What Temp do you keep the Thermostat set at to beat the Triangle Heat?

[MikeJaquish]

Originally Posted by KellyCrash

Our house was built in 2006 so the system is fairly new. We've never had it serviced. Is this something you need to do periodically? We have no idea being from MA where central a/c is not common in all homes. I did read the post you're speaking of & switched our system from AUTO to running the fan. The temp. isn't unbearable, but seems to me with a dual zone system it should be able to keep up with it. I guess we'll have to call the a/c guys. We've had them back once already to put in another vent in the masterbath.

How do you tell if your unit is sized properly?

The upstairs cools down easily at night to 73, but not in the heat of the day.

Kelly,
In a 2 year old home your unit should not need service, but it can happen.
If you have decent access to your attic, you might take a look and see if any of the flexible ducting is torn, or compressed to hamper air flow, or disconnected and spilling air into the attic.

It takes a pro to calculate the area to be cooled, the demand, and the appropriate size of unit. To get that done, you don't want to call just any firm and have just any old service tech or sales guy come out. You would want to be clear that you need to have them determine if the equipment is properly sized.
And I don't know who to recommend for that.
With broken AC units all around in 100 degree heat, getting them up and running will be higher priority currently for the good guys.

[SunnyKayak]

Originally Posted by Jake Ryan

Have you ever tried adjusting your baffles to direct the air to the rooms that makes the most sense? Usually your heating and air people can show you how, it's simple. We have them adjusted when they come to do preventative maintenance twice a year.

Im sorry to ask this but I am baffled on what a baffle is and where is it located?

[KCfromNC]

Originally Posted by SunnyKayak

Im sorry to ask this but I am baffled on what a baffle is and where is it located?

They are the turnable slats in the vents. Usually they have a slider on one side that lets you adjust how "open" the vent is, for a lack of a better word. Take a look at any of the vents for the heat/AC and you should see what I mean - it's harder to describe than to understand.

And one simple test to see if the AC is working well can be done with a basic indoor thermometer. Have the AC running, and measure the temperature of the air coming out of a duct. Then go and measure the temperature of the air going into the return (the big vent(s), normally where you put the filter - which reminds me, when is the last time you guys changed the filter?). The difference between the two should be around 20 degrees F.

As an example - the air going into the return at my place is 80, and it's coming out of the vent at 59. That's a 21 degree difference, so the AC is working reasonably well (it's also running nearly constantly to keep the house cool, so welcome to summer in NC...). If I was getting 70 degree air out of the AC, that's a different story and it would need to be looked at.

Note that it will take thermometers a bit to cool down to the temp coming out of the vent, so give it 5 minutes or so to stabilize.

If the difference is significantly less than 20 degrees (e.g. 10 degrees or less), it means the AC isn't cooling as well as it should. This probably means it's time for a service call.

If it's around 18-20 degrees or more difference, the AC is working as well as it can. Either it is incorrectly sized, or more likely, it's just so hot out that it is having trouble keeping up even though everything is working correctly. This is about as hot as it gets here, so if it's just barely holding on at this temp, it'll be fine the majority of the time.

[SunnyKayak]

Originally Posted by KCfromNC

They are the turnable slats in the vents. Usually they have a slider on one side that lets you adjust how "open" the vent is, for a lack of a better word. Take a look at any of the vents for the heat/AC and you should see what I mean - it's harder to describe than to understand.

And one simple test to see if the AC is working well can be done with a basic indoor thermometer. Have the AC running, and measure the temperature of the air coming out of a duct. Then go and measure the temperature of the air going into the return (the big vent(s), normally where you put the filter - which reminds me, when is the last time you guys changed the filter?). The difference between the two should be around 20 degrees F.

As an example - the air going into the return at my place is 80, and it's coming out of the vent at 59. That's a 21 degree difference, so the AC is working reasonably well (it's also running nearly constantly to keep the house cool, so welcome to summer in NC...). If I was getting 70 degree air out of the AC, that's a different story and it would need to be looked at.

Note that it will take thermometers a bit to cool down to the temp coming out of the vent, so give it 5 minutes or so to stabilize.

If the difference is significantly less than 20 degrees (e.g. 10 degrees or less), it means the AC isn't cooling as well as it should. This probably means it's time for a service call.

If it's around 18-20 degrees or more difference, the AC is working as well as it can. Either it is incorrectly sized, or more likely, it's just so hot out that it is having trouble keeping up even though everything is working correctly. This is about as hot as it gets here, so if it's just barely holding on at this temp, it'll be fine the majority of the time.

You describe it perfectly I know what you are talking about.
I have a few of those closed in the unused rooms.

Great tip reminder on the filters I need to check mine.
I have the type where you wash them and reuse them and I havent done that probably in six months.