The myth of the night-time air conditioning that supposedly hikes up your bill is on its way out. According to El Confidencial, energy advisor Alex Bermúdez has debunked it on TikTok with a number so tiny it’s almost laughable (not a fraud, just amusing).
€0.45 per night, the cost of sleeping eight hours with the split unit running, according to Bermúdez. For that amount, more than a few have spent years sweating through the night.
“Sleeping with the AC on all night won’t ruin you,” he says at the start of the video. “It costs less than your morning coffee, just €0.45,” he adds. The obvious question is why so much fear, and the answer lies in the habit of turning it off and on repeatedly.
¿Y por qué es peor eso que dejarlo? El asesor recurre a una analogía de coche: “Piensa que tu aire es igual que un coche”. En autopista gastas menos que en ciudad, acelerando y frenando en cada semáforo. El split funciona igual: mantiene su mejor eficiencia cuando la temperatura es estable y el compresor no tiene que pegar tirones.
When the air reaches the programmed degrees, it reduces power just enough to keep them. If you turn it off, the room heats up in minutes and, when you restart, the unit hits the **highest power spike** of the entire night. In other words, the savings from keeping it off for half an hour vanish in the first minute of maximum compressor work.
Don’t set it to 16 degrees
The other classic mistake is lowering the thermostat to 16 degrees believing the room will cool faster. It won’t. It will merely drive up electricity consumption, because the compressor always runs at the same power until it reaches the target; setting 16 instead of 24 doesn’t accelerate anything, it only lengthens the unit’s ordeal.
Here comes the crucial data: for each degree you lower, consumption rises by 6%-8% per degree. Bermúdez recommends keeping it at 23 to 25 degrees for sleeping. The IDAE, however, puts its official range a little higher, between 24 and 26 degrees. That one-degree difference is the price you end up paying.
Air does not cool by itself, viruses do, but it dries mucous membranes and can irritate the eyes and throat, according to health experts. It is wise to clean the filters, avoid direct airflow and not drop below 24 degrees.
Photos of Alex Bermúdez
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