Air Conditioning - Let it run, or turn it off?

I have been told that leaving my window A/C on and letting it cycle itself on and off to maintain my desired temp is more cost-effective than turning it off while I'm gone and then turning it back on when I return. Or, in my efforts to keep the electrical costs down, I wait until 3:00 (the hottest time of the day) to turn it on for a while. Whereas, I am told it would be cheaper and more efficient to turn it on at a lower speed earlier in the day and let it keep running.

I would appreciate some advice on this. As we all know, it's expensive to run these things, but on the other hand, I'm absolutely miserable without it. So it's important to me to run it as efficiently as possible.

Have you tried to push up the tstat and let it run some while you are away?? One of the main things that make you feel cool is if you get the humidity out of the home. that is the main thing an AC is to do.

ED ;)

Thanks, Ed, for the reply. I'm not having a problem with the A/C cooling the house; it's working fine for that.

The question I have is whether it is more cost-effective to shut it down while I'm out and then turn it back on when I return (say, for example, I'm gone from the house for a couple of hours), or whether it costs less to leave it running the whole time, I guess on the premise that it doesn't have to work so hard to catch up. :confused: