# And now it starts - air conditioning!



## NoDivision

*sigh* So it got to about 85 yesterday, and about 90 today, officially, though my car computer hold me it was much hotter. So I have gone immediately from keeping the hedgie room warm to struggling with air conditioning!

On the plus side - my AC works very well in my apartment! I came home today and the apartment was at 80 degrees and I got it down to 74 (for my comfort) very quickly. But I am now running trial and error on the hedgehog room to keep a good temperature. I really want to get it sorted out before Saturday - because while Sherlock isn't a very picky hog (has never been too bothered by temperature changes) I don't want to run into problems with Watson.

So here are the different things I've tried. 
1) I set the apartment thermostat to 75 while I'm home. 75 is comfortable. 
2) I might kick it up to about 78 during the day when I'm not here. I really have no clue what my electric bill will be like in this new place, but I'd like to keep it down. One hopes that with the loss of the all day space heater, it will balance out with having the AC on, but, yikes. 
3) I have a blanket draped over the front of the cage. The HVAC is in the hedgehog room, and while it doesn't seem to be blowing anything towards the cage, I figure better safe than sorry with drafts. 

But here's the thing... it would be a wonderful world if setting the thermostat to a temperature meant that the whole apartment actually stayed, you know, that temperature. But it doesn't. And I've been having issues with the hedgie room being either warmer or cooler than the rest of the place. 

Cooler I guess is easy enough to deal with. I've cot the CHE on the cage and hopefully with a bit of fussing can get it set to a point where it will kick on only when strictly necessary. 

Warmer...? I'm not sure what to do. Luckily I don't think this will be as much of a challenge as my last house, which was ALWAYS too hot in summer, but... argh.



I am mostly just sharing my frustrations. But how do you guys cope in summer? Can you think of anything I should be doing differently? I'm just trying to get accustomed to the first summer i my new place, and everything is different.


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## Lilysmommy

Mostly posting to commiserate...My bedroom (where Lily's cage is) is upstairs, and it gets HOT in the summer...I've been struggling the past couple months with keeping Lily's big C&C cage warm enough, using two CHEs, blankets, and a space heater, and now I'm going to have to change tactics and start keeping it cool enough. :roll: I've been trying to find a balance the past few days with leaving my room open, the space heater on low to kick in if needed, and half blanket coverage over the cage and so far so good...But it hasn't gotten really hot here yet either, so we'll see. Sorry I can't offer much advice...One thing I have done that you might try is having a ceramic tile in the cage in case Sherlock (or Watson) want to lay down on it to cool off. Or, if you use liners, allow them to go underneath so they can lay on the cooler plastic if they want. Lily doesn't pay much attention to her ceramic tile, but I think it's because her igloo has a bottom to it as well, so she can lay on the plastic. I've found that she usually shoves all over her fleece strips and blankies out of way and lays on the plastic in the summer.


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## Judi

When a hedgehog gets too hot they'll lay on their bellies with all their legs sprawled out...called splatting. So if you see that you know you've got a problem, but it's unlikely to get that hot in your house.

If the hedgehog cage is in the room with the AC thermostat, that's the room that will have the temperature closest to what the thermostat says, although the thermostat can be off by a few degrees. If you want to know the actual temp in the room, you can get a thermometer for a couple of dollars and hang it on a wall.

About AC and electric bills, sometimes it gets pretty bad in apartments because a lot of them have older air conditioners. Change the filter every two weeks, and that will help. The power company here says that for every degree below 78 that your thermostat is set to, it will increase your bill by ten percent. One thing you can do is identify your electric meter and go out to have a look at it while the ac is running. If it's spinning like crazy and you notice your ac running almost all the time, that's a sign that the bill will be high.

If the hedgehog cage is against an outside wall, moving it to an inside wall might help. Getting a thermal drape for the room would help too...the new heat-blocking curtains they make don't look like the kind your grandma might have had, with the sticky white backing...they just look like regular curtains. To be effective it needs to be three times as wide as the width of the window.


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## jaxonjesse

*My Hedgehog room.*

I always keep my hedgie in a warm, comfortable place in my room. I have an extra room for them. Always keep my hedgie in a warm and well-lit location but not direct sunlight. Recently I bought an Air condition (5000 BTU, portable) for them after reviewing from https://coolingmyrv.com/, this site. I always prefer the temperature range stay from 74 deg F to 80 deg F.


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## nikki

Please check the date on a thread before posting. This thread is from 2011.


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## T3fulhelo

I live in malaysia and the normal temp is 30-35celsius so do I need to keep air conditioning on all time ??


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## nikki

Once again please check the dates on a thread before posting, this one was started in 2011, so that is 7 years ago. If you have a question please start your own thread.


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