It's 95 degrees outside so I know it's hot. I leave my house at 78 during the day and when I get home at 5pm I turn down to 76. The ac will pump out cold air but it takes a long time, a couple hours before the temp finally settles at 76. The unit is a year old and I think it's working fine. What do you think?

 

how big is the house? have you changed/cleaned the filters lately? does your house face westward? these could all be things that affect how hard your a/c has to work...

if you want to come home to 76, maybe invest in a programmable t-stat... best 50 bucks i spent and i use it year round with the heat and a/c...

 

Definitely doesn't take hours for our house to cool 2 degrees, but I guess it depends on the size of your house and size of your A/C unit. One of the first things I would do is change the filter...that can make a huge difference in airflow coming through....when's the last time you changed it?

 

Also, is your A/C outdoors clean/have full airflow or is it full of pollen and leaves?

 

House is 2400 sq. ft. (main floor & upstairs). The upstairs unit is from 1997 and was running for hours to keep it at 78 upstairs.

Filters changed May 1st. The filters the system uses says the filters need to be changed every 4-6 months, so I'm only on month #1.

The back of my house faces the sunset up until about 7pm when the trees block most of the sun from hitting the house.

Unit is the 2nd best Trane unit XL16I.

It should be clean, and have full airflow. I will check this when I get home today.

 

Check the temp of the air coming out of the vents.
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If I recall correctly you want the temp to be about 68 or lower. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. If the temp is too high then the unit is probably low on coolant or has some other issue.

 

The air feels cold, and the flow feels normal. I think it may just be the temp outside and the sun beating down on my house. The fact that my upstairs A/C was also running more than normal leads me to think it just may be something I have to deal with.

The house doesn't feel hot inside, but the thermostat takes a couple hours before it finally settles to 76. I applied window tint to my lower level last Fall, and plan on doing it to the 5 windows I have on my upper level.

I'll probably have someone come out and look at the system to make sure everything is okay though.

 

Where is the thermostat located? Just cause it's blowing cold air out of the vents if it's not moving over towards the thermostat, it will continue to run.

Put a thermometer on (physically sit it on top of it) the thermostat and see what it registers. Then check the temp at the vents.

 

I'll do this when I get home. I have thought about the location of the thermostat before. I don't like where our upstairs unit is located, and have thought about having it moved.

Thermostat is located on the right side of this pic



It is located to the right of the area you see. All the vents go along the left side of this pic in the ceiling.

 

In 95 degree heat, it may take a while to get down two degrees. I keep mine at 71 degrees all day.

 

i would also check the balancing of your vents to the different rooms of the house... if you have hot spots, then you should slightly close the vents in the rooms that are cooler... i would get an IR thermometer and start shooting some walls in the rooms of your house...

 

i must be weird... i'm happy if the house hits 80...

 

Nope not just you. I would love to keep it cold enough to store meat in my family room then I realize what our utility bill would be.

 

you should take a look at your outside unit and make sure that all the fins are nice and clean from bugs, spiderwebs, leaves, etc. Hose it down with a gentle flow of water time to time and it'll keep the unit happy.

First of all, where does the A/C suck in air from? Outside? Inside the house?

If the A/C sucks air in from the outside then it might be just that it's taking 95 degree air and having to cool it down to 76 degrees. However if it's sucking air from the inside, the temp of the air coming from your vents should be at LEAST 10 degrees cooler than the temp of the air it is sucking it. A newer unit should be close to 20 degrees!

also when was the last time you have the air handler (the part that sucks in air located inside the house) was cleaned out properly? You might want to have an A/C company come out an do some maintenance to it such as cleaning the coil, cleaning the drain pipes and pans, making sure all the saftey switches are working, check the refrigerant levels, etc.

The A/C company I use charges 75 dollars to clean and check up per unit if you have 2 air handlers and 100 if you have 1 air handler. Call some companies up and see what they can do! Negotiate as well!

 

Pulls from inside the house.. there are two returns (1 underneath the thermostat and 1 around the corner). I'll check the outside unit to make sure it's clear of debris and the temp when I get home

 

Air coming out is 62 degrees, which is 16 degrees cooler than the room temp. I'll measure the temp by the thermostat and see what I get over the course of the next 30-45 minutes.

 

For me, going down 2 degrees on a hot day with a lot of sun gain is a fairly big move that takes some time. If you have a good thermostat, it reads the temp of the wall as well as the air, and cooling down all the stuff and walls of your house is a big deal.

 

okay, one thing you might want to do is also check and see if the outside unit ever shuts off or the fan stops and spins the other way around at any point. This would be an indication of the unit switching into reverse to cool itself down because of overheating.

Also you might want to check the returns and make sure that they are free of dust and debris!

 

Thanks, I figured a 2 degree drop when it's 95 outside would be a big move.

I'll take a look, thanks.

 

Do you cook when you get home? The thermostat is right next to your kitchen, and more or less above your dishwasher. Any added heat coming out of that kitchen will affect the thermostat reading.

 

I don't cook related to this problem but if I do cool it does affect the thermostat. I don't know how hard it is to move the thermostat but I wish I could.

 

If you have an open basement or drop ceiling down there, it should be fairly simple to move.

 

Just had someone come out today and inspect.. the copper pipe that holds the freon has another leak. So they will now have to run a new pipe from the A/C to outside, and then everything will work again!

More bad news is my upstairs unit is about to crap out and has a leak also. The unit is 15 years old so it's close to the life of the unit. Will wait it out this Summer in hopes it lasts and then get a new system put in next year.