May the Lord bless our air conditioners in these hot times

[WilliamM2]

Central Air kinda sucks...some rooms just don't cool down without window units.

Poorly designed or installed duct work. It's 94 outside right now, low of 75 last night. It's 68/69 (set to 69) in the house in every room. Good insulation/sealing helps too. It's only kicked on once today so far, for about 30 minutes.

 

[Mayne]

if you don't have returns in the upstairs room and have furniture blocking your registers, it will never cool or warm up. sometimes its impossible to fix. blame the house builder.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I find my living room is always cold in winter, I think they didn't put enough registers, but also that part of the house is badly insulated. I may add two more at some point, but I'd have to measure the ductwork to see if it would be enough, might need to do some home runs. Probably should concentrate on fixing insulation first. Might open up at least one wall and start with that.

 

[Mayne]

I find my living room is always cold in winter, I think they didn't put enough registers, but also that part of the house is badly insulated. I may add two more at some point, but I'd have to measure the ductwork to see if it would be enough, might need to do some home runs. Probably should concentrate on fixing insulation first. Might open up at least one wall and start with that.

if you have an older home and everything in the basement is finished drywall, it's going to be a painful experience. I wish you luck though.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Thankfully the basement is all open ceilings so it would be fairly easy to add more registers.

 

[Mayne]

Thankfully the basement is all open ceilings so it would be fairly easy to add more registers.

it's not abut registers, its abour return air...it could involve lots of duct work that needs to be modified.

 

[Red Squirrel]

it's not abut registers, its abour return air...it could involve lots of duct work that needs to be modified.

Yeah I have a two big returns so I should be ok. Though I'd have to take some measurements to ensure I don't end up adding more supplies than return air volume can handle or it won't really have much effect.

 

[Mayne]

do your homework and you won't have surprises. Good luck man.

 

[ultimatebob]

Cuz you are poor.

Not really poor, but I do live in an old house that's never been renovated. It's like a 1960's timewarp in here. It's a rental, so I'm kinda stuck with it until I can afford a "real" home.

 

[Iron Woode]

Man up Canada. LOL.

https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/Phoenix+AZ+USAZ0166:1:US

Probably not going to see another sub-100f day until September.

we still get hot weather from the south.

Ask posters from Detroit or Ohio/Pennsylvania about that. We usually get 30C - 34C in the summer plus high humidity which makes it feel like 40C+. It's like walking in an oven.

 

[Thebobo]

I'll thank Willis Carrier, a mere mortal.

 

[snoopy7548]

It was almost 90F today and my central air stopped working properly. The supply registers were blowing 60-62F air, while the returns were pulling ~74F (and it wouldn't cool the house below that). The evaporator coil froze up so I might try to open it up tomorrow and see if there's any dust buildup inside, but I change the filters regularly and keep a clean house. It was working fine about a month ago...

 

[Iron Woode]

It was almost 90F today and my central air stopped working properly. The supply registers were blowing 60-62F air, while the returns were pulling ~74F (and it wouldn't cool the house below that). The evaporator coil froze up so I might try to open it up tomorrow and see if there's any dust buildup inside, but I change the filters regularly and keep a clean house. It was working fine about a month ago...

you are low on refrigerant, most likely.

 

[XavierMace]

we still get hot weather from the south.

Ask posters from Detroit or Ohio/Pennsylvania about that. We usually get 30C - 34C in the summer plus high humidity which makes it feel like 40C+. It's like walking in an oven.

And we get actual 40C+. What's your point? LOL.

 

[Herr Kutz]

Just got back from Wyoming where it was a brisk ~45 degrees in the morning and 70s in the afternoon. Now I’m back in very humid, 90+ degree weather.

 

[Iron Woode]

And we get actual 40C+. What's your point? LOL.

high humidity sucks.

 

[snoopy7548]

you are low on refrigerant, most likely.

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Sucks too because the system is only six years old. Luckily today is only 53F, tomorrow will be in the low 70s, so I can wait until after the holiday weekend to call somebody out.

 

[Iron Woode]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Sucks too because the system is only six years old. Luckily today is only 53F, tomorrow will be in the low 70s, so I can wait until after the holiday weekend to call somebody out.

we had those issues at my work. Last year we had to install a brand new roof top model. So far so good.

Hopefully, the HVAC guys aren't too busy.

 

[lxskllr]

Idle curiosity... Is ac wear primarily time or use based? My unit's pretty damned old, but I don't run it very hard. I'd go without ac if it weren't so humid here. My trees keep things coolish and don't require electricity.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I imagine it's a combination of things but probably mostly usage. Ex: compressor wear, as well as dust etc accumulating over the coils. If that is not cleaned once in a while it can over stress the system. Blower fan is a wear point too. Belts etc can wear out over time if it's belt driven. Overall though most good brands will be quite reliable. My parents had theirs for over 15 years and only had to change the starter capacitor on the compressor.

We have commercial grade units in most of our buildings and they run practically 24/7 even in winter. We get the odd failure though but they tend to last long. The marvairs are the ones that tend to have the most issues though. They've been getting rid of those as they die.

 

[PottedMeat]

Idle curiosity... Is ac wear primarily time or use based? My unit's pretty damned old, but I don't run it very hard. I'd go without ac if it weren't so humid here. My trees keep things coolish and don't require electricity.

if you take care of things like the compressor cooling fan, capacitors, contactors, the sealed system ( evaporator/condenser/compressor/all the lines connecting them ) should run indefinitely. you can get unlucky like a bad bearing inside the compressor or a leak where you lose lubricating oil and refrigerant though. one thing to look out for is rubbing copper lines. eventually vibrations will wear a hole.

 

[FeuerFrei]

I have a "friend" reporting A/C quit in their shitty trailer home. They can't open windows (for some reason) and plan to bake in the sun as it hits 100s next week. It's like camping - except you have utilities and all your stuff.

They have relatives in the trailer next door with an A/C unit though so they can hop over for a respite.

 

[Chaotic42]

I went for a six mile walk today - pretty brutal. It got up to 96F. Now I'm in a nice air-conditioned apartment.

 

[JTsyo]

My heat actually kicked in this morning.

 

[compcons]

Air conditioning is quite important. Without it, high rise buildings would not exist, long-term storage of nearly everything would not be possible, and manufacturing of almost any electronics would never have been developed.

They say these things are made possible by air condition so it is responsible for modern life in developed nations. I say without it we would eventually all fucking kill each other and humans would only exist as a tribal nomads. I get really cranky without my cold air.