HVAC insufficient in summer
 

Is anyone else south of 44 having issues with their air conditioning unit cooling the home sufficiently when the temperatures are in the mid to high 90’s?

No, last summer was very hot and had no problems and all is well currently. I change my filters every 6 months but they really don't need it. Our home has 2,700 Sq. Ft with AC and one bedroom doesn't seem to get as cool as the rest of the house, otherwise fine, we keep it at 75 during the day and 72 at night.

Spend $100 and have your system checked out.

Warranty
 

South of 44, all TV HVAC systems shd still be under 5 Year warranty

As a quick check, on a hot day, go to the outside unit and feel the copper pipe with the black insulation on it. When the unit is running, the pipe should be cold and sweating. If not, then either the refrigerant level is low, or the compressor is not working.

We just had ours replaced, it was about 15 years old. We had three estimates - each company told us the same thing, that The Villages undersizes their air conditioners. They each recommended we size up. We did, and notice quite a difference. The house cools down much more quickly. As others have said, your unit is under warranty - get it checked out just to make sure there is not a leak. We had a leak the first year we moved in the house, and they had to replace a lot of the piping outside. They also found one section of ductwork that was never connected, and the cold air was just going into the attic crawl space! They put these homes up in a hurry. Things are not always up to snuff.

Have had Munns here 8 times.

Yes. We had Munns do the thermal testing. They said no problem with the insulation. We keeps the fans on all the time. House does not cool when temps are in mid to high 90’s. Can’t use the oven at all in the summer. Munns & The Villages are telling us if we want another air conditioner we have to pay for it. House is only 1 year old.

I don't know about all of The Villages, but my house is 4 years old and the HVAC system is definitely not undersized.

I would call Chuck Farrell, 352-753-9497, and get a second opinion. I think I would also visit a neighbor's house with the same floorplan and compare inside temperatures.

When it's mid to high 90s outside and you are cooling, what temp do you have it set at, and how close to that does it get?

Very important how is your house orientated, we put a barrier to block out the eyebrow window in our den, -we keep our house @ 73 day & 68 @ night year round--our t-stat shuts off which means it is satisfied with temps

By Florida code, your HVAC equipment is sized using the so-called Manual J calculation. This is a heat load calculation for your house that considers the home orientation, the insulation, the size and number of windows and doors, etc. For the cooling season, outside and inside temperature and moisture levels will be assumed. The assumed temperatures will be something like 93F outside and 75F inside. The installed equipment (inside air handler, outside condensing unit, and all duct work) should be able to maintain the assumed inside temperature with the assumed outside temperature. The assumed moisture levels do matter since it takes BTUs to condense out moisture.

Your Manual J calculation is on-line but I don't recall the county website. Munns will also have it. I recommend you obtain your Manual J calculation and then arrange a meeting with Warranty and Munns to go over why the installed equipment cannot meet the Manual J assumptions. Now, keep in mind that I don't know what sort of inside temperature you are trying to maintain when it is 95F outside with high humidity. If you are trying to maintain an inside temperature that is well below the Manual J design point then you probably don't have much of an argument. If you cannot maintain the assumed Manual J inside temperature when the outside temperature and moisture match the assumed Manual J values then I believe you have a reasonable argument for some remediation.

If you want to maintain a cooler temperature, you can add additional insulation in the attic, add a powered attic ventilator, and install drapes or plantation shutters on your windows. It is not always a good idea to install a larger HVAC unit because it may not run long enough to sufficiently control the humidity.

YES we do !!!!
 

We've had our vendor come out two times about cooling issues. After getting nowhere, had an outside vendor check the unit and said the ductwork is wrong. They stated the supply vents are to close to the return vents thereby removing the conditioned air before it enters the room. The correct supply vents should be above the windows, blowing toward the window in summer and winter. The return vent should be close to the exit door for the room.
I've learned to live with it because it would cost too much to change now...

I don't agree with your outside vendor regarding the supply vents being near the window. That would be a typical design in a cold climate where you want to heat the perimeter of the house. In warm climates, the supply vents should not be near the windows. But, the supply vent should be located on the opposite side of the room from the return vent, or at least 5 or 6 feet away from it.

In our CYV we leave the unit set on 84 and once in a great while 83, but never lower or our place would feel like an ice box. There is something wrong with your unit.

