Best Air Conditioner Temperature Settings for Year-Round Energy Savings in Australia

The best air conditioner temperature for energy savings in Australia is generally around 25–26°C for cooling in summer and 18–20°C for heating in winter. However, the ideal temperature for your home ultimately comes down to what keeps you comfortable.

We’ve all experienced the household temperature wars. Someone wants the air conditioning turned down, someone else wants it turned up, and everyone seems to have a different idea of what feels comfortable.

But there’s more to efficient air conditioning than choosing the right number. Where the temperature is measured, which rooms you’re cooling or heating, and how your air conditioning operates can all have a significant impact on comfort and energy bills.

What is the best air conditioner temperature in Australia?

Everyone experiences temperature differently. Some people feel comfortable cooling their home to 22–24°C, while others are perfectly happy at 25–26°C. During winter, preferences commonly fall around 19–21°C.

For energy savings, Australian Government guidance generally recommends slightly warmer cooling temperatures and cooler heating temperatures.

The important principle is simple: set your air conditioner to the highest temperature you find comfortable when cooling, and the lowest comfortable temperature when heating.

Does setting your air conditioner to 16°C cool your home faster?

One of the biggest misconceptions about air conditioning is that setting the temperature extremely low will cool your home faster.

Imagine coming home on a hot summer afternoon and finding your house sitting at 30°C. You want to cool it to 23°C, so you set your air conditioner to 16°C, hoping it will work harder and get there sooner.

Unfortunately, that’s not how most air conditioners work.

Your air conditioner has a limited cooling capacity. While modern inverter systems can adjust their output, selecting an extremely low temperature doesn’t automatically make the system cool your home faster.

Setting your air conditioner to 16°C instead of 23°C is more likely to make it continue cooling beyond your comfortable temperature, wasting electricity in the process.

The same applies in winter. Setting your heating to 30°C won’t necessarily warm your home faster than setting it to a comfortable 20°C. It simply tells your air conditioner to keep heating towards a much higher target.

The better approach is to set the temperature you actually want your home to reach.

How much does each degree affect your air conditioning costs?

Small changes to your thermostat can make a surprisingly large difference.

According to the Australian Government’s YourHome energy efficiency guide, every additional degree of cooling in summer or heating in winter can increase your air conditioner’s energy consumption by approximately 5–10%.

For example, cooling your home to 22°C instead of 25°C could considerably increase the electricity needed to maintain that temperature.

And because cooling and heating can account for a significant proportion of household energy consumption, these differences can add up over the course of a year.

This doesn’t mean you should sacrifice comfort to save money. Rather, understanding the relationship between temperature and energy consumption helps you make more informed decisions.

It also explains why extreme settings, such as 16°C for cooling or 30°C for heating, can become expensive habits.

Why your thermostat might not reflect the temperature in every room

There’s another important consideration that’s often overlooked: where is your air conditioner’s temperature actually being measured?

Many conventional ducted air conditioning systems rely on a central temperature sensor, often located in a hallway or near the return air grille.

Imagine setting your air conditioner to 22°C.

Once the central sensor reaches 22°C, your system may reduce its cooling output or stop cooling altogether. But that doesn’t necessarily mean every room in your home has reached 22°C.

Different rooms experience different temperatures depending on their location, size, occupancy and exposure to sunlight.

For example:

• A west-facing bedroom may become significantly hotter during the afternoon.

• An east-facing bedroom may remain cooler later in the day.

• An upstairs room may experience higher temperatures than a room downstairs.

• A kitchen or study may generate additional heat from appliances and computers.

As a result, one room might be sitting comfortably at 22°C while another is still at 26°C.

You could lower the thermostat to compensate, but this may cause already comfortable rooms to become unnecessarily cold.

This creates two problems: some rooms remain uncomfortable, while energy is wasted over-cooling others.

How smart zoning improves comfort and reduces energy use

This is where smarter ducted air conditioning control makes a difference.

Conventional ducted systems often divide homes into two or four larger zones, meaning several rooms are grouped together and receive air conditioning at the same time.

MyPlaceIQ allows compatible ducted systems to be divided into up to 10 individually controlled zones, giving homeowners much greater control over which rooms receive air conditioning.

