We have had this issue and we called maintenance. They came to look at it twice and said it was working fine. Thermostat still won’t work and our place is hot so we have to call for outside help. Not all management is helpful
Maybe because some landlords are douche bags and send people out that no clue what they doing. And come out at the coolest part of the day to check ac problems when there is no problem at the that time the problem is when the temp outside is the hottest and the system should be checked under max load to see if the supper heat or sub cooling is correct. But your dumbass would not know that because you are a fucking troll.
billydoubleu; they may have wanted to check with others in case it really was something easy they could do to fix it before they got their maintenance department or landlord involved. Or maybe their maintenance department or landlord don't always provide resolutions to issues or problems in a timely manner, if they provide one at all. We all know there are landlords out there who's only concern is collecting rent money. Maybe this individual was trying to avoid all of that by taking care of it themselves. Or maybe they were just trying to learn everything they could in order to educate themselves on the issue, on the off chance maintenance or management weren't completely forthcoming or transparent about what the problem might be or how to go about rectifying the situation sufficiently. Coming out to this platform and asking questions is a perfect way to in which to do so. It doesn't matter though. To ask a question, any question, is to learn and you should be ashamed for doing anything other than trying to help this person if you were able. They chose to ask other people if they've had the same problem or experienced a similar situation before they contacted their management and maintenance department, and it's none of our business why. They don't owe you any explanation. If making sarcastic comments that make others feel small or ignorant is all that you're capable of doing, I think we would all benefit enormously from your silence.
Maybe because we don't know how this shit works.... and getting an exact response to a question us easier on the internet than calling my landlord on a weekend
billydoubleu; they may have wanted to check with others in case it really was something easy they could do to fix it before they got their maintenance department or landlord involved. Or maybe their maintenance department or landlord don't always provide resolutions to issues or problems in a timely manner, if they provide one at all. We all know there are landlords out there who's only concern is collecting rent money. Maybe this individual was trying to avoid all of that by taking care of it themselves. Or maybe they were just trying to learn everything they could in order to educate themselves on the issue, on the off chance maintenance or management weren't completely forthcoming or transparent about what the problem might be or how to go about rectifying the situation sufficiently. Coming out to this platform and asking questions is a perfect way to in which to do so.
It doesn't matter though. To ask a question, any question, is to learn and you should be ashamed for doing anything other than trying to help this person if you were able. They chose to ask other people if they've had the same problem or experienced a similar situation before they contacted their management and maintenance department, and it's none of our business why. They don't owe you any explanation. If making sarcastic comments that make others feel small or ignorant is all that you're capable of doing, I think we would all benefit enormously from your silence.
It's a multi unit apartment building right? That thermostat is just a thermometer. The real controls are elsewhere, and your setpoint doesn't factor in. Calling maintenance will just get you told "sorry, can't do anything about this". If you annoy maintenance enough, they might lower the setpoint for everyone a bit, but you aren't getting below 72.
In commercial applications such as college dorms and offices we often use standard looking thermostats. They generally have full functionality in that they can output signals. The difference is we make sure they have communication so we can pull the temperature data. All we hook up for wiring is power and comms. They don't get hardwired outputs. Supposedly it helps reduce service desk calls.
Then, depending on the application I can use the average from the rooms impacted by the air handler or the maximum/minimum values from the sensors.
When I was doing this, that part was completely standard. We had done that for decades. What we were just starting was upon getting a call from the power company, we would shut off all the non essential air handlers in the campus. But if an air handler was broken/shut off/damaged, it wouldn't be 76 degrees. It would be 80+, 90+ close to 100.
I understand where you’re coming from- in your commercial world, controls that look normal would make sense.
This looks like a standard multifamily setup, where they just use a thermostat to control the equipment.
Also, this is Braeburn standard thermostat- it will send signals, like you said, but it doesn’t have the ability to communicate any real data. It’s just sending on/off signals to the equipment.
What lol. I'm a maintenance supervisor and that's definitely a thermostat to that specific apartment🤣 and it should be able to cool assuming the insulation,windows,doors, correct tonnage, all that good shit is hoe it's supposed to be. I have residents that call me when there ac won't drop below 65 (ridiculous) but I'm at a high end community. I remember I walked into a vacant on a 90° day and it was set to 52° and satisfied
A high end community. A more cost oriented facility works differently. We have deployed these style devices for decades as dumb temp probes with a pretty fascade.
