The heat is still very present in most of the country, and it is especially bothersome at bedtime, where the feeling of embarrassment makes it difficult for us to sleep.
In these cases we can choose to turn on a fan at night, which has its advantages and disadvantages, or use the air conditioning if we have one in the room. However, we probably wonder if It is very expensive to do so and if you can have some negative health consequencesLet’s see it.
How much does it cost to sleep with the air conditioning on?
Next we will calculate how much it can cost to have the air conditioning on at hometaking into account some previous considerations. For example, let’s assume that we have a mid-range model of between 2,500 and 3,500 frigories with an electrical consumption of around 1,000 watts (1 KWh) at full power.
The specific model we have at home may exceed this figure or be below it, depending on its efficiency, whether it is portable and how old it is. In addition, if it is a device with an inverter compressor or a model with intelligent operation, it will probably not be working at full power all the time, but will have intermediate cycles with much lower consumption which will easily drop below 40-50%.
In addition, we will consider that it will be operating for about 8 hours at night from 11:00-12:00, which usually has cheaper prices if our rate is regulated or with a differentiated cost per hour.
To begin with, the first thing we need to do is find out the cost per kWh of electricity that we are going to consume, a figure that varies every hour of the day and that will depend on each electric company and the contracted rate, but that we can average with the data from the last few weeks for the early morning schedule and taking into account what is indicated on the CNMC website for the PVPC rate with a average value of about €0.15/kWhgross price to which taxes must be added later when we receive the real amount on the invoice.
Image: CNMC
Taking all this into account, our 1 kWh air conditioning unit will be on for 8 hours every night, which is 8 kWh with a consumption of 0.15 €/kWh. This is approximately 1.2 euros per day. If we multiply by 31 days we find the amount for the total of the month which amounts to about 37.2 euros.
Remember that this figure is in the worst case with an air conditioner that is working without resting at full power, a situation that does not occur unless there are very, very high temperatures and with a very poorly insulated home, so in a real case with a relatively modern inverter type equipment we can approximate a more realistic average figure by taking approximately 50% of that amountwhich represents about 18.6 euros per month.
Precautions when using air conditioning at night
Having the air conditioning running next to our bed all night can not only help us sleep better, but also can cause negative effects on our body.
A cold air current reaching our body can cause a Dryness of the skin and nasal passagesas well as congestion, headache, eye irritation or dry throat. It also raises and stirs up dust particles and germs, something that It does not benefit allergy sufferers, aggravating pathologies such as bronchitis or sinusitis.
In addition, at a muscular level, prolonged use of air conditioning at night can end up causing contractures or stiffness appear. Therefore, to sleep avoiding these problems It is advisable to take a series of precautions.
- The first measure is to avoid a continuous current in the same direction And a good system to prevent this from happening is to regulate the air conditioning blades so that they point as far away from our position as possible.
- We can also Select the swing mode that all models usually have, so that the air jet does not hit us directly all the time, and section the lowest power mode ventilation that the equipment allows.
- It is also interesting set schedules so that the air conditioner turns off after a few hours in the early morning when it starts to get cooler, and activate “sleep” mode that many models have, which regulates the power and ventilation speed of the device.
- It is also interesting to have foreseen these drawbacks at the time of install the equipment to do it in a position that allows a gentle stream of air to reach us, without necessarily having to be close.
Cover image | TCL
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