In addition to cooling your home, an air conditioner removes moisture from the air to lower the humidity level inside your house. This excess condensed water is removed from the AC unit through a small drain pipe and deposited outside on the ground. Over time algae, mold, and mildew can build up inside the condensation drain line and form a clog, causing water to back up and overflow inside the air conditioner unit. To prevent this from happening, pour a cup of bleach in the access opening in the drain line near the AC unit to kill any algae, mold, or mildew that has formed in the pipe. If the condensation line is clogged, you will need to use a shop vac or special pump to remove the clog from the line. AC Drain Clean Out (video) Innovative Pump Unclogs AC Condensation Drain Lines (article) Hi-Reach Cleaning Kit Product Review Building Handrails for a Wooden Deck How to Keep Metal Folding Chairs from Damaging FloorsIf the landlord doesn't provide air conditioning, consider installing a window mount air conditioner.

During hot summer days, cool air from an air conditioning unit may greatly improve the living conditions in a rental house or apartment. However, state laws do not require a landlord in California to supply air conditioning. While a landlord usually must provide a heating system, California state law usually considers air conditioning an amenity rather than a requirement of habitability. Providing an Air Conditioner Even though landlords don’t face a requirement to provide an air conditioner in a rental house or apartment, many landlords provide a cooling unit to increase the desirability of the property. In some areas of California with low humidity, landlords install an evaporative or swamp cooler to meet cooling needs. Tenants should ask about the availability of a working cooling system before they decide to rent the house or apartment. Factors Affecting Habitability Rental houses and apartments in California must comply with habitability requirements as described in California Civil Code 1941.

A cooling unit isn’t listed as a requirement of habitability. Some requirements of a habitable rental unit include plumbing, heating, electrical and gas systems in good working order. Windows and Ventilation Systems The rental unit must comply with city, county and state building codes, which affect how easy it is to cool a property. For example, rooms must receive adequate ventilation from a window or a mechanical ventilation system. Unless a fan or other type of ventilation system is installed in the rental unit, most rooms require a window. The minimum window size usually measures 20 inches by 24 inches and the window must open at least halfway. Broken Air Conditioners If the landlord provided an operable air conditioning system in the rental house or apartment when the tenants moved in, the tenants can expect the landlord to maintain the air conditioning system in good working order. If the system stops working through no fault of the tenants, the landlord is responsible for repairing or replacing the air conditioning system.

If the tenants caused the failure of the air conditioning system, they pay the cost of repair. Request Repairs A phone call followed by a written statement from the tenants notifies the landlord of a non-functioning air conditioning system. The tenants give the landlord a reasonable period of time to make the repairs. If the landlord refuses to fix the broken air conditioning unit, the tenants may consider using the “repair and deduct” remedy. how to install window mounted ac unitThe tenants pay to fix the air conditioner and deduct the cost from the rent. hvac 3 ton systemHowever, the repair cost can’t exceed one month’s rent and the tenants can only use this remedy once a year. top 10 window air conditioner unitsShould we replace our A/C unit before selling our house?

We moved into our house 4 years ago and our HVAC system was about 15-20 years old. We replaced the furnace as soon as we moved in (2012). Our A/C unit usually works fine, although we've made a couple of $2-300 repairs. It's not efficient, and uses the old freon R-22. We got a quote to replace the unit for about $4,000. We've been expecting this replacement because the unit is so old, so it wouldn't be a terribly painful expense. We're planning to sell our house in about a year. I want to go ahead and replace it this year so that we'd get to benefit from a new, more energy-efficient and quieter unit before we sell the place. My husband says we should let the new owners replace it, and work it into the negotiations if we have to. What would you do? Home Selling in Atlanta Home Buyer, The Woodlands, TX More Q&A about Home Selling in Atlanta how can i lease out my apartment here on trulia? I am selling my house by owner. Contract signed, but want to cancel the sale.

In any way am I binded to this contract? To the buyer or her agent? How do I add my picture as the listing agent? Be the first to answer I inherited my mothers home and made $22,000 profit. Am I gonna be held liable to pay taxes on the profit amount? Keep condo on the market, or pull until March?Air conditioner air flow too weak: How to diagnose weak or too-warm air flow from an air conditioning or heat pump system. WEAK AIR FLOW: is the air conditioner (or when heating, the heating system) blower fan unit not moving enough air, so that there is too little air coming out of your air supply registers? Here is a list of things to check, in the best order. 1. Check that the air register is open 2. Check for a dirty or clogged air filter: replace the filter. Watch out: some HVAC systems have more than one air filter in more than one location. Be sure you've found all of them. For example a filter may be located at a central return air inlet grille and another may be located at the air handler itself.

