I live in Central Florida and its 92 degrees but the "feels like" temp is 101. I have my central air set
Question:at 68 degrees but my house won't get any cooler then 76 degrees. I am wondering if its not cooling because my unit is about 15 years old as well as the fact that I just had a duct placed in my garage by a air conditioning company. So now my central air unit is sharing with more space then before. I thinking about just replacing my entire unit for a bigger and more efficient unit.
Any thoughts?
Answers:
You did'nt say the size of your house ( including the garage area) and the seer rating on your a/c unit.
But if you have A 15 year old unit you would be better off
spending the extra money to upgrade your unit to A new (and much more effiecient) unit that will accomodate the additional pull created when ducting the garage space.
Was an additional return air vent added at the time?
air flow could be an issue also.
A 15 year old unit is costing you much more than it needs to while at the same time not keeping you very comfortable
Check the filter, make sure that the freon is fully charged. Some of the older units literally have issues. A bigger unit probably not needed. Go through your manual and try to diagnose the problem before buying a new one. Trane has a good unit
The "design temperature" of ,most air conditioners is 95deg outside and 80 inside, that's a 15 deg difference, but remember, besides cooling the air, it also is removing the excess humidity from the area, so from what you describe, the unit is of proper size and doing the job it was designed for.
I might add, if you turn it down at night, and then back to the 68 deg during the day when the house is already warm, that's putting too much of a load on the unit, and it'll have a hard time trying to catch up. Best bet, leave the temp set at the 68 or 70 all night.
First of all,an older air conditioner 15 yrs old is using up energy and not saving you money.Plus the facts that you have not given us the size of the room or the btu's of the air conditioner.Check the insulation to see if it is adequate for the room both in the walls and the ceilingA 5000 btu will cool a 100 sq.feet of living space , a 8000 btu will cool 150-250 sq ft , a 1000 btu will coo 300-475 sq ft,check for the EER rating on both the new units and your old unit plus make sure it removes the humidity by checking how many pints it de-humidifies(the more the better and quicker it cools)After determining all this buy a unit that has multiple fan speeds and cooling options, if you go cheap that is what will cost you later on in repairs and parts, so buy a brand name such as kenmore or fredrichs or amana.
I am a facilities manager with building that have 40 Air Conditioners
I live in Central Texas where we have similar heat and humidity
Like many homeowners,
Sounds like you pretty much know the answers, but are in denial over the expected cost.
The temp setting on your thermostat is a target for the AC to hit, I would not expect it to actually cool to 68 in your hot high humid climate. but you'll burn lits of electricity while it trys
You have an older AC, by adding a new duct, and you just asked to do something like 25- 30% more work, and do it better than before, its not reasonable to expect it will.
You can get good results if you close the new duct, buy a
decent, not a cheap, Window Unit that runs on 220v, NOT 115v it will cool the area nicely.
That or invest in a whole new AC System,< best solution> I found out mine that was put in the home by the builder was too small, cause it was cheaper. I replaced it with one that was rated 1 ton higher capacity with fantastic results, in my case cost me $4,000. but each home and each region is priced a little different.
Sure; just close off the vent in the garage if you don*t really need it; I mean is it a family room or just for your cars?
Also when your orignal unit was installed it was most like meant to cool so many square feet of house and not including your garage.
We have a 3000 sq ft house and close off three bedrooms not in use and keep the temp set at 78 and are quite comfortable. If that garage vent has no way to close it off seal it up with duct tape, or put a piece of plastic over it and then seal it with tape. (I mean the thick plastic not the tablecloth kind) BTW. We are in St. Louis and it is 98 here now and feels like 105)
First of all, get your t'stat off of 68, your t'stat is nothing but a fancy on/off switch. Before the extra duct was installed what was the best the a/c was able to keep the house? As for the feeling hot in the house, one of the biggest problems you will run across there in Florida is the hummidity, if it's to high then no matter how cool you try to keep your house it will not feel right. As for problems wiith the a/c like other person said check your filter and make shure its clean. Another possible problem, is the outside unit dirty? Grab the smaller freon line leaving the condenser, it sould be at most slightly warm, if its hot, clean it out using a water hose and your thumb for pressure. It works like the radiator in your car, if its dirty it cant release the heat its trying to remove from your house. Last after making shure the unit clean, is the larger freon line cold and sweaty when your grab it, if its not, then you are possibly low and freon and will need a company to come out and top off the charge.
If you want to go to a bigger a/c system, then you will need to complety replace the inside and outside system so all works properly. But here is one thing, you at most can safely increase the size of your system by half a ton. Say you have a 3ton system go to a 3 1/2 system. trying to go to big will require both a ductwork change, and might cool the air off in the house so fast, it wont have time to remove the hummidity out of the air. Then your back to square 1. Ive run service calls with that exact problem a few times, and not good telling the home/buisness owner they were given bad advice.
Hi! I used to live in fruitland park outside of leesburg for 4 years. There is alot of humidity there for 1 so i would suggest you invest in a dehumidifier it will help with cooling, but i don't believe you ac unit is bad! I believe you have a heat exzuation problem, although your unit has cold air or air return duct,s, in that type of heat it,s harder on ac units to cool sufficiently because of excess heat in the addict between the roof and the ceilings in your home.If i were you i would invest in a whole house fan. You can install this on one end of the house with louvers that open and shut when off and on and vent the opposite side of the house. This also can have a manually set thermostat in line to shut it off and on at whatever temp you set it at. This solves 2 problems you might have 1 excess humidity and 2 excess heat which in turn will make your ac unit work better and your house alot cooler. Be carefull not to freeze up your condenser by running your ac for a long period in that humidity if you notice ice on it it a good idea to shut off the unit until it melts or you could burn it up. I believe a whole house fan or addict fan is your solution, it,s also allot cheaper then replacing an ac unit.
Why would you put a/c in a garage? Oh well to each there own. Anyway for now I would close the vent going to the garage and cover it up. At least until you get a bigger a/c unit. The one you have now just can't handle the extra load.
You def. cant go wrong with buying a new model a/c unit. Sounds like one problem is that you are never going to get that temp down to 68 degrees. With the temp as high as it is outside, and the humidity, plus a/c now going to garage..doesnt sound like your going to get any cooler. You might be a little low on freon, but it's hard to say. I say put the stat at 70-72...let it work.wait till it cools down and get a bigger, more efficent unit!
by having a duct installed to your garage you diminish the efficiency of your ac,why would you want to cool a garage,that is probably the problem,anytime you add more room to an ac unit you are putting more pressure on it to work, the ac company should have told you this especially in Florida.how was it working before they installed the new duct?,have it removed and save yourself some money,i have seen ac units that are 30 years old,and they are working fine,think for a moment maybe they did this job so that you could go for a new unit?
This can be easily checked to make sure.Have the freon checked and if that is ok then i would go for a bigger unit.You should have at least a 4 ton unit already.4 ton unit should be ample unless you live in a monster home.Also consider a seperate unit like for upstairs and down.
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