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

Off topic: Would be interesting to know if homes with the SECO or other surge protectors had tripped breakers.

So I hope you don't mind I copied your post to one of the surge suppression threads so people can reply to that question there.

https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...93/index3.html

The variation should only be 2 degrees but your Thermostat may not be reading accurately

Clogged drain line… check that first. If not that it is probably your capacitor. Buy on Amazon for about $12 easy to install or hire any handyman. An AC company will charge your $180-$225. Rip Off.

Adding, The float valve may be wired to also cut power to the thermostat.

If so, the thermostat goes blank when the floor valve activates.

things may need cleanings including the fan blower and the bottom part of the air unit plus the outside..........may need new capacitor mine needed all that after 5 years and over $1000.00 later and I had people here that took care of it for a bit and regular maitnence