Central Air houses in this area

[jenlion]

Originally Posted by ElektroDragon

Wait a minute... why would the unit be humming if its not actively cooling anything? Are you telling me that central AC units hum even in the winter?

Actually, it might. We have a heat pump, which both heats and cools. We still have a furnace for heat, but supposedly (when gas is expensive or when electric rates are low) it's cheaper to run the heat pump, which heats using electricity. It's only efficient down to a certain temperature, depending on the size of the heat pump. Mine is not efficient below, I think, something like 40 degrees. Has to do with heat transfer from the ambient air. Heat pumps work OK here, or in TX, but are not a good choice in, say, the midwest, where it's often much much colder.

Also, heat pumps are not good at cooling much below 20 degrees. It's totally normal for it to be 100 degrees outside and 80 indoors... that's about the best you're usually going to do with a standard home heat pump.

So, because it's a heat pump, it does run all the time, or at least whenever we are actively heating or cooling the house. And it's not as silent as I wish it was. Actually, I get frustrated, because when it runs a defrost cycle, it's LOUD. It BANG CLASH BANGS when it starts up, and runs loudly. So, I've actually been turning off the heat pump and heating on the furnace again. It costs a little more, but if the heat pump is so loud it's annoying ME... it's probably annoying everyone else too. So I told the controller to ignore the heat pump for now and use the furnace.

When it's warmer outside, it won't need to defrost as often, and warmer air seems to absorb noise a little better, or something, because it's not as annoying in the summer running as AC instead of heat. It'll be annoying to neighbors trying to sleep with their windows open in summer, I'm afraid, but I think we'll just have to invite everyone over for game night on the really hot days, so we can all sit in the AC. A couple other houses in the neighborhood have them too, so at least it won't be just us!

[tortoisegirl]

I don't think the actual measured temperature matters as much as the temperature leading up to it. Going from the 50s to the 70s in one day is a little drastic, and even if it's not all that warm, it'll feel worse due to the change. I sure felt warm the past few days where I used to be tolerant to temperatures in the 90s without a problem.

With my schedule (working out of the home during the days, out doing errands and such on the weekends or else inactive on the couch), not having A/C has been fine with me. It bothers my fiance though. He wants to get ceiling fans and such, but it's just an apartment and I don't want to deal with it, although we have the hookups. It's a matter of opinion and how much it bothers you.

I don't miss the summer A/C bills from Arizona though.

[dpgtfc]

Originally Posted by tortoisegirl

I don't think the actual measured temperature matters as much as the temperature leading up to it. Going from the 50s to the 70s in one day is a little drastic, and even if it's not all that warm, it'll feel worse due to the change. I sure felt warm the past few days where I used to be tolerant to temperatures in the 90s without a problem.

Don't move to Missouri then! We've had days where it is 75 in the morning/afternoon and by 5pm it drops to 40. Also many days in spring where there is one day of 70+ and the next day it is 30 with snow. I'm sure many places have similar stories and trite sayings but we have one here too "If you don't like the Weather in Missouri, wait an hour, it will change".