The A/C on a hot day

[Anonymous]

Does your A/C work well even on a hot day? I don't know if something is wrong with our A/C because the temparature inside the house is 76, or it is just what you expect on a hot day like this. Our A/C has been working fine except on a super hot day.

[Anonymous]

It's 100F outside. Your AC is doing it's job if it's keeping it 76F inside.

[Anonymous]

Is your thermostat set to 76 or higher?

My home is 76 right now, because my daytime is set to 78 (until 6:30 when it's set to 75).

If your AC is working... then it works. If it's cooking to your set temperature, then it's fine.

There are things you can do to keep your AC working healthily, longer (use curtains/shades, don't cook on hot days, set your temperatures to be about 20 degrees lower than outside at most, service your unit, etc).

[Anonymous]

*COOLING to your set temps... not "cooking"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does your A/C work well even on a hot day? I don't know if something is wrong with our A/C because the temparature inside the house is 76, or it is just what you expect on a hot day like this. Our A/C has been working fine except on a super hot day.

Your AC is generally only capable of reducing temps by a max of 20 degrees below what is outside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does your A/C work well even on a hot day? I don't know if something is wrong with our A/C because the temparature inside the house is 76, or it is just what you expect on a hot day like this. Our A/C has been working fine except on a super hot day.

Your AC is generally only capable of reducing temps by a max of 20 degrees below what is outside.

This is not true.

The industry standard -- and required by code in 26 states -- is to size equipment according to Manual J of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America. The manual specifies that equipment be sized to keep the inside at 75F when it is the "design temperature" outside. Design temperature by county can be found in this document:
https://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/bldrs_lenders_raters/downloads/County%20Level%20Design%20Temperature%20Reference%20Guide%20-%202015-06-24.pdf

Design temperature for the District of Columbia is 92F.

[Anonymous]

Thank you pp

We would all be talking about it if we were having to get through the summer every day at 80+ degrees. --- in our house!.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does your A/C work well even on a hot day? I don't know if something is wrong with our A/C because the temparature inside the house is 76, or it is just what you expect on a hot day like this. Our A/C has been working fine except on a super hot day.

Wow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does your A/C work well even on a hot day? I don't know if something is wrong with our A/C because the temparature inside the house is 76, or it is just what you expect on a hot day like this. Our A/C has been working fine except on a super hot day.

Wow.

What are you wow-ing about, sweetie?

[Anonymous]

Mine has been able to keep it at 70 easily this week, but we have a lot of shade from large trees so that helps.

[Anonymous]

You don’t want to let it warm up. If you have the temp set on the tstat to fluctuate a lot, it will run forever to cool the house back down on hot days. Better to set it at a consistent temperature +/- 2 degrees rather than +/- 6 degrees

[Anonymous]

Our inside temp is 72. At night it goes down to 69.

Here is the thing though, we try to keep our house cool also -
- all blinds are shut in the day time
- we have ceiling fans in all bedrooms
- we got great insulation added in our attic
- we have a whole house fan
- we have attic fans not only on the roof of our house, but also we got one installed on the roof of our attached garage. The difference that the attic fans and the extra-extra insulation made is phenomenal.

Finally, keep your AC unit clean outdoors. Watch YouTube videos to see the DIY.

[Anonymous]

Ours keeps the house at whatever it’s set to no matter what the temp outside is.

[Anonymous]

We built our house twelve years ago and just replaced our upstairs unit that cools our bedrooms. This new unit is more appropriately sized for our upstairs and it has held up like a champ this summer. Our old builder-grade unit really struggled to keep things cool on super hot days like we're having recently. Since heat rises, our original unit for the main level and basement still does perfectly fine twelve years later.

[Anonymous]

Double check you don’t have a PEPCO regulator attached to your A/C unit. They will externally regulate you down so you don’t use too much power.

When I was pregnant with my first they called me and told me they were “doing some work in the area” and could they do so at my house. I didn’t know what they meant and said okay only to realize they installed that awful thing on my house. I screamed at them until they took it off. When it was installed our house wouldn’t get below 79. Not fun at 7 months pregnant.

When we moved to our new house and saw it was installed we ripped the connections out ourselves until Pepco would come and take the box.

Seriously go check if you have one. Without that box our ac keeps us at 72 during the day and 70 at night.