A/C problem

[gsoda3]

the a/c in our apartment is on 24/7, blows out cold air, but yet the temperature in our apartment still hovers around 82. we set the thermostat at 75, but it never seems to get that cool.

however the temperature gauge on the a/c unit says it's 77 degrees, when another thermometer in the apt says it's still in the lower 80's. we got the a/c unit outside replaced, made sure the condensor was working ok, and have all the ceiling fans running all the time.

in our apt of about 1200 sq ft our avg electric bill runs about $150 during the summer months - granted we have 4 computers in our apt, but still it's rather steep.

does anyone have any ideas how to find out why our apt is so hot??

 

[sapo1495]

have you tried turning the computers off? seriously- a/c's are sized for a certain heat load based on the amount of windows, square footage, etc. If you are running 4 computers- they may require their own a/c. With that said, you should still have cold air blowing out of the vents. The air coming out should be below 60 degrees or you have a problem. Sometimes when a new condenser is installed, you still need a tech to come back and adjust the freon level once it's run for a while.

 

[BigWill]

Turn off the ceiling fans. Let the hot air rise to the ceiling where it belongs. Your comfort level will rise almost immediately.

 

[gsoda3]

how do you take the temperature of the air coming out? i just put a thermometer into the a/c vent and it reads 68. is that an accurate way of taking the temp?

 

[BigWill]

Yep, and that, my friend, aint exactly "blowing cold".

Your AC needs work.

 

[El_Guapo]

I thought the appropriate measurement of what's coming out of the AC vents wasn't necessarily the temperature per se but the differential between that and the outside temperature?

Having said that, and I'm certainly no expert, but I'd guess that either the new outside unit is mismatched to the older inside unit, or the whole thing is undersized. When we replaced our unit last year we stepped it up a half-ton more than those stupid charts "recommend" based on square footage (I think they're all produced by some company in Minnesota who have no clue what A/C means in Texas) and we couldn't be happier. It gets COLD enough to shiver in here now.

You may also have insulation issues but that probably wouldn't account for all of it.

My understanding was that ceiling fans had nothing to do wth the overall temperature - they just make you personally feel more comfortable by helping the air circulate more efficiently.

 

[Scooter]

I recently noticed that our AC was on all the time just to keep the house at 74 degrees.

The air coming out of the vents was 64. I had the AC serviced. They found a freon leak and added a bunch of freon.

Now the air blows out of the vents at 52 degrees and the AC is on for much shorter periods.