I live in a small (600sq-ft) apartment in a building that's about two years old. The air conditioner is a GE window-style unit that runs off a 240-volt outlet. This time of year I can keep the apartment comfortable if I open the windows and run the unit on fan only for
80%-90% of a day. When I do this, I also run a box fan at 2/3rds speed in another window. The a/c unit has low and high fan speeds, and I usually program it to turn off/on in 15-minute cycles, running at its low speed.I can also keep the apartment comfortable if I run the unit windows closed with the a/c on. Then the unit runs maybe 30%-40% of the time. When I use a/c I typically set it to 73 degrees Fahrenheit.
The average mean temp. where I live for the month of September is 70 degrees Fahrenheit if that matters.
Which of these methods would be more energy efficient?