AC question Set at 83, current temp in CYV 89, humidity is 55-56. All OK?
 

My AC thermostat is set at 83. Temp in house is saying 89. Humidity in CYV by my clock on wall says 55-56. I am not at the house and I just had a friend check it out for me.
Question is: Is this too big of a variable between set temp and actual temp that is being read on the thermostat? Since I am not at the house at this time, I am wondering if all is OK. Villa is only <5 yo. Never had any problems before and I actually have never noticed what the variable is before the unit comes on, when I am there It's always been fine.
Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

I would say you have a problem. Temperature in my house is very consistent to set temperature on thermostat, never 6 degrees warmer.

It is definitely not OK. The temperature in the house should be within one degree or so to the thermostat setting. The first thing I would do is to verify the actual temperature with another thermometer. Then turn down the thermostat to 80 degrees and see if the AC unit comes on. Also, check the breaker to see if it is tripped and check the condensate drain line to see if it is clogged.

If the house is less than 5 years old, the HVAC system should still be under warranty. If it is a Carrier Unit, you can write down the model number and the serial number from the inside air handler unit. Then, go to the Carrier warranty website and it will tell you the exact status of the warranty.

Did the friend mention whether both the inside and outside unit were running and whether they felt cool air from the vents?

At that differential I would expect the unit to be trying to cool the house.

I have had the blower fan stop working - the outside unit was running but no air was moving through the coils.

I have had the drain line clog and the float switch turn off the outside unit - the inside unit was running and moving air but the outside was not.

A common issue is the starter capacitor at the outside unit - the inside unit would be running and moving air but the outside unit would not. In this case, you might hear a hum at the outside unit.

There have been a lot of lightning storms this year. It is at least possible that the breaker for the outside unit might have tripped. Easy enough to look in the breaker box.

I see an A/C repair service in their future.....

Check your smart thermostat setting's would be a basic starting point? If not the issue then you should probably have a pro check it out.

I posted last month my A/C thermostat is 5° off reading higher than temp recorded by 2 digital thermometers and one analog. A/C thermostat set at 83° whole home is 78, 47% humidity.

If you are seeing a difference between another thermometer and the thermostat reading, calibration of the HVAC thermostat may be off or accidentally set incorrectly.

If the temperature displayed on your Ecobee thermostat is incorrect, follow these steps to correct it:


1) Go to the main menu on the thermostat.

2) [Select “Settings” > “Installation Settings” > “Thresholds” > “Temperature Correction.”

3) Adjust the temperature correction value to calibrate the sensor.

Help Centre

I read the question, but if the inside temperature is 89 degrees, it sounds like the AC is not working at all. My unconditioned garage has a temperature of 89 degrees. That is why I suggested turning down the thermostat to see if the AC kicks on.

Plus, the original post mentioned the "actual temp that is being read on the thermostat." It is the thermostat that is reading an inside temp of 89 while being set to 83, not a separate thermometer.

On my ecobee thermostats at both houses the temperature difference between the set temperature and the actual temperature recorded on the ecobbe unit is never more than 2 degrees - if I have not changed the settings recently.

You both may be right, the post is ambiguous (to me) about what/where the lower temperature is being measured.

I read the post as the separate in house measurement was a thermometer with the humidity gauge.

Lots of good advise here, hopefully the OP will figure it out.

If your humidity is staying under 60 I think you will be ok until you get back. I have had a bad thermostat that I had to replace and currently I can get several degrees difference in various rooms. But to be save seems like you need someone to verify that the A/C is running and cooling the home. For now ask your friend to turn the temp down to say 70. Then see that the fan comes on in the heater and that the outside air compressor is working. That may answer your question. Espically if the temp does not start dropping.
On my heater their is a peep hole that I can look into the heater and see the current code. The code could be a good or bad one and they may change. Your friend can try and find the peep hole. Look up the manual on the internet for what the codes mean.
My guess is you might have a bad condenser (outside unit) and this is rather easy to fix. I am guessing this as your unit is not too old.

