If your home is equipped with a central air conditioning system you may have noticed a drain line on the outside dripping water near the air conditioner. This line drains condensation from the inside air handler to the outside. If this line clogs (usually from algae) it can cause water damage inside the house. You can prevent a clog by simply pouring a cup of household bleach into the line from the inside. To remove a clog once it has occurred, attach a wet/dry vacuum to the drain line outside (removing the paper filter first) and suck the clog out. Innovative Pump Unclogs AC Condensation Drain Lines (article) Air Conditioners: From Maintenance To Buying New (article) How to Clean an AC Condensation Drain Line (video) Advantages of a Solar Hot Water Heater Advantages of Solar Power for Your HomeWe all attach a utility with every object we buy. One of the basic things we expect from an air conditioner is that it should give good cooling. Faster or slower, but it should cool well in order to get the temperatures down to comfortable levels.

When it does not do so, we do not derive utility from the product and want to replace it. But these questions arise in several minds: “Why is it that my AC which was cooling well till a few months back is not cooling well now?”, “I bought a new AC but why is it not cooling well?” or “This AC used to work really well a few years back but is ineffective now”. ac unit quotesThere can be several reasons for the same, some of which can be technical faults as well. who sells portable ac unitsBut here we would try to explain some of the reasons, which may not be fault in the AC itself.how long do hvac units last One of the common complaints from people living in northern part of India during peak summers is that the AC is not cooling effectively or the compressor is not working.

Unknowingly while installation of the AC, people do not realize that the outdoor unit (in case of split AC) or the outer part of the AC (in case of window AC) is directly facing the sun. All ACs have an optimum operating temperature (ambient or surrounding temperature) at which they can work most effectively. If the temperature increases beyond the optimum temperature, the efficiency of the air conditioner goes down and it can also reach a stage where the compressor stops working completely. At lower efficiency, it can also consume more electricity than that mentioned on the BEE label. Typically numbers on BEE label are in test conditions.: This happens because the job of AC is to take heat from inside the room and throw it outside. But if the heat outside itself is quite high, then it is not able to do its job properly. Air Conditioners are designed to work at a certain optimum ambient temperature and beyond that they stop working. How much is optimum temperature? For most ACs it is about 46-48 degrees.

Beyond which they can become less effective or may even stop working. These days some brands have models that can handle up to 52 or 54 degrees. Solution: The best thing that you can do is to avoid installing an AC in such a way that it faces direct sun or is in a place where there is lot of heat. And it is not necessary that heat can happen only in a city where the temperature goes high. It can happen anywhere if the ODU is in closed hot place. Also one can even use an AC with optimum temperature of 46 in a place where the temperature goes high. It would just need a place where the surrounding temperature is low. This can be achieved by placing plants around the AC or by pouring some water on it occasionally (although it can be cumbersome), or by any other creative idea. One of the common mistakes people make is that they buy AC just based on their budget and not based on the requirement of the room. A small AC in a huge room will always find hard to cool the room in peak summers.

Thumb rules for sizing ACs do not work always and one has to look at several parameters while sizing air conditioners. Certain cities are hotter in summers, which mean they require more cooling for the same size room as compared to cities where temperature is less. Some cities are more humid than hot and so the cooling requirement is less, but what is more important is humidity removal. Thumb rule of 1 ton for 100 sq ft (most commonly used thumb rule) does not work always and one should make sure that proper sizing is done before buying AC so that there are no regrets after the purchase. Yes aging not only impacts humans, but appliances too. With time efficiencies of most appliances come down. Cooling of an air conditioner reduces with time, or I must say with time it takes more electricity to give the same amount of cooling. As per ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers) an air conditioner reduces its efficiency by 7% in the first year, 5% in the second year, 2% every year in the following years, and this reduction peaks somewhere between 20-30% depending on how well the air conditioner is built.

If the AC is 20 yrs or older, it can go down up to 40%. (Source: “A Survey of Refrigerant Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop Emphasizing Oil Effects and In-Tube Augmentation;” ASHRAE Winter Symposium of 1987; Schlager, Pate, and Bergles.). This means that the older the AC, lesser is the efficiency. So it is not only the improvements in energy ratings by BEE (Bureau of Energy Efficiency) that leads to lowering of star rating for your AC, but also the de-rating factor which can lead to more electricity consumption than mentioned on the BEE label. Some manufacturers have models that have reduced de-rating, but no one has been able to completely eliminate it. It is not always a technical fault that may lead to less cooling or an ineffective AC. One should make sure that the sizing is done properly and the AC (ODU/external part) is not placed in a very hot environment, as it reduces its efficiency and leads to improper cooling.Is your home’s central air conditioner not cooling your house?

Perhaps it’s blowing luke warm or hot air. There are a variety of things that could cause your AC to not cool your home properly. But for your convenience, we’ll categorize the problems into ones YOU can solve and ones only a professional air conditioning repair technician can solve. Does your AC blow out cool air sometimes and lukewarm air other times? Then the fan setting may be set to “ON” which just runs the fan 24/7—even when the air isn’t being cooled. Solution: Set the thermostat to AUTO. A dirty air filter reduces airflow into your AC, causing several problems: Solution: Check the air filter and change it if it looks like the filter on the right Here’s how your AC cools your house: the air conditioner’s inside unit (called an evaporator) absorbs heat from your air and then transfers that heat to the outside unit (called the condenser). But the condenser can’t dissipate heat if it’s dirty or crowded with debris. This causes your air conditioner to struggle to cool your home.

This condenser could use some cleaning. Solution: Spray the outside unit with a garden hose on a gentle setting. DON’T blast it on a high setting or you’ll bend the fins that allow airflow to cool the condenser off. Also, remove any weeds growing around the AC unit. Give it some breathing room! Here are just a few problems that a professional air conditioning contractor may need to fix: If the fan motor is bad, then the outdoor unit’s fan can’t help dissipate heat, meaning that the AC can’t cool your house. Refrigerant is the liquid that absorbs the heat from your air. When you don’t have enough, your AC can’t absorb enough heat to cool the air. A low refrigerant level means one thing: you have a refrigerant leak. Signs you have a refrigerant leak include: If you see these signs, turn off your AC and call a professional ASAP. Running the AC in this state can cause slugging in the compressor and damage it beyond repair. The compressor is the heart of the AC system, circulating refrigerant like blood between the inside and outside unit.