Central air conditioning

[Raekwon]

Originally Posted by ken0042

My installer told me not to cover it as the chances of it accidentally coming on at some point are higher than the chances of it being damaged by not being covered. For example, 20 degree day in March where the A/C ends up kicking on.

Why not turn the breaker off while the cover is on?

[RM14]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

Related question - how often should I get the furnace ducts cleaned?

https://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=104907

We hired Keith a few weeks ago and did he a phenomenal job cleaning our ducts, inspecting, and tuning up our furnaces. He's the guy you want. Ask him.

[OutOfTheCube]

We picked up a fancy fan thing called an 'evaporative cooler'. Basically it's a fan that you put ice water in, then it pulls the ice water into a filter which cools the air. It's not as good as air conditioning but for 1/10th the cost it gets the job done. My wife was comfortable last night, and earlier in the week she even had to use a blanket as it was almost too cool. Just another option if you're dying in the heat/struggling to sleep but can't afford real A/C like us.

[Nufy]

What happens if your AC Unit is too small...

I had a 2 ton installed in June but these days it never seems to shut off...

Should I be looking at a bigger (2.5 ton) Unit or house insulation / air flow etc...

Any ideas ??

[Looch City]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

We picked up a fancy fan thing called an 'evaporative cooler'. Basically it's a fan that you put ice water in, then it pulls the ice water into a filter which cools the air. It's not as good as air conditioning but for 1/10th the cost it gets the job done. My wife was comfortable last night, and earlier in the week she even had to use a blanket as it was almost too cool. Just another option if you're dying in the heat/struggling to sleep but can't afford real A/C like us.

I've heard of those things. Mind sharing which model you have?

[me_dennis]

Originally Posted by Nufy

What happens if your AC Unit is too small...

I had a 2 ton installed in June but these days it never seems to shut off...

Should I be looking at a bigger (2.5 ton) Unit or house insulation / air flow etc...

Any ideas ??

Our's is like this too. On really hot days, the air just doesn't feel cool anymore, and it is running all day long.

What we've done is to use a fan to help circulate some of the cooler air. During the evening's, we actually just open up the windows and give the AC a break, as it's pretty nice and cool outside.

[OutOfTheCube]

Originally Posted by Iggy City

I've heard of those things. Mind sharing which model you have?

This is the one we have:

https://www.lowes.ca/portable-fans/n..._g2852843.html

We got it on sale off another site (Wayfair, I think?) for around $225 at the start of the summer.

One thing to keep in mind is that we have fairly small bedrooms. I imagine there would be fairly rapid diminishing returns the bigger your space gets.

[MoneyGuy]

Any advice on frequency of servicing for an AC unit and furnace?

[me_dennis]

Originally Posted by Nufy

What happens if your AC Unit is too small...

I had a 2 ton installed in June but these days it never seems to shut off...

Should I be looking at a bigger (2.5 ton) Unit or house insulation / air flow etc...

Any ideas ??

If you are not getting any cold air from the registers, I would suggest going down to your furnace and checking the condenser coil. It could be frozen up due to low air flow (clogged/dirty air filter, blocked vents/registers). On really hot days, there is not enough airflow for the condenser coil to cool, so the coil just freezes up. Shut off your breaker and let the fan run for half a day to thaw out the coil.

This happened to us on Thurs/Fri during the heat wave. The air was just not cold coming out of the registers. Thawed it out on Saturday and it's working good now.

[Calgary14]

Also important to use the right filter for the A/C unit you have. Keith can speak to this more but basically most of the filters you see at Home Depot (ie. 3M) may not be the right ones to be using with central A/C, some are too thick which makes your furnace work even harder and will cost more to run

[Sliver]

Yeah, good point on the filters. The good news is the super cheap ones let the most air through, and are actually the best (per my AC guy).

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by Nufy

What happens if your AC Unit is too small...

I had a 2 ton installed in June but these days it never seems to shut off...

Should I be looking at a bigger (2.5 ton) Unit or house insulation / air flow etc...

Any ideas ??

You're probably setting your thermostat way too low for the exterior conditions. I'm no expert as I don't use them residentially, but you risk clogging the unit up and damaging it if it never has a chance to cycle off. I have been told before that you are best to set your temperature a little higher on the hottest days to make things easier on your A/C unit.

