we are experiencing. They have created many new terms that coincide with the experimental weather engineering they are currently doing world wide to "dim" the sun.

The spraying of stratospheric aerosol injections amungst other nifty government projects are creating climate change for an earth that used to have natural changes in climate.

How cute that the weather industry pacifies us with new terms such as "heat dome" and new cloud names.

FL used to get pretty hot in late July to Aug, not Feb to Dec. We used to have rain from March to September to counter the heat. FL is baren dry now.
FL was never like AZ which it is now. It saddens me to see all the dying Palm Trees. FL used to get so much rain fungus was the threat for killing ones lawn not severe drought.

Now, with cloud seeding and other governmental experimentation we get rain seemingly when it's our turn. HAARP and other methods have been creating some intense weather in the country and world-wide. Ask Dubai and San Francisco about cloud seeding floods.

The Villages will eventually get to see some rain as the weather industry let's us know the new term for the extreme rain we will be getting. Perhaps they will name it "Golf Rain" in honor of The Villages lol.

What is a heat dome?

Wait until summer hits, and the humidity and bugs that come with it. In December all will go away, until April.

I’ve worked for a few of the largest building products manufacturers since 1993 and fortunate to have sat in on LEEDS, HUD, & DOE seminars.

The greatest return on your money is soffit and peak roof air exchange and attic insulation. Think of the interior of your home as a sealed unit and your attic is a tremendous heat source. Typically, I recommend the homeowners rent the machine at Home Depot and blow their own additional insulation and I’m sure their services The Villages.

HUD recommend a 40 to 50 R-value for the attic which is 20 to 25 inches at the time of installation. The second step which most people neglect is the airflow from the soffits to the peaks of your roof (gable vents &/or vents). Just adding gable vents &/or power vents It’s not enough as you can only extract as much air to pump in. Therefore, you need to add additional soffit vents. Which I can tell you from 30 years experience I’ve never seen anything but custom energy, energy minded builders ever put enough soffit vents.

Leaving your attic stairs down and garage door open with screens across the front after it cools in the evening will help cool your attic. Then, put a ceiling fan above your bed and run it at a comfortable setting. Ceiling fans are quiet and use very little energy.

Energy saving efforts
 

You could always hold hands with your neighbors, chant and sing kumbaya.

Sounds good, but does it really make a significant difference in your electric bill? To me, ceiling fans are just annoying and don't provide any temperature reduction. Also, leaving your garage attic stairs down is a code violation and can cause a fire in the garage to spread quickly to the rest of the house.

Ceiling fans make a noticeable difference in the comfort of a room. I feel I can set my thermostat two or three degrees higher and still be comfortable if I have fan running.

There is nothing in the fan itself to cool the room; if anything, there is a little heat generated by the motor. Where the ceiling fan helps is in circulating and mixing the air. There are no hot spots at the ceiling and cold spots on the floor; instead, all the air is a more uniform temperature. The walls and ceiling of the room stay cooler because the air does not become as warm and therefore they do not radiate as much heat. And, the slight breeze over your skin makes you feel cooler.

I like the idea of running the fan in reverse to push air towards the ceiling. We feel the breeze more at the edges of the room (where the chairs are anyway) and the breeze is less than of the fan was blowing directly on us. I use the lowest setting; I'm just trying to move the air, not cause a wind.

But...how are the skeeters?

Depending on which Hayward package your pool company puts in, the chiller can be part of the package.

In my app the chiller has set points, just like heat. I didn’t think we would use it, but I am so happy chiller is part of our equipment options when I want to turn on. Yesterday I programmed auto Chill to keep temp at 79.

I am using liquid solar cover, which kept my winter temp loss of about 3-5 degrees overnight, even when temps dropped below 45. :cold: Not sure how the cover will help for summer but am keeping stats for the first year.

I will say the product “Pepper” has maintained my ph levels, and cell has stayed very mineral free for longer than i expected. My swim pro is still up north, so I have reverted to my old tether. Not as efficient, by mile 4 I just listen to music and no longer care.

Might help a little, but it's only June. Not that hot yet.

Reduced attic heat and energy costs
 

Another way to reduce heat in attic and energy costs is to install new technology roof shingles that have reflective granules to reflect suns heat and reduce energy costs

By replaced my roof with Atlas Pinnacle Sun roof shingles several months ago. Roof guys only ones who installed new technology shingles

I have seen reduced energy costs

Would be great if we could install white reflective roof shingles but we have to stick with the required colors

Sales gimick
 

We have the Ecobee thermostat primarily for the ability to control via WIFI when we are away and monitor the home temperature.
It came with one room semsor which we put in the livingroom. So according to Ecobee, if the living room needs more AC or Heat it will sense the need and condition that space. That is completely false. The system is NOT a zoned system. If the system runs enough to keep the living room cool, then the rest of the house is getting cooled or heated just like the living room is. I can't believe people fall for this.
I do notice with the Ecobee savings system turned on (not sure what the proper name is) where the temp may be allowed to rise slightly if the humidity is below a certain level will make the house feel muggy and uncomfortable. The first time it happened I thought the HVAC was faulty. So that gets shut off quite a bit.

Yes, but the Attis stairs allow air to enter the attic to promote venting the superheated air up there to vent through the roof vents.

There ought to be enough venting for the attic through the soffits around the house. Opening the stairs in the garage might make the garage feel cooler since that warm air will be able to rise and draw in outside air that might possibly be cooler.

1 Too cold for skeeters
2 Been very dry spring - very low hatch
3 Smoke from wood stoves keep the skeeters away

I've long been a fan of wood smoke and cabins. They're common in Minnesota, particularly in the far NE and NW. Nothing quite as inducive to feeling safe and secure as a good fire in your cabin when is -30 degrees or so outside.

I do remember those mosquitoes though, not not all that fondly. they'd come out in hordes about mid-June and wax and wane over the weeks until the first week or so in September. Not one of my more pleasant memories of Minnesota.

Can you set the Ecobee to run the fan all the time rather than "auto"? I have the Ecobee but I'm part time down there so I haven't looked into changing anything but the temp.

In any case, my HVAC guy told me we should be keeping the fan set to "on". That keeps the air circulating through all the rooms, and therefore, the temp is the same in all rooms. Otherwise, as you noted, a small room will get very cold while the living room is just hitting the temp you set.

Nonsense. Everyone knows that northerners move to Florida because of the beautiful weather.

Get out there and acclimate. It's what you paid for.

Always wondered why the hell anyone in Florida would install a black roof! Surprised to see so many dark roofs being built by the developers in the new sections.

This is why we all moved to Florida. Love the heat, hate the cold!

I don't disagree, but, to me, ceiling fans are annoying and distracting. I leave them off.