Air Conditioner Tips

[WildaBeast]

My apartment management has recently started sending out a little newsletter to all the residents every so often. One of the items in last month's newsletter was a list of tips for using your air conditioner. One of those tips was the following:

"Do not switch your thermostat back and forth between 'on' and 'off' or between 'heat' and 'cool.' This could damage the equipment and actually cause higher electric bills for you!"

The part about higher electric bills at least seems plausible. I could believe that cooling the room down from 90 to 70 might use more energy that maintaining a constant 70 degrees. I think even that point is probably debatable, though, and probably varies depending on a lot of factors like how long you leave it turned off, the thermostat setting, and the outside temperature.

The part I really question, though, is the claim that turning the unit on and off can cause damage. Isn't that exactly what the thermostat does anyway?