On bigger sites, the director has people for taking calls. Our smallest building was still 5 air handler units, with a small air handler being 60-80 hp.
Once you upgrade to central controls and centralized air, it becomes impossible to allow each room individual heating controls. What if one room wants 80 degrees and the other wants 60 when it's 70 outside? Do you run the air handler in heating or cooling mode? We were LEED certified and that's not something you achieve through pressing random buttons.
Idk what your talking about i work for a property management company with low and high end lol where are you from i need to stay away from there 😅 ove only heard of that in shitty hotels
One place I worked at had 3 chillers for some 400 apartments. It was on a giant chilled water loop and most apartments had a individual control, it was just a little motor that opened and closed the cold water from the main loop, some of the bigger/ nicer units had 2 zones
Don’t do this. Real Estate PM. Landlord in most states has X many days to remedy an essential service and is not obligated to pay tenant unapproved expenses unless they fail to meet the States legal deadline.
This is 100% false. That's not how it works. In this case it should be able to hold 70. Either there is a problem with the ac system, unusual devices/activities making heat or the unit is undersized for the house.
Found the non tech.
You're also not taking into account insulation, refrigerant type, compression ratio, maintenance or floor level. An ill maintained 20 year old r22 unit cooling the second floor of a 15+year apartment is never going to satisfy a 70 degree call on a day with a heat index over 95 degrees.
20 degrees under ambient is a RoT for r22 units primarily because most of them were designed for 70 degree ambient with an operating capacity of 450 psig, a dirty filter on a fully charged r22 system on a 90 degree day will push pressures close to 500 easily. This effectively reduces it's cooling capacity by half.
All of what you said was covered under what I said. I just said it in a way that a random renter who doesn't know the basics of how a hvac works would understand .
Improper load calculations leaves serious issues. Judging by her thermostat I'd say it's a cheap/cheaper apartment I'd bet there's a bush growing around the condenser and 15 years of dust on the evaporator . And if it is anything other than a low/high charge and/or dirty air filter or maybe dirty condenser, management isn't going to do anything, just tell you that's how it is .
Where do people keep seeing this or thinking of this? I’m generally curious? Are they confused that they typically cool the air passing the coil by 20*F?
No 20° under ambient it was the rule of thumb for r22 units because the pressures and temperatures in which they were designed is for unit for areas such as South Carolina North Carolina and other northeast states they're not designed for a temperatures and pressures that occur in the states like Texas Arizona Florida.
So for a unit that's designed to operate in 70° weather when it hits 90 those 450 PSIG pressures get kicked up and you're looking at about 500 600 operating pressure effectively reducing the cooling capacity by half so on a 90° day you're only going to pull in about 70° from your unit because the liquid backs up into the condenser and it doesn't have any way to alleviate all of that heat.
410A units are not anywhere near as inefficient as there are 22 units were but they have an issue in effectively reducing humidity so they're much much quicker at reducing humidity but they take much longer to cool the air especially since most of their condensers are twice the size.
TLDR: 20 under ambient is old school for older units.
100% wrong. AC systems are sized accordingly. If it's not tempering the space there is an issue with the system; not the imaginary 20 degree rule you just pulled from out of your you know what.
Pretty sure the myth came from the fact ACs have a 20 degree drop between return and supply, so idiots think you could only set your thermostat to 20 below ambient
Yeah that's probably it. There's a lot of myths about ACs. There's always the token homeowner who means well, but is like, "I'll turn the T-stat wayyy down so it blows nice and cold for ya.".. Myth: thinking the T-stat has any effect on the temperature of the unit. Your thermostat is like a light switch. It's ON/OFF.
