Reply to Can your A/C keep up with this heat?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The outside temperature isn’t so much a problem, but the sun is. My 2 story house doesn’t have any shade on it. Regardless of the temperature (nearly), my AC runs continuously from 7-10am and 4-7pm if there’s full sun.[/quote]

A properly sized AC should run continuously on the "design day." It's actually better for them to run continuously, starting is what puts the most stress on the motor and compressor. The sizing should account for solar gains. [/quote]

“Design day” is most of June/July/August. I wish I didn’t need to keep my AC set to 71 all day because otherwise it can’t catch up in the late afternoon/early evening.

I have a 3400-square-foot home on a 5 ton unit. It’s probably a little undersized, but they built the house with only one unit.[/quote]

Average daily high for Washington DC is 83 for June, 87 for July and 84 for August. Design day for for DC is 92. [/quote]

OP here - my house keeps up isn’t all those temp. But 95+? We are screwed. [/quote]

That's how a properly sized HVAC system is supposed to work. At the design conditions -- 92F and full sun in DC -- the system runs 100% of the time and maintains temperature. At higher temperatures it still runs 100% but cannot maintain temperature, the inside temperature slowly rises. But even on days when it gets quite a bit hotter it doesn't stay hot for very long, and the house has some heat capacity, so inside might rise a degree or two. When it cools off into the evening the system will run for a while to clear the heat that built up during the day.  At temperatures below the design temperature the system should cycle on and off.

You can do a quick assessment of whether your system is properly sized by observing how it cycles at different temperatures and at what temperature it stays on all the time.[/quote]

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