We have had two homes for 13 years now. I have experimented with various settings for absences of up to six months. We have settled at 80 degrees (with no humidistat) as best. We put the fan on continuous operation and open the doors on all closets and some cabinets. We make sure nothing is stacked against any outside wall, such as boxes in closets. This system has worked well for us.

The Temp Stick uses WiFi. So, do you leave your Internet/Cable/WiFi system on all summer? Isn’t it possible to have your internet service provider turn them off when you are out of state for months?

When I lived in Sarasota back in the eighties, I was s snowbird. I had a humidistat because if you leave the thermostat set to 80 it will run constantly during the summer months. The idea of a humidistat is to ignore the thermostat and turn on the AC only when the humidity reaches a certain level. If I recall correctly we either turned the thermostat off or set it to its highest setting. If you're going to leave the thermostat on 78 or 80 the humidistat is a waste.

You need to have humidity setting on at all times and the temp should be set at 82 degrees while you’re away. Don’t compare NY with FL.

Just a warning about AC system that sometimes can stop working for whatever reason. Might be good to have a trusted person check on your place to make sure all is well once in a while. Sure beats getting back to a mouldy home. Just as an aside, I made the mistake of unplugging the fridge once, but the door must be open or else it too gets mouldy.

Nope. They work in conjunction with one another. If you turn the thermostat off, or way high, the a/c won't come on, regardless of what the humidistat says.

The humidistat doesn't directly control the a/c, it acts as a switch to allow the thermostat to control the a/c.

As someone else said - both settings have to be to be satisfied for the a/c to come on. The humidity would have to exceed the humidistat setting, and the temperature has to exceed the thermostat setting.

The new houses (at least the ones we were looking at) now have an Ecobee thermostat, which is a smart thermostat. As long as you have wireless internet you can monitor and control your house's temperature and humidity from a web browser or smart phone. It also allows you to monitor how much your system is running. We currently have ours set to 79 with 60% humidity. The other nice thing is that you can have the temperature set to the value you want prior to you return so your house is at the desired temperature when you arrive.

Thermostat/Humidistat while away from home
 

With the equipment you have here’s what you need to do. You want to control humidity and the temperature doesn’t really matter. The way the 2 devices you have work is that both conditions ie temperature and humidity have to be true for the AC to come on. If you want to AC to come on anytime the humidity goes above 60%, the AC must be set at a lower temperature. Set the temperature at 70 degrees on the thermostat and set the humidistat to 60, odds are the temperature during summer months will always be higher than 70 degrees in your house. The AC will then come on anytime the humidity is above 60 percent and run until the humidity goes down to 60% then go off. You will only control humidity, the temperature doesn’t matter. With this setting the temperature could be 100 degrees and the AC won’t come on until the humidity goes above 60%.

Many people try to set the temperature to 80 something and the humidistat to 60 and because both conditions must be true if the humidity is above 60 the AC won’t come on because the temperature may still be below 80 something. I know this is confusing, but if you set the devices as I suggest you will control humidity and the AC will only come on if the humidity is exceeded.

Thermostat at 70 degrees and humidistat at 60%. It works.

Thermostat connected to the internet you can monitor and set from anywhere in the world on your phone.

Snowbird here. I have a nest thermostat and I set it on eco while away at 85. Have never had a problem. Humidity runs in the 50’s.

My system doesn't work that way. All systems are not the same. If I set the thermostat to 70 degrees, the AC will run all the time. There is a humidity option that will "overcool" the house by up to 3 degrees below the thermostat setting to lower the humidity, but that function would never work with a thermostat setting of 70. I have found that a thermostat setting of 80 degrees and no humidity control works fine. No mold. Maybe you can save money on electricity by using another control system and keeping the temperature extremely high. However, I don't like the idea of having my house go above 80 degrees in the summer. If you want to actually control the humidity, you need a dehumidifier that allows cooling and reheating the air to achieve true control of both temperature and humidity in your house. Most systems in The Villages do not have a reheat function for dehumidification. So, humidity control is always a compromise.