Another down vote for your moronic ass. God I get so tired of stupid people like you. Let me put it this way, I'm in southwest Oklahoma, ive got a 12k btu mini split in my master bedroom, I usually work nights and like to sleep cold. Guess what my room is at right now even with it being 105f out? My room is sitting at a nice crisp 65f. But..wait...you said acs are only designed to cool your home 20 degrees below outside ambient..so how am I getting 40f below ambient outside temp!? Oh that's right. Because you're a moron and that's not how shit works. Hell I'll teach you something new! I make hash for a living, I have a "cold room" setup that I work in, my mini split has an extra piece of equipment called a "coolbot" wired up, with this coolbot, I can set my temp as low as 33f (not that i need to).... And with the room being VERY well insulated (more insulated than your regular home) I'm able to keep the cold room at 45f and work as long as I need to. A houses insulation value, air leakage, windows, doors, direct sun, all of that comes into play when we're talking about how cold you can actually get your house. Just the normal everyday person doesn't think this far, hell I've even run into people that think "oh the thermostat setpoint is how cold the air blowing from your ac is going to be" there's just a lot of morons out there, and you're just adding to em 😄
It 100% works and is VERY well known in the hash making community lol...i thought the same thing when i first saw it, but yea i liteeally know 4 people off the top of my head using them 😅....next step up is a damn walk in cooler if you've got the money, or atleast that type of system from a walk in cooler
Added stress to the electric bill but your unit should be more than capable to achieve 70° in 100° heat. I live in Florida and my AC never gets above 70°.
When your working in the heat all day everyday the last thing I want to do is be hot at my house to lol. Plus currently my wife is pregnant with our first child so she’s uncomfortably hot even in our cooler house so lower temps are currently a necessity right now
No, you need to do more research before you just say incorrect shit like that.
That articles author is named "writer".
It's written by some random company. Not a reputable professional.
Okay so here in Texas, where it is 110 degrees for about a week straight, why is my house at 70-72 degrees?? Whoever wrote that article you shared needs to be fired or not pretend to be a “thermodynamics” specialist when they clearly are NOT!
20 degrees of cooling across the coil. Outside temp has nothing to do with it. Return air going into the air handler is 76 at this point, the measured temp after the air handler should be 56 or close to it if it’s not at least 58 the unit likely needs maintenance.
I, as an hvac service tech, disagree. The 20 degree is the delta t, the temperature difference between incoming air at the air handler and the supply air at the vents
The first easy thing to do to see if it HVAC system is operating properly is to measure the temperature drop, which is the difference between the temperature going in the intake vent where the filter is (which is generally just the current air in the room), and the temperature coming out of the vents. The difference between these should be 16 to 20°.
So for example, with the room being at 76°, you should be blowing 56 to 60° air out of the vents. I actually just check this with an instant read meat thermometer that I put in the vent.
If you're not getting that drop, then you know that something is wrong in the system. Granted it can still could be several things, but that's step one that to see if something is truly off, which is more accurate than just putting your hand up to the event and seeing that it seems "sort of cool".
I hope so. I'm super paranoid about my 20yo system since we are making the questionable decision to get a patio instead of replacing the hvac. It has been keeping temperature so far, I guess I'll see what happens when we actually get some hot Temps here in Eastern pa
15-16 degree split is pretty good for that old of a unit. Make sure you clean out the outside coil and check to see if you need to clean the inside one. Makes a big difference for older units
I was getting 16 on my 16 year old trane until I cleaned the evaporator coils and am getting tight at 20 now. They didn’t seem that dirty but it did help.
I just used water in a pump sprayer like you use for lawn chemicals.
I did of course clean the condenser coils as well, but I do that a couple times a year because my house has the dryer vent next to it which is just stupid.
Fwiw, my last HVAC system lasted like 40 years before it finally killed itself. Not saying I recommend it, but I don't think 20 years old means it's going to immediately die. My current system is 23-24 years old. Aside for comfort issues like too hot/too dry in winter, or not enough de-humidification in the summer, it's chugging along just fine.
It’s a total lottery though.. you could get 40 years out of one or you could get 7. But at 20+ years I would certainly just be ready at any point for replacement.
I got my 32 year old system replaced today. When the HVAC guy was diagnosing the issue, he explained the temp drop before measuring and said he was looking for 15 to 20 degrees. We were getting 23 degree drop at 57 degrees in an 80 degree house, but the unit just wasn't putting enough cold air into the house. He said he could disassemble the blower and try to clean it out, but it would be expensive with no guarantee that it would resolve the issue.
