1,596 posts, read 4,599,297 times "Could a hot attic contribute to my unit not cooling even though the exchange is in the garage and the ductwork being under the house and not in the attic? " Originally Posted by citydwellerKeep in mind that the largest surface area in the air conditioned space of your house for heat exchange is the ceiling. If the attic isn't well insulated your A/C has to do quite a bit of work to keep the house cool. Also, my house (an older remodel like yours) had aluminum single pane windows when I bought it. Apparently this is exactly wrong if you want cold air in the house. One of the guys who peered under the house commented on the lack of air blowing at him from under the house. Hopefully, though not necessarily, it means there are few if any leaks in the ductwork. Explain your house...# windows and type, sq ft, ceiling heights, Size in tonnage of the a/c system, number of people, set temps. 1296 sq feet ranch with new low e double pane windows, 8 foot ceilings and 2.5 AC I believe.

I usually set it cool at 73/74 during the day when I am here. Yes if you have duct leakage in the crawlspace and it is not sealed off then you can be pushing air out of the home and pulling in hot air from outside or in the attic. You would be pressurizing the crawl space helping out slightly with what little air makes it back into the home from the pressure difference. The home would be in a lower pressure than the crawl space and most likely the attic so it would draw in air from the path of least resistance. There is no hot air coming in from the vents and actually it feels cold. One of the guys said ambient air temp coming out was correct. P.S. also your location. I am in Virginia Beach, VA Right, I like it nice and cool around 73/74 but on hot days it won't cool the house past 76 and then it runs all day to maintain that temp. 733 posts, read 3,493,270 times Perhaps the humidity is different where you are, but where I am, 76 would allow you to hang meat in the living room.

Right now, it's about 103 outside, and it's 82 inside, without the A/C having been turned on today. I just turn on the ceiling fans and it's quite comfortable without A/C. When the temp gets over 110, I turn on the A/C and set the thermo at 84. I can't imagine setting it at 74...! Could be the difference is, there is no humidity in the So Calif desert...? 1,734 posts, read 4,330,290 times My mother-in-law lives in an older house that I would guess is around 4-4,200 sq. ft. car with ac window unitWhen they installed air-conditioning they had to put in four units to be able to cool the house. top central air conditioner companiesPerhaps you should add another unit.used central ac units pricesDEAR TIM: The air conditioning in my home has never seemed to work that well.

My recent promotion and transfer have me moving into a new home that is in the very early stages of construction. What can I do to ensure the new home has a central air conditioning system that keeps all rooms comfortable no matter the outdoor temperature? Is it possible to have all rooms nearly the same temperature, as my existing home's second floor feels like an oven? Julie F., Comstock Park, MI DEAR JULIE: Congratulations on your promotion! It is too bad you have been uncomfortable in your existing home for so long. I can think of many reasons why the central air conditioning in your existing home does not cool properly. Many of the problems might have been corrected with a simple service call from a professional who is an expert at air-conditioning troubleshooting. But it is entirely possible you have serious chronic air-conditioning system design flaws that would cost thousands of dollars to correct. The central air-conditioning system in a home, as well as the heating system, is one of the most important parts of a home outside of a sound roof and indoor plumbing.

The heating and air conditioning systems create an artificial climate inside a home. It is a very realistic expectation that this climate can be the same in each room. In my own home, each room, no matter the outdoor temperature or time of day (this is very important), can be within one or two degrees of any other room in my home. That keeps my family and me very comfortable. It is unrealistic for you to expect your home to be a certain temperature no matter what the outdoor temperature is. In other words, if the outdoor temperature rises to 115 F, I would not expect you to be able to cool your home to a chilly 72 F temperature without considerable discomfort on days when the temperature was say 85 F. Central air conditioning systems are designed to operate within a given range of temperatures. For example, the design temperatures in your part of the country may be only 20 degrees. This means that your air conditioner can only produce a 20-degree difference in temperature from the actual outdoor temperature to the lowest possible temperature the system can maintain indoors.

It is possible to create a wider temperature spread, but oversizing an air conditioning system can result in short cycling when the air conditioner has little work to do. If an oversized air-conditioning system short cycles or only has to drop the temperature a few degrees, it simply does not run long enough to remove humidity from the air. When this happens, the temperature inside your home gets to the desired level, but you feel cold and clammy. Properly designed central air-conditioning systems will run for ten or fifteen minutes at a time which allows them to extract humidity as the air flows across the cooling coils inside the air handler. The key to getting an air conditioning system to work properly is to have a real professional size the equipment properly and install a ducting system that delivers the right quantity of air to each room of the house. Each room must also have a return-air duct inlet that vacuums hot air from the ceiling and returns this air to the central system to be cooled once more.

A professional air conditioning person will take your new-home plans and analyze them using sophisticated computer software. This process will determine both the BTU (British Thermal Units) heat gain and heat loss for EACH room of your new home. This same exercise can be done on existing homes. With this data, the professional can ensure the proper sized equipment is purchased, and the ductwork that provides air to each room is sized correctly. This is of the utmost importance. Heat gain is the measurement of heat your house gains each hour during the summer months. This number can range from 20,000 in a smaller home to more than 90,000 in larger homes. There are many variables including but not limited to: amount of wall and ceiling insulation, number and size of windows facing west and south, amount of air infiltration, compass direction each wall of your home faces, number of people living in the home, etc. Heat loss is the amount of energy your home loses each hour when it is cold outside and you are trying to heat it.