Rebel1 wrote:
On 7/3/2014 8:10 AM, Rebel1 wrote:
Last night I returned home from a month long vacation. Outside
temperature was about 90, and the humidity was very high. I turned the
a/c on and set the thermostat to 68 degrees. The a/c ran for at least
four hours, and the place felt much cooler, but the temperature was
still at least 74 degrees. I'm sure it felt cool because the humidity
was lower, but the temperature didn't fall.

The nice thing about this system is that it's quiet because the air
speed is normally low, but this means the unit runs longer, especially
for large changes to the thermostat setting.

Does the unit need servicing, like maybe a refrigerant charge? It's a
Rheem, newly installed in 2000. So far, never need any servicing.

Thanks,

Ray

I forgot to mention that the temperature of the air from the closest
ceiling register to the AC was 60F, same as immediately above the
evaporator.

To answer some of the other questions, the starting indoor temperature
was well below the outside temperature of 90. I hadn't anticipated the
slow cooling, so I didn't make the measurements asked for by others in
their responses. Yes, the outdoor unit is running, otherwise the
humidity would not have dropped so much. (No, I don't have before or
after humidity measurements.)

As I looked closer a few minutes ago, I see what may have been the
problem. During the winter, a portion of the return air is routed to the
humidifier via a separate duct, and thus bypasses the evaporator. I just
noticed that the damper in this duct was in the open Winter position,
instead of closed Summer position. I just changed it back to Summer.
Let's see what happens.

Later today I'll open the sheet metal and inspect the condenser.

Thanks everybody.

R1
Hi,
I never shut off system when we are away. Just set it to run at
higher(cooling), lower(heating) settings on hold. When we return,
back to normal settings for quick recovery.