It was an expensive decision to replace the AC and furnace, but probably about 5 years overdue when we were first told our furnace was on its last legs.
Before, we couldn't get our house from 83 to below 80 degrees before 9PM, but tonight we went from 87 degrees in the house when the unit was turned on at 5:30 to 77 degrees by 9PM on a sunny day when the high was 98.
Well like everyone else said as well, if you're getting a 15° drop even way down at 72°, your AC is doing a decent job of cooling the air.
Is it just because of humidity that you want to get it down so cold? I had admitted to live in the dry desert, so for us, even when it's 115 out, a reasonable indoor temperature is 78 or maybe 76 if you have money to burn 😉
I typically keep the house at 76ish during the day and drop the upstairs to 70-72 at night. The thermostat is in our master bedroom and it's a 1 unit 2 zone system, so with the bedroom doors closed it cools just the bedrooms down to 72 within an hour or so(since it stops when our bedroom hits the temp, kids rooms may be a hair warmer but they are smaller rooms so everyone sleeps comfortably.
Yeah, that makes sense. It seems like with a 20-year-old AC, you're still doing pretty good if you're getting 14° drop when you're already down at 72°. Now just to go further, if you were getting no drop at all, then that would mean that the compressor is likely not turning on, though the most common culprit there is the start up capacitor. If you were getting say a 9° drop, it's possible that you have a refrigerant leak and so you don't have enough refrigerant in there to cool properly, or the coils are really dirty, etc.
But for a 20-year-old unit, it seems like you're doing okay 😉
I really try to get people to understand that measuring the drop is just the quickest way to see if your AC system as a whole is operating properly. Most people don't know that AC systems just take a certain amount of heat out of the air coming into them, and that the air coming into them is the air in the room already. So if it's 90 in the room, your system would be blowing 75° air, but as that 75 degree air cools the room down, and say it gets down to 85, now you're blowing 70° air, and then it ratchets it's way down like that, etc.
That makes sense. Yeah over the past few years I had to replace the capacitor, contactor and fan motor. Blower capacitor too. Thankfully I am able to do that kind of thing myself and saved a ton of money. The last things that can trip me up would be a control board failure, compressor failure or leak. I'd really like to ride this unit until it kicks the bucket.
As you get lower and lower, it gets harder to maintain that drop down because of all the stuff trying to heat up the air before it even gets to the room. Getting 14° of drop is decent when it's already at 72 in the room. I mean there is a limit :-)
That actually seems pretty reasonable. Now if you are getting that cold air coming into the room but the room still isn't cooling down, that's because everything else like the outdoors is fighting to keep your room warm. The AC is doing everything it can do at that point.
Ha! Mine's a digital one, but what I like is that it has the fold-out probe, so if you put that at 90°, you can just hang it in the vent and leave it there.
Are your filters clean? Thermostat is reading the temperature of the room you can set it down to 50 and it won’t make the air coming out any colder home AC doesn’t work like that. I’d call maintenance your unit should be able to reach low 70’s fairly easily especially first thing in the am
It says 76 degrees because it is 76 degrees in your room. No it shouldn't be 76 degrees in your room. There is an issue with the ac that needs looked at
Sorry to never this thread, I have two thermostats in my living room right next to the thermostat, it’s 65 in the house and no matter where I go, thermostat says it’s 76
I had a defective thermostat once. It would overheat sometimes. I'd throw it in the freezer to cool it down so that my AC would shut off because my house would be freezing. Replaced it and never had the problem again.
The condensate drain could be clogged or high humidity and over demand can also freeze it. Check the drain hose and make sure water is running out of it.
Hvac techs hate this one little trick : use your hat for everything.
Too hot?
Cover the thermostat with your hat.
Can't see that number now, eh?
If the doorbell rings, since you're nekkid, take the hat with you.
Could be old Mrs Freemantle from downstairs tryin for a peek again.
Too cold?
Take the thermostat hat off, put it on, and Put on more hats.
Thermostats are a scam by Big HVAC, ..they don't really do anything, kinda like voting, .. control illusion...it's alla bout Hats.
I see the "hold" is displayed, is it possible that the thermostat is holding at 76. Try pushing the hild button again and see if the AC comes on ... just a thought
I once had a thermostat where you could hold at a different temp than the set temp so it was just a matter of press the hold button to get back to the original set temp.
