Is my central air working properly?

Question

I am not so sure my central air is cooling the house enough. Its around 97 degrees outside and my thermostat is set for 72 and its still around 78 or 79 inside the house. I am cooling about 1500 sq. feet.

Answer 1

unless your home is very new with a lot of insulation and double pane windows or some equivalent your unit might be doing all it can do ...usually if your unit can cool your home 18 to 23 degrees cooler than the outside temp it is doing all it can do depending on how many people are going in and out and the homes ability to stay cooled down...

Answer 2

That sounds like it is working correctly. Central Air systems should be installed for the temp you want to maintain inside the house for about 95% of the time. Why 95% of the time? The outside temp is used as part of the calculation for determining what size air conditioning system you need in your home to keep you comfortable.

Systems aren't designed for extreme conditions like we are experiencing this year. It uses as design temperature based on 10 years weather data. Normally you might see 3 or 4 heating degree days in the high 90s or more, in most parts of the country in a year and you normally wouldn't pay that much attention to it. We just happen to be getting a lot of those abnormally warm days this summer.

Answer 3

First make sure the fan is set to auto, not on or it will run all the time. If it is in the on position, the fan will run constantly, but the A/C will kick on and off as needed. The other problem could be either it's not cooling properly or it is very hot outside. A/C units can only cool the house no more than 20 to 25 degrees F (you'll have to do the conversion) below the outside ambient temperature.

Answer 4

I would think that it is not working properly. But that is a guess, since there are a lot of variables that can affect the indoor temp. One thing you can do, is to go outside and look at the lines that are going to the compressor, is there condensate on the line? There should be some on the larger line. If not, then have someone check it out. Also, look and see if there is any frost on the lines too. That means that it is freezing up and needs to be serviced.

Answer 5

There are alot of variables in your question.Your unit isnt keeping up.Are there people opening doors constantly,do you change filters regularly,do your windows leak alot of air?There is a chance your unit is too small or you have inadequent insulation.

Answer 6

Have you replaced your air filter lately? It's also possible that it needs a recharge of freon (or whatever they use now)

Answer 7

a sixteen degree drop in temp is considered acceptable.