Clogged Air Conditioner filters can lead to lost cooling capacity first, because the clogged filter reduces the air flow through the system, meaning that you'll feel less air flow at the supply registers than was previously present. See AIR FILTERS for HVAC SYSTEMS for details. 3. Check for a dirty or broken blower fan: if the squirrel cage fan in the blower unit is dirty the blower may be spinning but not moving much air. If the blower is a belt-driven unit check that the belt is intact and that the blower spins. See DIRTY A/C BLOWERS for details. If you don't know what an "air handler" or blower unit is, or for more blower unit diagnostics see AIR HANDLER / BLOWER UNITS 4. For Cooling Systems: Check for an iced cooling coil inside the air handler; a refrigerant leak can cause frosting while later the when more refrigerant has been lost the result is delivery of inadequately-cooled air. Air flow that is too slow for any reason (such as a dirty filter or dirty blower fan assembly blades) can cause first, air temperatures that are abnormally low coming out of the air conditioner, and eventually a reduction in air flow as coil ices over.

See FROST BUILD-UP on AIR CONDITIONER COILS and see  DIRTY COOLING COIL / EVAPORATOR COIL 5. Check the ductwork for any cause of blockage, partial blockage (crimps, excessive bends), leaks, disconnects. Blocked, crimped or disconnected air ducts can also cause loss of cool air or too little cool air coming out of supply registers. See DUCT & AIR FLOW PROBLEMS No air coming from vents in your commercial building? We had a 7 ton unit that was supposed to heat and cool two big rooms and some bathrooms. Nothing was heating up those rooms. The 7 ton Rudd was new, everything was checked, even a bigger gas pipe was put to it. While the ducts at coming directly from the 7 ton were shaking with air flow, no air flow was coming from the ducts in the rooms, which were about 50 feet away. At first we thought it was the ductwork design. It literally had about 15 turns in it to get from the roof to the building. We thought it might be leaks. Perhaps insulating the roof ductwork.

Because nothing seemed to fix the problem, and we had tenants, we spent a fortune putting in at first, temporary radiant heat, and then permanent electric radiant heat. After months of trying to figure this out, my HVAC guy finally discovered the problem. Commercial ducts have Fire dampers in them. Fire dampers are passive fire protection products used in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) ducts to prevent the spread of fire inside the ductwork through fire-resistance rated walls and floors. Fire/smoke dampers are similar to fire dampers in fire resistance rating, and also prevent the spread of smoke inside the ducts. When a rise in temperature occurs, the fire damper closes, usually activated by a thermal element which melts at temperatures higher than ambient but low enough to indicate the presence of a fire, allowing springs to close the damper blades. So, apparently with us, a fire damper in our ductwork decided to close. We easily spent thousands and thousands in emergency heating only to find out it was a defective $100 fire damper.

Thank you for the important report on the big hidden cost of a defective fire damper on heating costs. While I've made the general point about looking for duct obstructions I'd not considered fire dampers, devices designed to "fail" in the closed position for fire safety. I'll add your remarks to the article as you will surely thus help other readers. See AUTOMATIC FIRE & SMOKE DAMPERS for details about these devices. Check all of the heating and cooling controls to be sure that they are set properly and working normally. The thermostat is set to COOL, FAN to AUTO or ON, HEAT to OFF, and the set temperature on the thermostat is set below room temperature (if you want cooling). SNAFUs in the individual controls and relays and switches for the air handler, blower, compressor/condenser unit and refrigerant metering equipment will, if not working properly, lead to these same complaints. AIR TOO WARM: Or is there air blowing out of the supply registers but it's not cool enough?

Typical causes of too-warm air flow out of an HVAC system in cooling mode are AIR TOO HUMID: if the air conditioning system is not dehumidifying, and presuming no one has left windows or doors open to humid outdoor air, air flow may be too rapid or the system may be over-sized. As you read below, a reader (Pete) reminded us that even when the A/C system seems to be working properly a too-warm air output problem in a heat pump system could be due to emergency or backup-heat being left in the "ON" position. I have an old unit that will not blow cool/cold air. I have had a tech out twice and I am trying to see if there are any things that I can check or ask my technician to check. The tech had the unit working properly, after his last visit, until about 2 weeks ago. At that time we had a cold-snap and I had to turn my heat back on. When I turned it back to AC it has not worked properly since. The outside unit (condenser) is running as is the air handler. Plenty of air is blowing out of the registers but it is only about 70-71 degrees.

I do not know anything about fixing ACs but I am pretty handy and I have been researching on the web. Some of the viable options I found are a stuck or bad Reversing Valve, coolant line could be blocked or contaminated or the Thermostatic Expansion Valve could be bad. Does that sound right? Also, I noticed that the high pressure line (small copper tubing, I think) coming out of the outside condenser is cold to the touch. Should that not be warm/hot? I really would like to get one more season out of the unit. PS: all filters are clean. With the benefit of hind-sight - your comments below, that cold refrigerant line was an important clue.AC was working but the emergency heat strips were stuck on. So the cold air was getting heated. Replaced and is working. This discussion as it applies to air conditioning or cooling systems is now found at COOL AIR SUPPLY IMPROVEMENT and for heating systems and heat pump systems this topic is discussed at WARM AIR SUPPLY IMPROVEMENT