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Home Improvement Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [air-conditioning]

For general questions regarding cooling your home.

See also for home cooling systems, or the following components for questions related to a specific part of the AC system:

1074 questions
42
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12 answers

Can I heat one room and cool another with an in-wall AC?

I work in a bakery. It gets warm in the summer, but not warm enough for bread to rise without extra heat. We have a 'proofer room' where the bread sits while the dough rises. The room is heated by two baseboard heaters, and another space heater.…
Able Baker Charlie
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35
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9 answers

Can I gain AC efficiency by spraying condensate water on the outdoor coils?

Recently, I was working from the basement and I noticed tonnes of condensate water going down the drain, and thought I might re-use it to improve the efficiency of my home AC system. So I put a condensate pump (tank&float combo unit) in the drain…
Billy left SE for Codidact
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34
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5 answers

Are mobile air conditioning systems an inherently flawed design?

I read an opinion somewhere that almost all mobile air-conditioning systems are "working against themselves". An A/C whose motor and compressor is inside the house as opposed to being mounted on the outer wall is inherently "flawed". I am talking…
Martin Drozdik
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21
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4 answers

What's the most common cause of A/C refrigerant lines freezing?

I noticed my house wasn't getting under 75°F this weekend when I had the thermostat set for 70°F. Since I'd done a lot of drywall sanding inside recently, my first idea was to replace the filthy air filter. My first indication that the air filter…
Doresoom
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21
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6 answers

How to get rid of CO₂ in a house with A/C in hot summer?

Recently, I've been measuring the CO₂ concentration during multiple nights and the levels in the bedroom where I sleep are very high and unhealthy (over 1600 ppm). I use an AirVisual monitor, which is high precision and catches the trends. I opened…
Physther
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20
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4 answers

Why don't programmable thermostats automatically switch between "Cool" and "Heat"?

While I can set my house to be a particular temperature, I still have to manually switch it between "Heat" and "Cool" mode, and this seems to be true of every thermostat (programmable or not) that I've seen. Is there a reason for this?
Adam Robinson
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20
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5 answers

Should I cover my air conditioner for winter?

Should I cover my air conditioner for winter? It's difficult to find an appropriate cover, but finding a cover for an evaporation cooler is easy (and because they allow for air flow from the outdoors, it makes sense). See this answer for things to…
JYelton
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20
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7 answers

How to disconnect air conditioner lines from outdoor unit?

I need to temporarily move the outdoor unit to one side to access the wall behind it. Is it possible to do this with basic tools? I just need to disconnect the copper pipes as there's enough slack in the power supply so I can keep the wires…
user82609
20
votes
6 answers

Does A/C encourage mold growth

I think i'm being sold bunk by a mold company, but not sure. We live in the tropics, we recently had our bathroom ceiling flood due to a burst pipe, and went away immediately after. (the landlord had the bathroom ceiling removed a bit under a week…
ChrisJ
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19
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10 answers

Do thermostat-controlled, auto-adjust HVAC vents exist?

The residential forced-air HVAC systems I have seen are controlled by a single thermostat in one room. One has to manually adjust the vents in order to adjust the temperature in other rooms. Is there such a think as thermostat-controlled,…
Vebjorn Ljosa
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15
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2 answers

Can I run a central air conditioner in the winter?

What happens if you run a central air conditioner when it's below freezing outside? Is this expected to work? I know, it sounds crazy, but that's because you don't live in an overheated New York apartment building built in 1904 where the whole…
Joel Spolsky
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15
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3 answers

Condensor went, HVAC guy is blaming electrician, is this possible?

My brand new HVAC unit, the condensor died. The unit has a sticker that says the following: Minimum Circuit Ampacity 32 amps Max Fuse / Breaker 50 The electrician ran a 8 gauge wire with a 40 amp breaker to the ac. The HVAC guy is telling me…
CD Brian
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15
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6 answers

How can I stop my lights dimming when my Air Conditioning turns on?

I have no noticeable problems with my house's electricity, but when my Air Conditioner kicks in (and here in Central Texas, it kicks in year round) my lights dim for a second or so and then run normally. It doesn't seem to have any bad effects,…
enkrates
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14
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4 answers

Does building insulation wear out and have to be replaced?

First, a little back-story. I've been having trouble with the air-conditioning system in my south-Texas apartment home for almost two months so far this summer. The apartment manager has been sending their "A/C Certified" (the certification a…
Vivian River
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13
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2 answers

If an AC guy checks a system and finds it 100% out of refrigerant, what is the correct next step?

I'm doing a sort of feasibility follow up regarding a visit from our neighborhood AC repair person. He checked our system and found it was completely out of refrigerant. He added 7.5 lbs. I'll add more to this after I see some answers, but I wanted…
jason
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