I would call for service

Have your Person check to see if AC is running constantly, but not cooling the house..That will be an ugly electric bill. Happened to us while we were away bill was over $300. yep we had a leak chuck farrel came out next day and fixed it.

Do you have temperature profiles? If so do you have an “away” profile? We do and I have the away profile set 5 degrees higher than other profile settings.

Has anyone mentioned the AC Start capacitor? Supposedly this is the number one reason for AC performance loss. If the Thermometer is set for cooling and you notice that the temp difference between set temp and actual temp is increasing , your first check should be the outdoor fan. If the fan is not turning or turning slowly, there is a high chance that the AC Start capacitor has failed. Sometimes a manual assist can get it going. (use care, no hands, I've used a thin twig). If the fan starts its normal speed, the unit will start producing cool air until set temp is reached and then stop. It may not start again unless urged again. The start capacitor (if working) normally assists the start.

These start capacitors cost around $20 on Amazon.

Check this UTUBE Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQisFmMtAis

IMO if you got thermostat set at 83 the house should be 83 to 84. IMO your ac not working either compressor not kicking on as mentioned start capacitor or thermostat not calling for cooling. Humidity IMO has nothing to do with actual temperature only how human body react to humidity.

First find out if the outside fan is on and blowing hot air. If it isn't and then time for a tech unless you have a DIY friend to investigate further.

The humidity seems okay (below 60%). I would pay more attention to that until you can figure out the stat difference. I had problems with another home getting warmer air from the wall behind the stat. I sealed up the hole behind the stat so it better sensed the room air and temp and not air from the wall cavity.

Thermostat
 

Something is obviously wrong with the unit

You ARE OK! The perfect humidity for your house is 50-55% per the HVAC companies. That is what you want to have it be all year round. I leave every summer, and I bank my house at 85 degrees. I have a smart thermostat so I can see my temperature and humidity from my camper in NY. My house stays right at 50-55% humidity. When I do see it rise to 60% I turn the temperature down to 80 and the humidity drops to 50% or less, and I know all is OK, because the A/C unit brought it down within hours. Humidity is what you look for not temp. %%% is perfect + or - 5%.

When we are away for an extended period, we set our A/C at 80 degrees and our humidity at 55%. When the humidity gets above 55% the A/C turns on and runs until humidity is back to the proper setting. A/C does not turn on at a house warm level, but on at a humidity level. At least that was what was told by builder. Our home was built 12 years ago so our thermostat has humidity settings for time away.

not ok

95% the drain condensate line needs to be vacuumed out and then flushed with hot water — not vinegar. Just hot water from the tap. That will clear the shutoff switch and the AC - not just the blower - will fire back up. I own two homes here and proactively flush mine monthly so vacuuming the line is not necessary.

Trust me. It’s not your thermostat. It’s not your electric panel. And it’s not the underpants gnomes. 😎

You should have a humidistat connected to your thermostat so you can set the humidity accordingly - in addition your a/c may have a problem as mine once did that and needed a shot of freaon??

Check Ecobee
 

I'm assuming you have the Ecobee smart thermometer. Log in on Ecobee WEBSITE and click HOME IQ, then SYSTEM MONITOR. This will show you system run times.
I had this problem. Compressor was running $$$ but fan was not. Had new fan installed under warranty (Tank God). System showed constantly running but would not cool because no air movement.

I don’t know where your villa is located, but last week down south of 44 many homes in some villages were affected by a lightning strike on a transmission line in Coleman, that caused a “blink”, which tripped random breakers in our panels. We had 8-10 breakers tripped, as did many villagers here in DeLuna, plus there were some in Richmond and likely other villages down here. We had to call SECO the next day to ask what happened because there was zero communication from them about it. Not likely your issue, but thought I’d mention in just in case.

Positively a problem. A few degrees off is normal but that’s too much.

I've had an Ecobee for years and was not aware you could log in and see that information. Thank you for posting that.

Humidity is likely low because humidity in Central Florida is low this past week (because enesto sucked humidity out) but that will change today with temps to 96ish all week.