Get a thermometer, when the outside temperature is above 80 and A/C has been running for a good while, place a thermometer in front of a vent for 5 minutes and write down the temp. Then place the thermometer in the return grill and write down that temp. There should be a difference of 14 to 20 degrees if your unit is working correctly.

Vent

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media...9071092039.jpg

return air vent

https://img-aws.ehowcdn.com/350x235p...2a24fc1ad2.jpg

If it's bad, do what was posted earlier, call Chuck Farrell (352) 753-9497. He's the most honest A/C man in the business and knows his stuff. He'll give you the straight scoop. My home's unit was installed new by Munns in 2011, but I've never called them, I've heard and read too many stories about them. Have used Chuck twice, once the fan motor went out after 8 years and once a capacitor went out after 3 years. The Capacitor replacement and repair was $77 and the fan replacement and repair, which required two trips was $175.

We had a home before and we remodeled the kitchen and there was a wall removed between the kitchen and dining room. They took out the plywood flooring in the dining room and they saw the main trunk of the A/C unit in the sub-floor had a 2" gap, so for all those years cold or heated air was flowing into the sub-floor being wasted. If not for the remodel we would of never known. See if there is maybe an opening in the duct work in your attic, sounds like it might be wasting A/C.

What is the sq ft and size of your unit? My guess would be a poor fitting duck is leaking air. Can you measure the temp at each outlet so see if one is a problem?
I do agree having the system inspected by an independent professional is a good idea.
I could also see a warranty complaint before you hire someone, especially if your cooling temps vary a lot by vent.
If you can see if the air leaving the heater is cold so you know the system is producing cool air going into the ducts.

Possible problem.
 

An energy auditor from the electric company told me once he had checked a house with poor AC performance with his thermal camera and found there was no insulation in the attic. As it turned out, there were 5 houses in a row without any attic insulation. Another incidence was an attic AC duct disconnected by someone installing additional cabling in the attic to cool himself and forgot to reconnect it. One wonders how the first passed inspection.

Check your attic insulation. We upped ours above the recommended R value and noticed an immediate improvement. Just because you have a newer home doesn't mean you have enough insulation in your attic. We also put it over our garage and it made a large difference in the garage temp also.

Be cautious when a company tells you the air conditioner is undersized. It might be, but it might not. That can be a ploy to get you to buy a new system you may not need. Sometimes a better solution is more insulation in the attic or around the ductwork. (After all, it is HOT in your attic, and some of that heat warms up the air that passes through the ducts.) Sometimes there are actually parts of attics where because of lazy insulators, there is no insulation at all. Closing curtains or sun shades on south or west-facing windows when the sun is shining on them helps to keep a house much cooler. It’s possible that air is leaking into your house through a leaky door or window. Opening windows can let in a lot of humidity, of course. Sometimes a system can cool, but not as quickly as people would like. The good thing about that is that if the air conditioner is running, it keeps pulling water out of the air, so the humidity decreases.

There are several possible problems involved with putting in a larger air conditioner. It costs more to buy, and it may cost more to run, and it may need more work to install and take up more room in your garage. One important point, however, is that a larger unit (more tons of cooling capacity) sometimes cools the house so quickly that the AC shuts off before it has pulled enough humidity out of the air. So you end up with a house that is cool, but too humid, and then that cool air feels clammy. There are attachments that can make that big air conditioner stay on longer and not cool as quickly, but it makes more sense to have the right size than one that is too big.

To get the right size, you need an HVAC contractor who checks the things I mentioned above, probably does a blower door test to see if there are areas of leakage, etc. The size of system you need may be different from the size needed across the street, simply because of where the sun shines. White or light grey shingles soak up a lot less heat than do dark grey or black shingles, and those differences can affect air conditioning needs. It’s complicated. Do it right. A contractor who simply makes an offer without checking these things first and doing the complicated math for sizing the system to your specific needs is one you should worry about. It may not be rocket science, but it’s still science. Also, the building codes have strict rules about HVAC sizing and house air leakage these days. Does your HVAC follow those rules? How would you know? That’s what a code enforcement officer is supposed to do. Is it being done?

