heating/cooling question

[bazookaman]

mikebw wrote:
Awnings? Plant a nice shade tree?

Heh. We live in a townhouse and an awning is against the rules. We've considered it though. And the living room (the worst part of the house) is on the second floor. So there is no place to put a tree.

[mikebw]

bazookaman wrote:
[quote=mikebw]
Awnings? Plant a nice shade tree?

Heh. We live in a townhouse and an awning is against the rules. We've considered it though. And the living room (the worst part of the house) is on the second floor. So there is no place to put a tree.
Me too. These are things I thought would be good but can't really do either. I could plant a tree but it would take many years for it to help shade the house, a good investment in the future I suppose.

[OWC Jamie]

bazookaman wrote:
I have gas heat and an AC unit. In the winter, I can set a 65 degree house to 70 and it heats up in about 15 minutes. In the summer, I can set a 70 degree house to 65 and it literally takes HOURS to cool down. Why the vast difference?

65 to 70 in minutes isn't terribly impressive if it is 85 outside.
:-)



If the AC is undersized or under-performing it must be costing more to run than getting it repaired or replaced, (long term) if hours to cool down is not an exaggeration.

[bazookaman]

billb wrote:
If the AC is undersized or under-performing it must be costing more to run than getting it repaired or replaced, (long term) if hours to cool down is not an exaggeration.

Yesterday I got home around 5:15pm. AC was on. Inside temp was 73. Looked at it 15 minutes later and it was 74. So it was actually going UP while the air was on. Ate. Changed. Took little girl to soccer practice. Came back around 8ish. It was 72. And I'd imagine part of this cooling was the fact that the sun had finally gone down and it was cooling off outside as well. So yes. HOURS it is.

[OWC Jamie]

Oh, I believe ya, but if that was your fridge there'd be something definitely wrong there, too.

That's gotta be costing you an arm and a leg to keep running with little effect like that.

[davester]

When was the last time you had the AC serviced?

Also, I'm a little puzzled as to why you'd have the AC on if it was only 75 degrees.

[bazookaman]

davester wrote:
When was the last time you had the AC serviced?

Also, I'm a little puzzled as to why you'd have the AC on if it was only 75 degrees.

We usually have it checked every year. Once we start using it. When it gets hot. Like AFTER winter. This year has been a little different.

And we use it when it's ONLY 75 degrees b/c myself and my daughter are very hot natured.

I love observations based on assumptions that everyone is (or should be) just like you.

[mikebw]

bazookaman wrote:
And we use it when it's ONLY 75 degrees b/c myself and my daughter are very hot natured.

I love observations based on assumptions that everyone is (or should be) just like you.

Case in point? :ducks:

No, everybody is different, but I think we can all agree the unit is not doing the job either by failure in design or operation.

[davester]

bazookaman wrote: We've tinted the windows on that side as well as hung some blackout curtains. There's just nothing else we can do...except suck it up.

Tinting only helps if you have had them tinted using a low-e film. A regular dark tint without low-e might actually make things worse.

Blackout curtains won't make things better. All that happens is that the heat is absorbed by the curtain instead of the floor, then radiates from the curtain into the room. The only way to stop heat gain through the window is to use a low-e film (to reflect the radiant heat back to the outside), and/or to use insulated glass (double-pane, preferably with argon fill) to stop conductive heat from heating up the inside of the glass.