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I rent a 100 year old house. The house is very small at around 800 sq feet. It is in good shape and I like it there but the house is very hard to keep cool in the Southern California summers. It can get well above 100 where I am and my house bakes all day and a few times last year our AC ran 24/7 pretty much. We put these blackout curtains over all the west facing windows last year and it helped some but obviously not enough and it looks horrible.
Our AC unit is one of those roof units. It looks pretty old. The landlord had the freon refilled last year when we said it wasn't working all that great. We do have Dual Pane windows. I have a feeling the insulation isn't all that great. I look up in the attic and see some flattened out really old insulation. No clue about the walls.
In the summer we try to leave it around 76/77 in the house during the day and 73/74 at night. For a tiny house we had crazy electric bills last summer. Our house heats up so much during the day that even when it cools down at night into the 60s we can't open the windows because we get no breeze and my house absorbed so much sun all day it's like an oven.
My question to you all is who can I contact to have come look at the house and do a sort of assessment of the HVAC and insulation and all that? I'm not sure if an HVAC company would look at the insulation or does insulation. I have no clue where to even start. The landlord did say he is will to explore options dependent on cost but for now he's willing to have an assessment if I set it up.
I would be sure to match sure your windows are covered on the south-side. The sun tends to hit the south side between 11am-4pm, and makes it way the west from 4pm-7pm. If you're trying to go energy efficient and most of the hot days are dry, I would invest in a small evaporative cooler. They typically use 1/12th of the energy compared to a compressed air conditioner unit. They use water and enthalpy to cool the air but humidity is key; they lose efficiency when the relative humidity is above 60%.
You start by looking for a more efficient house to rent. Unless you intend on making changes to this house, which you have no right to do or be refunded for doing, it's up to the owner, not you. Considering it's a rental, I doubt the utility company will waste the time to do an evaluation since you don't own it. Considering the owner did what appears to be as little as possible fixing the A/C unit, don't look for anything from him. All he cares about is the income from it.
Depending on where you live you could do an energy audit on your place. That should identify sources heating / cooling upgrades that you could look at improving. This could also save you time and money down the road on your energy bills
You start by looking for a more efficient house to rent. Unless you intend on making changes to this house, which you have no right to do or be refunded for doing, it's up to the owner, not you. Considering it's a rental, I doubt the utility company will waste the time to do an evaluation since you don't own it. Considering the owner did what appears to be as little as possible fixing the A/C unit, don't look for anything from him. All he cares about is the income from it.
The owner is on board and willing to do some upgrades potentially. Some landlords are actually caring people.
One thing that really helps, it to use a large floor fan that sucks the cool air from the floor and circulates it through the room. This is what I used:
You can flip it, so it faces the ceiling, which means it sucks the cool air off the floor and circulates it.
Next, I'd get a cheap window unit and put one at least in your bedroom, so you can sleep in comfort. That's what I did. I put a window unit in my bedroom, and used one of those large fans to blow the cool air into the next room, which was the living room. I had another large fan to circulate the cool air from the floor in the living room, to keep the living room cool.
So, for the cheapest option, what I'd do is invest in a couple of those Patton floor fans, and one window unit. See if that does it.
An attic fan that sucks the hot air out through the ceiling is a great idea, and your landlord may be able to get one for free or cheap through the local utility district, too.
I finally had someone come out earlier this week and do an audit on the house. I found the place on Yelp and they get amazing reviews. I know the reviews can be planted but still, 300 decent reviews should be good enough.
They came out and hooked up all sorts of equipment to my vents and intake and all that. Took dimensions of my house etc.
There was only 1 thing they didn't do and I want to see if this is normal. I asked if the air coming out the vents was at the right temperature. I remember reading something about it needs to be X number lower than the room temp to be effective. He pretty much told me they didn't check that and started mentioning all the other tests they do instead. Is this standard to not check the air temp coming out of the vents?
Depends. The drop across the coil is the more important figure. If the vents are in unheated space a recommendation to increase the insulation around them is going to be part of the recommendation. If the vents are within the envelope no cooling is lost.
My bet is that they suggest better attic insulation, sealing cracks, and maybe some south wall treatment.
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