Like it or not, ANY new home (not just TV) will only have a "builder grade unit" for HVAC needs. If/whey you want to, contact and get the highest SEER rated unit you can afford. Then, go online and buy "hospital grade A/C filters" and buy and use. Then get the 2 X per year HVAC inspection report/service. MONEY WELL SPENT!

Or prior home in TX was built in 2006, and we sold in 2019 with the BUILDER unit (and all our neighbors had to replace YEARS ago!), but because we spent a little extra on filters and maintenance, our unit was still a CHAMP! Some areas (both TX and FL) A/C investment is SO critical!

Consider a return
 

When having M&S install a new unit, I suggested a larger unit because our computer room was hotter than the rest of the house. Their solution was not a larger unit but add a return to that room. This worked perfectly for less than $500 saving many more bucks for the larger unit, let alone the additional operating costs. The larger unit would not have helped anyway. Thank you M&S for your honesty and solution.

Not True. We upgraded our unit during the construction process. Our new home did NOT & does NOT have a builder grade unit.

check your attic
 

We had a home (a new build), outside of the villages. We found out that there had been NO insulation put into our attic. Never did find out how our home made it past the contractors inspector, and the county inspecter.

We were able to negotiate, double the r-factor, instead of the vender covering our electric bill for two months.

Good luck, and God bless.

It is not a good idea to keep the fan in the on position, in this position when the cooling is satisfied the continuous fan blows the remaining moisture left on the coil back into the space increasing the humidity in the space, It should be set in the auto position on the thermostat especially when hot and humid outside. The supply registers in each room should be left open like they were when installed. When I was doing HVAC inspections and a customer complained about a space not cooling or heating correct it was usually because someone shut off the supply register, keep them open as they were designed. If there is no air flow coming out you may have a problem with a damper motor or the duct came disconnected in the attic space. The units are sized correct especially the village homes, the size is considered to remove the humidity by its run time, a larger unit won't remove the humidity but cool the space faster causing cool but clammy air. Some homes have return grilles on the wall make sure they are not being blocked by furniture etc. Outside, make sure the condenser is free for air flow about 2 feet all around it. Most important are the air filters put the correct size in the unit and should be rated MERVE 8 or greater.

All this information about sizing an AC unit is interesting. But, basically the AC units come in half ton sizes from about 1 to 5 tons. A ton of cooling capacity is 12,000 BTUs per hour. As a rule of thumb, a ton of capacity will cool about 600 SF of living space. So, if you have a villa that is about 1200 SF, you most likely have a 2 ton cooling unit. If your house is about 1800 SF, you probably have a 3 ton unit. You can check the capacity by copying down the model number on your outside unit and google it. Compare the cooling capacity of your unit to the square footage of your house.

There are inspections & there are inspections--lots of times the inspections are based upon the past knowledge on how the builder works--

One small detail. I've been told by the installation team and the guy who did the yearly tune up that Chuck isn't going to the new Area. If they do Many of us would recommend them.

Have you checked for air leaks in your attic ducts? Have you verified that you have proper attic ventilation? If youve done this and nothing found have some one check the efficiency of your A/C unit.

HVAC Capacity
 

I have "throttled back" the AC vents that go into rooms that don't need to be totally cooled now. Like the second bed room that is not now used, also for bathrooms, walk-in-closet, etc. Seems to be working better for us to just cool the areas we use now. Maybe will re-adjust when colder temps arrive.

Hmm. I just checked and ours is a 3.5 ton unit. Our A/C area is 2581 sq. ft., so 2581/600 = 4.3, so undersized technically. No cooling issues though.

WOW, are home is not that large, but when it hot and humid we close are windows and set the temp at 78 and with the fans we stay nice and comfortable.

Yup. And a 1 ton air conditioner is the same as the cooling capability of 2,000 pounds of ice, cooling over 24 hours.

I just put in a 4 tonner, 2 stage, 17 SEER for our 2240 sf. CBS designer.
The old 3.5 tonner 14 SEER worked too hard.
I hope for smaller power bills soon.

BTW, R-22 is gone.

Skip

I agree!! Chuck Farrell is the best. IMHO

Always honest, trustworthy and reasonable pricing too!!!

Reply
 

I agree with the other poster who said check your home;s orientation and where the sun hits it. We put authorized film on our windows by a professional, insulated blinds where sun was the hottest and it made a major difference. We also added shade trees in appropriate locations.