alt text for four panel image
First panel: a poorly drawn figure with half-closed lids asks a smart™ thermostat "hey little man hows it goin?" Second Panel: the smart thermostat points with a large arrow at a screenshot of a graphic that reads "August Trends: Heating & cooling compared with last year", and shows zero hours more heating, 129 hours more cooling, with a small caption underneath that reads "On average, temperatures were 5 degrees warmer than August 2022" Third Panel: the poorly drawn figure with half-closed lids is shown with an unreadable smile in front of a semi-transparent image of a NASA article that reads "NASA Clocks July 2023 as Hottest Month on Record Ever Since 1880" Fourth Panel: the poorly drawn figure says "yea"
A desk/stand fan helps. We keep our thermostat at 77 during the day and have a fan on instead. Our bills haven't gone up a lot compared to previous years. 77 is actually comfortable. The problem is the air is not circulating/moving, so your AC works overtime because you tend to lower it so it keeps turning on and moving air around. We even feel the need to use a blanket in the living room because 77 with a fan directly pointed at you actually feels cold.
Where we live, I'd run the A/C very few days in the summer. My husband gets so uncomfortable in the heat, though.
A/C sometimes makes me feel disproportionately cold. I'm not sure why. I can be outside working in the winter, no problem, but A/C is something else entirely.