Can anyone suggest a way to cool down my apartment?
Question:I live in Jacksonville FL, and my central air sucks. I have vaulted ceilings and have no clue why my living room is so hot. I recently bought a portable AC unit just for my living room because it can heat up in the room to 87 degrees sometimes. So I am just looking for some suggestions on how to keep the heat out and the coolness in. I have a ceiling fan, so any suggestions please I need some relief. Thanks all..
Answers:
Some contractors build houses and cost tells them to install minimum A/C units. It may help to adjust your registers. If all the rooms are ok but one then close your registers a bit in the cooler rooms and turn up the A/C to force the cooler air to your living room. Other things that help where the sun shines, is plant things so that you shade your afternoon walls. It's good if they lose their leaves in the winter so you get the extra heat when you need it. The other thing I did was it is cooler with high ceilings to not use ceiling fans because the air that is just a bit higher is a lot warmer-just climb up a ladder for the truth. If you are forced to supplement your central a/c with a room unit. Shut off the register and just use your window unit. Turn off the ceiling fans and let all the air move lower. It helps quite a bit. Everyone laughed at me when I bought this terrible old house with higher ceilings and I put in an exhaust fan at the top of the room with the high ceilings. I flip it on when I get home for a bit and it just sucks all the hot air out and pulls in lower air. It also keeps my house really smelling fresh-as long as they're not spraying for mosquitoes. But these are all small things. You may be low on freon or your a/c may have a problem so you might want to get a professional to take a look. It's always good to have an A/C guy that is familiar with you in case you need instant help. Be sure to keep your filters clean too. And another thing that helps is put or build a shelf over your unit so that it operates in the shade, both your central and window units. That makes a big difference in your electric bill.
Knows about hot in south Texas.
Oh yea and check your insulation and caulking.
dark heavy curtains will help, as well as insulating around doors and windows. make sure you're changing the ac filter frequently. also, a dehumidifier will help it feel cooler by taking the stickiness out of the air.
At night have a fan blow in the cool air, during the day blow the hot air out, close you windows, and keep the shades shut during the day
You know, I have a friend with the same complaint. For some reason having high ceilings equals hard to cool... I'm sorry but I have only one piece of advice for you: keep the ceiling fan off. Hot air rises and cooler air stays low, turning your fan on will just mix it up and warm up any cooler zones down low. Hmm, if it does seem cooler near your floor you could invest in some bean bag chairs. Just a thought.
Your central air should be repaired as it must not be working properly. If it was designed for the home it should be cooling off the living room and all other rooms. Do run the ceiling fan, that helps but I would definitely have the central air checked out. You shouldn't have to run a separate AC in the living room.
Do you use the ceiling fan? That would be the first thing I would do, is have that running all of the time to keep the air moving and prevent the heat from settling in by the ceiling. The portable AC unit should help keep the room cooler if you keep the ceiling fan running. You may also want to invest in a portable fan that oscilates to push the cooler air out into the room. I would keep curtains or shades pulled when the sun is beating in through the windows.
You say your air conditioning does not work well? Is it older and need some repair? It may need to be recharged with freon or whatever coolant that it uses.
Check with the similar apartments see if they are having the same problem. Talk to your property manager, make sure they get it checked out. (The squeaky wheel gets the grease)
Convince them that they need to fix this!
In the meantime keep the ceiling fan going...here are some tips from wiki how to.
http://www.wikihow.com/cool-yourself-wit...
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