Consider a home with three bedrooms:

One is a guest bedroom that’s only occupied occasionally. Another faces west and becomes particularly hot in the afternoon, while the third faces south and stays relatively cool.

With all three bedrooms grouped into one zone, air conditioning may be delivered to every room even though their needs are completely different.

With individual zoning, you can switch off the unused guest bedroom and direct conditioned air to the rooms that actually need it.

This helps reduce wasted energy while making better use of your air conditioner’s available capacity.

Why individual room temperature sensors matter

Zoning controls where air conditioning is delivered. Individual temperature sensors take this a step further by helping control how much cooling or heating each room needs.

MyPlaceIQ’s optional individual room temperature sensors monitor the temperature within each zone rather than relying solely on a central measurement.

This means a west-facing bedroom can receive additional cooling while an already comfortable downstairs room receives less.

It also allows different occupants to choose their preferred temperatures in their own rooms.

Instead of trying to keep an entire house comfortable based on one thermostat, MyPlaceIQ can respond to the actual temperatures in individual zones.

The result is more precise comfort and less energy wasted on rooms that have already reached their desired temperature.

How much energy can smart zoning save?

An independent energy modelling study conducted by CCC Engineering found that a MyPlaceIQ system with 10 individually controlled zones could reduce annual air conditioning energy consumption by up to 46% compared with a conventional two-zone system in the modelled home.

The study assessed a typical Australian five-bedroom home and demonstrated the potential savings associated with more precise zoning and individual temperature management.

These findings highlight that energy efficiency isn’t just about choosing the right thermostat setting. It’s also about ensuring conditioned air is delivered to the right rooms, in the right amounts.

Actual savings will vary depending on your home, system configuration and how you use your air conditioning.

Taking energy savings further with IQe solar technology

Beyond temperature settings and zoning, MyPlaceIQ includes another energy-saving feature called IQe.

IQe helps your air conditioning make better use of excess electricity generated by your home’s solar panels.

Imagine your solar system is producing surplus electricity during the middle of the day, when nobody is home. That electricity would ordinarily be exported to the grid, potentially earning you a relatively small feed-in tariff.

Later, when you arrive home and turn on your air conditioning, your solar production may have dropped significantly, leaving you purchasing electricity from the grid, potentially at higher peak rates.

IQe helps address this by forecasting your home’s solar production and automatically pre-cooling or pre-heating your home when surplus energy is available.

This means you can arrive home to a comfortable temperature while reducing the amount of electricity you may need to purchase later.

Independent energy modelling cited by MyPlace estimates that IQe can deliver up to $617 in annual energy bill savings for a modelled Queensland home.

IQe can also take advantage of eligible electricity plans that offer free electricity hours during the day, providing another opportunity to reduce running costs.

More ways to reduce your air conditioning costs throughout the year

Alongside choosing sensible temperatures and using smart zoning, a few simple habits can help reduce unnecessary energy consumption.

• Use ceiling fans in summer. Air movement helps you feel cooler without necessarily needing to lower your air conditioner temperature.

• Close blinds during hot afternoons. Reducing direct sunlight helps prevent rooms from heating up.

• Seal gaps around doors and windows. Preventing unwanted airflow helps your home maintain its temperature.

• Take advantage of natural ventilation. During spring and autumn, opening windows when outdoor conditions are comfortable may eliminate the need for air conditioning altogether.

• Clean your air conditioning filters regularly. Maintaining good airflow helps your system operate efficiently.

Finding the best temperature for your home

Ultimately, there’s no single temperature that will be perfect for everyone.

The goal is to find the balance between comfort and energy efficiency that works for your household.

Start with recommended temperature settings, make small adjustments and pay attention to how comfortable your home feels.

But remember that the number on your thermostat doesn’t tell the whole story.

A home with individual room temperature control, smarter zoning and intelligent energy management can achieve a very different result from a home relying on a single thermostat, even when both are set to exactly the same temperature.

With MyPlaceIQ, these technologies work together to help Australians enjoy greater comfort while reducing unnecessary air conditioning energy consumption.

It’s all part of our mission to help households shred their energy bills closer to zero.