If the water catch pan or the drain is clogged, it would shut off outside cooling unit but inside fan would still be running, usually continuous.

This is 95% likely the problem. I had to flush my drain yesterday after it clogged up.

Call for service.

Ac/humidistat setting
 

It is probably fine. The humidistat overrides the AC, which will not come on until the humidistat hits 55 and activates it. It is simple to find out. Turn the humidistat to ON from the 55 setting. Wait a little, if the AC comes on you do not have a problem. The system is operating as it should. Then turn the humidistat back to 55.

Note that, if the system were trying to control humidity, the house temperature would be lower than the thermostat setting, not 6 degrees higher. The only way to reduce humidity is to overcool the house. Unless you have a real humidifier with reheat, which most Village houses do not have, the optional humidity setting will overcool the house by about 3 degrees below the thermostat setting to reduce humidity. To me, a house temperature of 89 degrees indicates that the AC may not be cooling at all.

Just a point of reference, my a/c comes when temp is one degree higher than what it is set at.

My snowbird neighbor had this same problem several months ago and there was something wrong with her a/c. Minor fix now all is well.

I think the real question is, you do not want to stick your friend in the middle. "Not in the house at this time," you do not say how long you will be gone. Apparently your friend has a key. A service call will cost about $100. It is not like the service person will not realize you are not home. IF, I was the friend, I would not be willing to mess with it. I would lay out the money for you and get a receipt for you-assuming you have a good history. Simple cheap stuff. Drain line clogged. Filter needs replacing.

Are you saying that the thermostat cannot control both the humidity and the temperature? If I ask it to control humidity then the temperature can rise well above the set point as long as the humidity is low? That isn't what I would have expected.

I would expect my thermostat to keep my home near the temperature setting. If I have the dehumidify function enabled then I would expect the AC to EXTRA, if necessary, to keep the humidity level down.

If I have the AC set to a high temp, maybe 85, then I would expect that the humidity might rise and the AC to run to dehumidify the home. This additional running might keep the temp below 85 at times. But I would never expect the thermostat to ignore the temperature setting and allow the home to get very warm just because the humidity level has not risen.

I didn't see this "dehumidify-only" setting in the manual for my old, dumb thermostat. Is it a feature of the newer, "smart" thermostats?

The system has some issue(s). There is a high probability that it is a clogged condensate tube that is tripping the float valve or a failed start capacitor. This has already been suggested as a possible cause. There are numerous other possibilities such as low refrigerant from a leak. Without the capability of checking the two highly probable reasons, the home owner should engage an HVAC professsional. It appears that the system may still be under a 10 year parts and 5 year labor warranty (unless the default warranty has changed since I bought my home new). Relative humidity is a strong function of temperature. You can drop the relative humidity by increasing the temperature with the same absolute amount of moisture in the air. The actual moisture content of the air is higher than it should be if the temperature set point was being met with 55% relative humidity. This means the system has not been running and removing moisture. I have never seen a properly functioning system sustain a 6 degree temperature difference between the actual temperature and the set point.

I have had both a clogged condensate drain and failed start capacitor cause my system to stop. I regularly pour vinegar and hot water down the condensate drain and preemptively replace the start capacitor every two years. It is a $15 part and takes 10 minutes to swap out. Yes, that is overkill but we are gone a fair amount.

The typical thermostat in The Villages has an option humidity setting that will reduce the humidity by allowing the AC to run longer than it needs to, so the house temperature will occasionally drop below the temperature setting. It is a "compromise" because the only way to control both the temperature and the humidity is with a real humidity control system that has a reheat feature. With a reheat feature, both the temperature and humidity can be controlled simultaneously by cooling and reheating the air to obtain the desired temperature and humidity. Personally, I never use the optional humidity setting because it makes the house too cold, and a real humidity control system is expensive and not worth it.

Good suggestion, clogged drain line is common. I run about a gallon of water through each month and then a cup of vinegar.

Good tip - thanks!

Here's a link:

https://www.ecobee.com/consumerporta...s/411935960765