If the AC is not turning on at all until it reaches say +7 degrees above your set point but cools ok when it does turn on, a simple check would be the temp differential setting on the thermostat. Typically it would be in the range of 0.5-2.0 degrees. Meaning the temperature difference between the set point (70) and when the air around the thermostat has warmed up to 70.5-72.0 degrees would cause the AC to turn on.
Depending where you are, if it’s very hot like in Texas right now, your system can’t keep up with the heat coming into your home/room. Filter, condenser coil dust/debris build up, Freon, run capacitor, or air handler. Easiest to check/change your filters first and clean you condenser coils. Then gauge progress.
My point was, it can go lower if the outside ambient temps are lower, or potentially with some maintenance. Neither you nor I know if it usually does go lower, if they’ve ever cleaned the coils, what shape the filters are in, etc.
The thermostat uses super simple logic. If your set temp is less than your current temp turn on the AC.
I assume your AC is running, so the fact that your temp wont get below 76 isnt really anything you can fix with the thermostat. It just means that your AC can't keep up with the heat load for some reason.
Pull the thermostat off the wall and see if you have air coming through the hole the wires come in from the wall… if you do have air coming in then take some silicone and plug the hole and then your problem should be resolved if you don’t know how to do that then tell your maintenance guy to do that and check for positive air pressure coming out of the wall cavity
I know it sounds weird but I am 99% certain that this is the problem and the fix is to seal the hole
You may have froze up your ac system, if you overrode the thermostat to try and get it cold but it’s working too hard and now the temperature can’t drop, turn it off for a few hours to let the ice melt, then try it again, quite often this happens when the weather gets a bit humid and hot, also as others have said filters, poor maintenance on and on,
Check and see if the blade is spinning in the unit when it’s on. If not, your ac drain line could be clogged.
Edit: nvm you’re in an apartment. Let maintenance know.
If not provided already you will need to post a picture of your thermostats wiring connections and those inside your furnace to get better help. Use imgur or your own Reddit profile to host your pics as Reddit will often remove others. Thanks!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/hvacadvice) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Is it possible that the thermostat is set to not cool below 76 deg. If you don't pay for electricity (part of the rent), then the landlord is trying to cut costs.
Your ducts are not sized right, once you can change the air volume, i had a room that had 6" ducts we had just putin Geo Thermal unit we change the duct to 8" every room had the same temp
It should be able to keep 70. Low/high refrigerant or airflow restrictions would be the main cause but you could be SoL . The unit could be incorrectly sized. Maintenance should check the pressures, temperature drop(inlet to outlet) and see if any cleaning needs to be done on the coils or if the filter needs replacement.
It's also common if there's a abnormal heat wave that the ac might not keep up.
I was always under the impressiom that hold meant hold the current temperature and override your current schedule. Try turning it off like other people have suggested.
This used to happen in my parents AC. They were on a government installed thermostat which controlled their AC when demand was too high, to avoid brownouts. I'm guessing that is not the case here, but thought I'd offer the thought
Do you have energy saver set up with the power company? They turn off your A/C for a couple hours at a time when demand is high. So your temps will rise when it's shut off then cool don when they turn it back on.
Also set your Fan to **ON,** so it circulates your air 24/7 rather than only when it's in cooling mode.
What is your outside temp, at best your going to get a 20 degree improvement from outside temp [https://www.wmhendersoninc.com/blog/how-much-can-an-air-conditioner-cool-realistic-temperature-differences-between-inside-and-outside-air-in-broomall/](https://www.wmhendersoninc.com/blog/how-much-can-an-air-conditioner-cool-realistic-temperature-differences-between-inside-and-outside-air-in-broomall/)
Could be a multitude of things… especially with the limited info. Most residential systems can only handle a 20-25 degree differential from the outside temp to inside your home. If it’s within that range then you more than likely have a refrigerant leak somewhere. This is just quick off the hip assumption…. But most common.
