Improving Air Conditioning Efficiency By Reworking Ducts?
This is kinda long, but please bear with me as I really need some advice here. My house has a real problem in the summertime when the temp gets in the 90s and above. I called my Home Buyers Warranty people to get an A/C guy out to look at it, and he basically told me that the coolant level was OK but the units are spec'ed to only cool 15 degrees cooler than the outside temp. That means if its 95 outside, the coolest I could hope to get the house is 80. The house is a one-story ranch, with the blower/AC unit in the attic at one end of the house, the master bedroom at the other, and a bonus roof office over the garage adjacent to the master bedroom. In other words, if you look left to right at my house from a birds eye view....
Answer:
check the air temp going into and out of the evaporator/blower unit. Yes, if the differential is low there is a problem. The unit is concerned with dropping a temperature *n* degrees. With very few exceptions it doesn't matter what the incoming temperature is. The unit will cool the air (actually they remove heat from the air) flowing into it down to a certain temperature. If the house had absolutely no heat gain the differential could be 5 degrees and it would chill the house down indefinitely. However, all houses have a heat gain if the outside temp is higher than the inside temp. You may have a poorly insulated house with a high heat gain. If this is the case your a/c unit may not be able to overcome the gain. The solution may be better insulation, a larger a/c unit, a better distribution system or all of the above.