Opinion : 78° is the Perfect Temperature for Air Conditioning

...according to Alliant Energy.

As I was driving, I had the radio on and heard a gal from Alliant Energy come on. She was giving tips for energy consumption. "Turn your thermostat up to 78°." I glanced at the thermostat in my car. It was cranked down to what my car labels "cold" which is below 70°. Most of the time that is just about right. Of course, that's if I have the fan on low. If not I crank it all the way up to about 70 and turn up the fan. Either way, there is no 78° setting happening in my car.

So in the summer the electric company apparently wants us to be hot. do you remember what they tell us in the winter? In the winter they want us to be cold. "Crank DOWN that thermostat!"

They used to tag on that "do your part" much like they did during COVID, do your part to save grandma. With this they are trying to convince us that by cooking in the summer and freezing in the winter, we are saving the planet.

I'm not sure, but as a natiral gas provider, perhaps Alliant should, I dunno, generate provide gas. Maybe just assume for a hot minute (pun intended) that we kinda know what makes each of us feel comfortable.

Even the gal from Alliant said that she didn't think she'd be comfortable at 78°. So some idiot, somewhere, is just picking a number out of thin air and declaring, "We shall decree that 78° shall now save energy." I'd bet money that whoever decided that doesn't have their thermostat on 78°.

Let's suppose for another hot minute, that we all live in 78° weather indoors, and 90+° outdoors this week. Can you imagine how many 911 calls would be coming in?

Between heat-related health issues and irritability-related calls, I'd guess that we'd be paying out for it in healthcare costs, bail money and counseling. As President Biden would say, "I'm not joking" or "That's not hyperbole."

Call me silly, but the move to go green while I don't think it's a bad idea, we just aren't there yet. They want to mandate eletric cars for everyone in about 10 years if I remember correctly. Okay, and the cost for said electric car is the last I heard around $60.000. Cool, let me look under the couch cushion. There is a movement to install electric charging stations across the country, yet we apparently can't produce enough electricity to run the air conditioner.

In the mean time, we have electric cars, which still have batteries bursting into flames with no good way to put them out. Look up an electric car fire. They take sometimes days to burn out. Great for pollution. Great for other resources trying to put them out. Wonderful ideas.

Electric companies want the ability to control your electricity and adjust the thermostat "during peak hours." Absolutely not. So apparently the electric company is telling us, "We have all these nice new gadgets, but not enough electricity to run it." Sounds like a wonderful idea.

Now, I'm the only one in my house that I have to worry about adjusting the temperature for. I don't have little children or elderly to keep warm in the winter or cool in the summer. But for those of you who do, let's just hope that the powers that be figure out how to produce electricity. I dunno, maybe we could fire up some decommissioned nuclear plants or something.

So for this week's PSA announcement, I'm going to pull in some of that 70s music and splice it behind Alliant Energy's plea to turn it up to 78° and play, "Burn Baby, Burn."