On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 04:06:00 -0700, sophiesdad
wrote:
On Jul 31, 6:12 am, PCGumshoe wrote:
I live in Florida, so it is very humid and between 80-94 degrees daily
during the summer.
When I first moved into my home, I would set the AC to 72, then 74. I
noticed it kept running and running never getting cool enough. I
called my home warranty company and they sent out an A/C tech and he
said it was all working fine and the size was appropriate for the
house. He said it was less than 5 years old.
I don't want to be too cynical, but since this company would have to
do the repair for free, iiuc, they have an incentive to lie. (Of
course if they were going to charge, one could say they had an
incentive to lie in the other direction. And at least once in a while,
something works or doesn't work.)
Jeff said what I was going to say. Did the tech do this? Regardless,
you should do it, so you'll know directly.
Now, I keep the A/C at 80 during the day and 78 when I sleep. I've
installed a ceiling fan in the bedroom and I seem to be able to sleep
better at this temperature. However, I notice now when it is 80
degrees outside (at night) and I have the temperature set at 80 or 78,
it seems like the A/C is working all the time.
Is the fan on On, not Auto, and is it only the indoor fan running, or
the outdoor compressor and fan too? Probably not, but you must
eliminate this possibility, turn the fan to Auto, to go any further.
Is there something else I can do to improve the efficiency of my A/C?
I seem to have to change the Air Filters (that claim to be 30-90 days)
in less than 30 days.
I know I need to get rid of my windows and put in new ones, but I've
tried to insulate my doors and windows better for now. but I can't
understand the attempt to lower the temperature 1 to 3 degrees and it
taking so long.
When we first purchased our house we asked a similar question about
the A/C - in our apartment, we usually ran the thermostat up to 80 and
down to 74 when returning home (it was a very old apartment). Doing
the same thing in the new house caused the A/C unit to run for almost
12 hours continuously to cool the space down. The A/C people told us
that with the newer, high-efficiency units, they are designed to run
longer and they are smaller in capacity than the old units. Their
recommendation was to leave the thermostat set at a constant
temperature and not monkey around with it. According to them, this is
more efficient and keeps the energy bills to a minimum since high EER
takes longer to take down temps rather than maintain a constant. Hope
this is helpful.
This sounds to me like nonsense. It may take an unappealingly long
time to cool off your house when you come home, but if you put the
house at 80 when you are not home, your AC won't run as much during
that time, your house won't absorb as much heat during that time
(because it will be closer to the outdoor temp) and you will save
money. If you have a schedule, you can buy a setback thermostat that
will turn your ac to the cooler temp before you get home so it will be
waiting for you. But my AC can bring the house from 87 to 72 in about
4 hours iirc. Your 6 degrees is 40 percent of my 15 degrees.
JS