I think my AC may be broken.

[Letfreedomring]

That's what we do is use window unit in master while central is set to around 76* after 11pm until 9:30am when it drops back to 71*. Plus we use window unit as supplement to main when cooking in extreme heat of day since they undersized our central unit a hair.

 

[rickm]

And we have cool air again! $26 at Locke for a good ol fashioned made in America capacitor. I purchased a window unit last night to ensure that the wife allowed me to live through the night. I was thinking…. I’ve always considered windows units to be extremely inefficient, but at the same time, it’s probably cheaper to cool one room rather than the whole house at night. Any thoughts on using the window unit to cool down the bedroom to 65ish, while we let the central air keep the rest of the house at 72-74 for the night?

I always keep 2 window units sitting around just for cases like this, had to loan them to my dad a couple of years ago and havent brought them back home yet.

 

[swampratt]

My son rents my house I own next door to me.
The heat and AC work fine but are old like yours.
It is an all electric house and he said the electric bill is ridiculous.
He installed 2 window units 120 volt units.
He said the house stays just as cool and electric bill is 1/2 of what it was in the summer time.

He has been there a few years.
1500 Sq foot single story brick.

New ones are way more efficient than the old 1970's window units

 

[trekrok]

And we have cool air again! $26 at Locke for a good ol fashioned made in America capacitor. I purchased a window unit last night to ensure that the wife allowed me to live through the night. I was thinking…. I’ve always considered windows units to be extremely inefficient, but at the same time, it’s probably cheaper to cool one room rather than the whole house at night. Any thoughts on using the window unit to cool down the bedroom to 65ish, while we let the central air keep the rest of the house at 72-74 for the night?

That thought is what has me thinking about the mini-split option when my central unit finally gives it up. The ability to control each room individually would be really nice. I'm thinking an outside unit on each end of the house, and then however many of the inside units necessary. Gets rid of the ducting in the floor too. They are pretty efficient it seems.

To your question, I think if you got a decent window unit you could crank it down in the bedroom and bump up the central at night and maybe offset it?

Glad it was the capacitor. I learned last summer you don't want to buy the old refrigerant for a charge. I forget what it cost but it made me weak in the knees. And I went with the non-optimal newer version refrigerant, which was half the price of the old stuff.

 

[Parks 788]

My opinion is it's time to get a new unit installed. Being 34 years old it is probably horribly inefficient and may be on it's way to continual problems. Before we moved we had a whole new central HVAC unit and compressor installed and it was about $7K. It reduced out overall monthly electric bill by about $250 during the summer/AC months. Even in Socal living 2 miles from the beach we typically ran our AC from about late may to mid Oct.

 

[Snattlerake]

A & T Mechanical have always done a great job for me. They replaced my entire system from the rusted upward ducts in the slab to downward ducts from installing the unit in my attic. They even gave me a great price on the installation of solar powered attic vents. I met them at the home show at the fairgrounds. THey were doing free HVAC energy audits for OG&E.

https://www.okatmechanical.com/


THIS... was a big clue!

 

[Firpo]

First I’m really glad to hear you got it figured out……and for the cost of a capacitor no less.
My next thought is Wow!! You guys sure keep your houses cold. I set my stat to 78° during the day and drop it all the way down to 75° at 9:00pm. Can’t begin to imagine what my electric bill would be at 65° not to mention I’d be freezing my arse off. Funny thing is when its 20° outside come winter time I’m good with just a shirt as long as the wind isn’t blowing.

 

[swampratt]

Yep 75-77° upstairs and during the day the AC gets shut off as we are downstairs and the house stays cool down here.
I was thinking I could run a single window unit upstairs and probably cool the entire house.

When I had a buddy bring me a new system many years ago I had him bring me 3 30lb jugs of R22
to go with it.. He said man these are $300 each and I said I do not care I will use them for decades if I ever need any.
Glad I made that move.
Kind of like buying primers when you really did not need any but at $35 for 1K I am glad I did it.
Just about $1K for 30lb of R22 now.
Tripled in price just like primers.

 

[acope]

And we have cool air again! $26 at Locke for a good ol fashioned made in America capacitor. I purchased a window unit last night to ensure that the wife allowed me to live through the night. I was thinking…. I’ve always considered windows units to be extremely inefficient, but at the same time, it’s probably cheaper to cool one room rather than the whole house at night. Any thoughts on using the window unit to cool down the bedroom to 65ish, while we let the central air keep the rest of the house at 72-74 for the night?

We finished off a summer with two window units when our house unit bit the dust. A bigger unit in our main living area and a smaller one for the bedroom. Actually kept the house cooler and about the same $$$.

 

[Ahall]

34 years - you got all the good out of that one.

even if you got it going, plan on replacing it soon, both indoor and outdoor