Use your window AC to cool more than one room. If your home does not feature central air conditioning, it is likely some rooms of the house will be cooler than others, whether or not window air-conditioning units are used. Rather than suffering through a hot summer in rooms you utilize often, such as kitchens or den areas, take steps to pull air from cooler rooms to warmer rooms. This can be done with or without help from a window air conditioner. Floor Fans Use floor fans to move cool air from one room to another. For example, if you have a window air conditioning unit in one room but would like to cool an adjoining room, close off any entrances in the air-conditioned room except the one for the room you would like to cool. Place the floor fan in the entranceway facing the room that you wish to cool, as the fan will help pull cool air from the air-conditioned room into the other room. Attic Fans/Whole House Fans Attic fans, also called roof exhaust fans, will help keep your entire house comfortable and therefore contribute to the room you want to cool.

Your attic should be entirely sealed off from the rest of your home in order for the attic fan to be effective, so use appropriate caulks and insulating materials as needed to fix any cracks or other areas where cool air from the home can be pulled up into the hot attic. Attic fans, which usually are installed in a gable or the actual roof, keep the attic cool and subsequently allow air-conditioning units to work more effectively. Whole house fans are an option if your home does not feature an attic. Use whole house fans during the night when the outdoor temperature is colder than the temperature inside your house to cool your entire home. Install whole house fans on your house's top floor ceiling and open windows throughout your home. The fan will suck the cooler air from outside via the open windows into your house. If you do not open windows while utilizing a whole house fan, your home can become depressurized very quickly, which will result in combustion appliance back drafts, such as with gas water heaters.

Box Fans Close off all entrances except for the one that links the two rooms in use. Place a box fan in the window of the hotter room facing outward, which will pull hot air out of the room. Crack a window in the cooler room to help circulate cool air into the room you wish to cool. If the window you wish to place the box fan in does not feature a screen, use towels or other applicable materials to place on either side of the fan. Additional Tips and Ideas In addition to taking steps to pull cool air from one room into another, it is also a good idea to keep shades drawn in both rooms if possible. This will help any air-conditioning units work more efficiently and also keep both rooms cooler in general, as shades shield spaces from the hot sun. Check both rooms for potential air leaks, and plant large shrubs and bushy trees around the hotter room if possible as another, if long-term, way to insulate and cool the room. Keep as many lights off as possible as well, as the heat from lamps and light fixtures will contribute to a hotter room.

Heat-reflecting film on windows that face the sun is also an option. /Getty Images Suggest a Correction Home / Helpful Tips / Should You Purchase a Portable or Window Air Conditioner?Should You Purchase a Portable or Window Air Conditioner?air conditioning units at best buyAir conditioner air flow too weak:best deal on ac units How to diagnose weak or too-warm air flow from an air conditioning or heat pump system.air handling unit working If not enough cool air is provided by your air conditioner, or if the air temperature is not cool enough, or if you just can't get your A/C unit running, this article helps diagnose and correct the problem with step by step things to check and links to more detailed explanation when you need it.

This article forms part of our series on how to diagnose an air conditioner or heat pump that is not cooling: this article explains how to diagnose and correct air conditioning problems like lost or reduced air conditioner cooling capacity, reduced or no cool air flow, reduced or no actual lowering of the air temperature, or an air conditioner that won't start. 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. [Click to enlarge any image] 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