Spend less on your AC unit.
It’s really that simple.

What temperature should I set my aircon to save electricity?

For most homes in a hot, humid climate, 24–25 °C is the sweet spot. The Philippine Department of Energy recommends 25 °C, and government offices are required to set thermostats no colder than 24 °C. Below that you pay a lot more for comfort you can barely feel.

The catch is that the right number is not the same every day. On a cooler, less humid day you can go higher and still be comfortable. AC Savings reads today’s weather for your city and gives you the one number that fits today, instead of a fixed rule you have to remember.

Source: Meralco — Energy Efficiency FAQ

Does setting my aircon to 16 °C cool the room faster?

No. This is the most expensive myth in air conditioning. Your unit cools at one rate, and the number on the remote only tells it when to stop — not how hard to blow. Setting 16 °C and setting 24 °C cool the room at exactly the same speed.

What 16 °C changes is when the unit stops, and on a hot day the answer is never. It runs flat out for hours trying to reach a target the room will not reach, which lets the evaporator coil frost over. A frosted coil restricts airflow, so the room actually cools more slowly, and the bill climbs the whole time.

Set a temperature the unit can genuinely reach and it will cycle normally, keep air moving, and stop grinding all day. If you want the room to feel cool sooner, run a fan — do not chase a number the aircon cannot hit.

How much does one degree actually save?

Meralco puts it at up to 5–7% of your aircon’s running cost for every degree you raise the setting. AC Savings is deliberately more conservative: it credits about 5% per °C on inverter units and about 3% on non-inverter units, and it never claims you saved more than 60% of the unit’s energy.

We would rather the number in your ledger be one you can trust than one that flatters us. If your real bill beats our estimate, that is the direction we want to be wrong in.

Source: Meralco — Energy Efficiency FAQ

I already have solar panels. Is there still anything to save?

Yes, and arguably more than without them. Under Philippine net metering, the power you export back to the grid is credited at roughly half of what you pay to buy power back at retail. So a unit of solar energy you use yourself is worth about twice a unit you export.

That changes what efficiency means for you. Every degree your aircon does not need is generation freed up for the rest of the house — the induction hob, the washing machine, a second unit in another room — or headroom that lets a smaller battery carry you further into the evening.

Put simply: solar does not make a wasteful setting free. It makes an efficient one worth more, because the difference goes into running your own home on sunlight instead of selling it cheap and buying it back expensive after dark.

Source: Philippine DOE — Net Metering

Will this work with my old, non-inverter aircon?

Yes. Old units are where the habit matters most, because a non-inverter compressor is either fully on or fully off — there is no middle gear to soften a bad setting. Getting the target right is the only lever you have, and it is a real one.

AC Savings works with any air conditioner, including window units and units with a plain dial and no numbers on it. If yours has a dial, the app guides you by notches instead of degrees and shows your savings as an honest range rather than a fake precise figure.

I bought an inverter aircon. Why is my bill still high?

Usually because of the heat outside, not a fault in the unit. An inverter compressor saves by easing off once the room reaches your target. When it is 34 °C outdoors and heat is pouring back in as fast as the unit removes it, the room never quite settles, so the compressor never gets to ease off and you lose most of the benefit you paid for.

Raising your target by a degree or two is what lets an inverter unit finally reach setpoint and drop into its low-power state. That is precisely the moment inverter technology starts paying you back, and it is the moment AC Savings is built to find.

Do I need a smart aircon, a smart plug, or any other hardware?

No. There is nothing to install, pair, or buy. AC Savings tells you the number and you set it on your own remote, the same way you already do.

This is deliberate. Most air conditioners in the region are not internet-connected and never will be, and a tool that only helps people who can afford new hardware would miss almost everyone who needs it.

Should I turn the aircon off when I go out, or leave it on a timer?

For short trips of an hour or two, raising the target a few degrees usually beats switching off — especially on an inverter unit, which has to run at full capacity to pull the room back down from ambient when you return. For a long absence or an empty house, switching off is still the cheaper choice.

On a non-inverter unit the maths is simpler: if nobody is in the room, turn it off.

Does running an electric fan alongside the aircon help?

Yes, and it is one of the cheapest wins available. A fan draws 50–100 watts against an air conditioner’s hundreds, and moving air makes a room feel about 2–3 °C cooler than it measures.

That means an aircon at 26 °C with a fan running can feel like an aircon at 23 °C on its own, at a fraction of the cost. Comfort is about moving air, not just cold air.

Are the savings figures exact?

No, and the app labels them as estimates everywhere they appear. They are modelled from your unit, your running hours, your electricity rate and the temperature you used to set — not from a meter.

Your real bill also includes every other appliance in the house, your utility’s tariff adjustments, how well your home holds heat, and the condition of your unit. Treat the ledger as an honest measure of the habit, not a prediction of the bill.

Still stuck? Read the full help centre.