Why Your AC Won’t Cool Your Home More Than 20 Degrees

You walk out of the sweltering heat outside into your cool, comfortable, air-conditioned home, only to find that it’s not as cool and comfortable as you had hoped. After spending a whole day in nearly 100-degree weather and high humidity, you’re ready for North Pole temperatures. So, you walk over to your thermostat and see that your AC is keeping your home a cool, comfortable… 80 degrees? Unacceptable! So you turn your thermostat down to 65 degrees and wait. An hour later you come back and, even though your AC is definitely running, the thermostat still reads 80 degrees.

Before you decide that your AC is broken and call for air conditioner repair in Panama City, FL, we want to reassure you that your AC is not broken. In fact, it’s doing a great job, considering the fact that it can’t cool your home by more than 20 degrees.

Your AC doesn’t work that way

If it’s over 100 degrees outside, we’re sorry to say your home will never be less than 80 degrees. Why? Because your AC is only designed to cool your home to about 15 to 20 degrees less than the outside temperature. So unless it’s only 85 degrees outside to begin with, you will never get that cool 65 degrees you want. Your AC is simply not designed to work that way.

More than 20 degrees is too much

The fact that your AC can’t do more than 20 degrees is not a fault—it’s actually a blessing. Your AC was designed that way for a reason. In order to cool your home by anything more than 20 degrees, the air coming out of your AC would have to be frigid—we’re talking breath from an ice queen frigid. Every time you walked past an AC vent in your home, you would feel the need to wrap yourself in a blanket. It would feel like the coldest draft you ever felt was wafting through your home.

Use this knowledge to save money—and your AC

Now that you understand a little better how your AC is designed to work, you can use that knowledge too help increase the lifespan of your AC unit and save on your energy bill. Setting your thermostat for anything lower than 20 degrees below the outside temperature simply means your AC will be running constantly, but your home won’t actually be any cooler. By setting your thermostat to no more than 20 degrees below the outside temperature, you can save on energy costs and help give your AC a break.

The next time it’s hot and muggy outside, appreciate that your AC is doing its best to keep you a comfortable 20 degrees cooler. You’ll find that, most of the time, your body is satisfied with 20 degrees cooler anyway, once you give it a chance. If you ever find yourself in need of air conditioner repair in Panama City, FL, however, be sure to call in the experts at Complete Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Inc.!

Categorised in: AC Repair

This post was written by Writer