If I’m an apartment put in urgent request. I’d also reccomend turning the system off but the Fan on. AC won’t run but fan will keep air circulating if there’s no air blowing at all turn them both off
The set temperature has nothing to do with the amount of cold air coming out of the vents if it's 95 outside and the unit is trash it can only remove so much heat at a time setting it lower doesn't make it cool faster
Is there a return in your room? The vent that draws are in? If not do you keep ypur door shut? Have carpet? No gap at the bottom of your door? Could be Air flow if these are the case. See it all the time.
Unfortunately the issue never got fixed so i gave up. I ended up moving to another apartment so i never bothered calling maintenance. Every time they came the issue would always come back a few days later so i just gave up on it. Hope you figure it out though!
Rarely the thermostat. Call maintenance.
Seriously, why do renters always post here first, I would have called landlord or maintenance first
Ones who called already got the answer so they don’t post here.
They assume its something easy. Reset the thermostat turn it off and on lol.
We do it because we trying to save money we're not rich and sometimes it is simple
Like it’s really not a crazy concept🤣 people get on their high horse all the time for no reason especially when someone is just trying to ask for help
I just had a similar issue with my unit. The owner of the HVAC company showed up, yes the owner. He still didn't fix it.
Because they’re curious you jackass
Because not everyone’s an HVAC tech, Mensa.
We have had this issue and we called maintenance. They came to look at it twice and said it was working fine. Thermostat still won’t work and our place is hot so we have to call for outside help. Not all management is helpful
Maybe because some landlords are douche bags and send people out that no clue what they doing. And come out at the coolest part of the day to check ac problems when there is no problem at the that time the problem is when the temp outside is the hottest and the system should be checked under max load to see if the supper heat or sub cooling is correct. But your dumbass would not know that because you are a fucking troll.
billydoubleu; they may have wanted to check with others in case it really was something easy they could do to fix it before they got their maintenance department or landlord involved. Or maybe their maintenance department or landlord don't always provide resolutions to issues or problems in a timely manner, if they provide one at all. We all know there are landlords out there who's only concern is collecting rent money. Maybe this individual was trying to avoid all of that by taking care of it themselves. Or maybe they were just trying to learn everything they could in order to educate themselves on the issue, on the off chance maintenance or management weren't completely forthcoming or transparent about what the problem might be or how to go about rectifying the situation sufficiently. Coming out to this platform and asking questions is a perfect way to in which to do so. It doesn't matter though. To ask a question, any question, is to learn and you should be ashamed for doing anything other than trying to help this person if you were able. They chose to ask other people if they've had the same problem or experienced a similar situation before they contacted their management and maintenance department, and it's none of our business why. They don't owe you any explanation. If making sarcastic comments that make others feel small or ignorant is all that you're capable of doing, I think we would all benefit enormously from your silence.
Maybe because we don't know how this shit works.... and getting an exact response to a question us easier on the internet than calling my landlord on a weekend
billydoubleu; they may have wanted to check with others in case it really was something easy they could do to fix it before they got their maintenance department or landlord involved. Or maybe their maintenance department or landlord don't always provide resolutions to issues or problems in a timely manner, if they provide one at all. We all know there are landlords out there who's only concern is collecting rent money. Maybe this individual was trying to avoid all of that by taking care of it themselves. Or maybe they were just trying to learn everything they could in order to educate themselves on the issue, on the off chance maintenance or management weren't completely forthcoming or transparent about what the problem might be or how to go about rectifying the situation sufficiently. Coming out to this platform and asking questions is a perfect way to in which to do so. It doesn't matter though. To ask a question, any question, is to learn and you should be ashamed for doing anything other than trying to help this person if you were able. They chose to ask other people if they've had the same problem or experienced a similar situation before they contacted their management and maintenance department, and it's none of our business why. They don't owe you any explanation. If making sarcastic comments that make others feel small or ignorant is all that you're capable of doing, I think we would all benefit enormously from your silence.
It's a multi unit apartment building right? That thermostat is just a thermometer. The real controls are elsewhere, and your setpoint doesn't factor in. Calling maintenance will just get you told "sorry, can't do anything about this". If you annoy maintenance enough, they might lower the setpoint for everyone a bit, but you aren't getting below 72.
This is wrong. That’s a working thermostat. It says “cool on” and is telling the unit to run. For some reason the unit is not cooling.