On a hot day like we saw last week, most units are probably going to struggle to keep a house at 20 degrees let alone room temperature at 22 degrees with doors opening and the sun baking the house all day. Maybe try setting it at 23 or 24 when the temperature is in the mid 30s - it will still feel pretty cool given the comparable situation outside and make life easier on the poor A/C unit trying to keep up.

[MoneyGuy]

Reading online I think I’ll ask my HVAC guy to schedule a service call every two years for both the furnace and AC to be done together. Fall seems to be the best timing. Annually seems to be a bit excessive.

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by me_dennis

If you are not getting any cold air from the registers, I would suggest going down to your furnace and checking the condenser coil. It could be frozen up due to low air flow (clogged/dirty air filter, blocked vents/registers). On really hot days, there is not enough airflow for the condenser coil to cool, so the coil just freezes up. Shut off your breaker and let the fan run for half a day to thaw out the coil.

This happened to us on Thurs/Fri during the heat wave. The air was just not cold coming out of the registers. Thawed it out on Saturday and it's working good now.

I think my one AC suffers from this - less so during the heat wave (incoming air is so warm it keeps the coils defrosted), but on normal "warm" days, after a few hours it doesnt come out as cold and sometimes the compressor will start being loud as a SOB.

Believe it is because its at the high end of the tonnage allowed for the size of the blower in that furnace.

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Depends on the orientation of your house, how much shade it gets, and how sheltered it is from breezes. I've had houses where you absolutely didn't need AC, and houses where it was on almost daily April - September. I keep it at 22 degrees - without it my house could be 28+ through much of the summer. That's not a couple degrees five or six times a year.

Your house must just be fine. It's not because you've lived in warmer climates. You have acclimated back to Canada by now if you've been back for more than a few months.

I agree orientation is probably a big factor. Some people have bedrooms exposed to the sun for lengthy periods of time and that would be a situation where I agree you probably do need the air conditioning in Calgary to avoid lack of sleep etc.

For us, it is not an issue as even at 35-37 last week, we were only seeing temperatures of 26-27 degrees inside when returning home before we opened the windows later in the day to cool things down to room temperature again.

I do still believe that personal tolerance/previous exposure is a big factor to feeling the need for AC in your home. We love the warm temperatures and have lived it without issue for long periods of time. We know many people that cannot stand anything near 30 degrees and I would say this equates directly to someone being more tolerant of a slightly higher internal home temperature.

[Nufy]

Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus

You're probably setting your thermostat way too low for the exterior conditions. I'm no expert as I don't use them residentially, but you risk clogging the unit up and damaging it if it never has a chance to cycle off. I have been told before that you are best to set your temperature a little higher on the hottest days to make things easier on your A/C unit.

On a hot day like we saw last week, most units are probably going to struggle to keep a house at 20 degrees let alone room temperature at 22 degrees with doors opening and the sun baking the house all day. Maybe try setting it at 23 or 24 when the temperature is in the mid 30s - it will still feel pretty cool given the comparable situation outside and make life easier on the poor A/C unit trying to keep up.

Set at 23 deg C and there is Cool air coming from all registers.

All registers in the lower level are sealed closed.

Next step might be to block off the air return from the top level so that it is only drawing cool air from down below.

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by Nufy

Set at 23 deg C and there is Cool air coming from all registers.

All registers in the lower level are sealed closed.

Next step might be to block off the air return from the top level so that it is only drawing cool air from down below.

If that is the case you might want to consult a technician to evaluate the unit....you'd hate to have the thing die on you from being overburdened for too long. Just a thought but maybe you have a lot of cool air escaping through older windows or a problem area in your insulation somewhere?

[Nufy]

Well its less then 2 months old.

That's why I was wondering if it was undersized...

[me_dennis]

Originally Posted by Nufy

Set at 23 deg C and there is Cool air coming from all registers.

All registers in the lower level are sealed closed.

Next step might be to block off the air return from the top level so that it is only drawing cool air from down below.

I did this as well, and this might be the cause of the poor airflow. My online research shows that you should not be blocking off registers/air return as it restricts airflow.

Check your coil, easiest way to tell is if the copper line going into the furnace is cold/full of ice, your coil is frozen. Let the fan run for a few hours to thaw.
Change out your filter with a fresh one before starting it back up.

[Bill Bumface]

Anyone ever have a ductless mini-split quoted? Only our upstairs gets hot, and I like open windows and doors on the main floor, and the ability to only turn on the AC at night.

We have two adjacent really small rooms on one side upstairs, and the master on the other side. I assume that would mean two units?