(Replying to PARENT post)
One main reason is that when AC is off is that humidity increases which causes cooling harder. This is because the cooling process of an AC unit involves removing humidity from the air as well as heat. When the air is humid, the AC unit has to work harder to remove the excess moisture from the air, which can decrease its overall cooling efficiency.
The other reason is that house and furniture will store heat and then cooling will get harder.
Also AC runs more efficiently if its constant.
(Replying to PARENT post)
I don't think it's always true, which is why I listed the factors that can influence it.
But I am also getting into home automation and just watched a video where some one ran through the numbers on their specific house after getting electricity monitoring connected to their heating and Home Assistant. It's not that clear cut and really depends on your specific home.
(Replying to PARENT post)
I've seen similar statements a few times, even in this HN thread. Most articles just repeat the statement without showing any numbers. This article does show numbers and the graphs. From the article:
> What we found was that even when the A/C temporarily spikes to recover from the higher indoor temperatures, the overall energy consumption in the setback cases is still less than when maintaining a constant temperature throughout the day.
Full data on https://theconversation.com/does-turning-the-air-conditionin...