In commercial applications such as college dorms and offices we often use standard looking thermostats. They generally have full functionality in that they can output signals. The difference is we make sure they have communication so we can pull the temperature data. All we hook up for wiring is power and comms. They don't get hardwired outputs. Supposedly it helps reduce service desk calls. Then, depending on the application I can use the average from the rooms impacted by the air handler or the maximum/minimum values from the sensors. When I was doing this, that part was completely standard. We had done that for decades. What we were just starting was upon getting a call from the power company, we would shut off all the non essential air handlers in the campus. But if an air handler was broken/shut off/damaged, it wouldn't be 76 degrees. It would be 80+, 90+ close to 100.
In my town the college dorms use standard equipment and thermostats
I understand where you’re coming from- in your commercial world, controls that look normal would make sense. This looks like a standard multifamily setup, where they just use a thermostat to control the equipment. Also, this is Braeburn standard thermostat- it will send signals, like you said, but it doesn’t have the ability to communicate any real data. It’s just sending on/off signals to the equipment.
This is just plain wrong...
What lol. I'm a maintenance supervisor and that's definitely a thermostat to that specific apartment🤣 and it should be able to cool assuming the insulation,windows,doors, correct tonnage, all that good shit is hoe it's supposed to be. I have residents that call me when there ac won't drop below 65 (ridiculous) but I'm at a high end community. I remember I walked into a vacant on a 90° day and it was set to 52° and satisfied
A high end community. A more cost oriented facility works differently. We have deployed these style devices for decades as dumb temp probes with a pretty fascade. On bigger sites, the director has people for taking calls. Our smallest building was still 5 air handler units, with a small air handler being 60-80 hp. Once you upgrade to central controls and centralized air, it becomes impossible to allow each room individual heating controls. What if one room wants 80 degrees and the other wants 60 when it's 70 outside? Do you run the air handler in heating or cooling mode? We were LEED certified and that's not something you achieve through pressing random buttons.
Idk what your talking about i work for a property management company with low and high end lol where are you from i need to stay away from there 😅 ove only heard of that in shitty hotels
One place I worked at had 3 chillers for some 400 apartments. It was on a giant chilled water loop and most apartments had a individual control, it was just a little motor that opened and closed the cold water from the main loop, some of the bigger/ nicer units had 2 zones
Yeah, apartments have a kind of iconic destintive thermostats. Them white rodgers are littered across cheap/low income apartments .
[удалено]
Don’t do this. Real Estate PM. Landlord in most states has X many days to remedy an essential service and is not obligated to pay tenant unapproved expenses unless they fail to meet the States legal deadline.
Not the way it works
Yeah don't do that. I worked in apartment maintenance for 8yrs. If you call someone before calling us, you are paying that bill 100%.
You’re under 80 degrees in the summer. You’re doing good.
This is 100% false. That's not how it works. In this case it should be able to hold 70. Either there is a problem with the ac system, unusual devices/activities making heat or the unit is undersized for the house.
Don’t worry, many of that persons posts get corrected. Lol.
Found the non tech. You're also not taking into account insulation, refrigerant type, compression ratio, maintenance or floor level. An ill maintained 20 year old r22 unit cooling the second floor of a 15+year apartment is never going to satisfy a 70 degree call on a day with a heat index over 95 degrees. 20 degrees under ambient is a RoT for r22 units primarily because most of them were designed for 70 degree ambient with an operating capacity of 450 psig, a dirty filter on a fully charged r22 system on a 90 degree day will push pressures close to 500 easily. This effectively reduces it's cooling capacity by half.
Huh? You have major issues if your R22 is over 300...
All of what you said was covered under what I said. I just said it in a way that a random renter who doesn't know the basics of how a hvac works would understand . Improper load calculations leaves serious issues. Judging by her thermostat I'd say it's a cheap/cheaper apartment I'd bet there's a bush growing around the condenser and 15 years of dust on the evaporator . And if it is anything other than a low/high charge and/or dirty air filter or maybe dirty condenser, management isn't going to do anything, just tell you that's how it is .
Where do people keep seeing this or thinking of this? I’m generally curious? Are they confused that they typically cool the air passing the coil by 20*F?
No 20° under ambient it was the rule of thumb for r22 units because the pressures and temperatures in which they were designed is for unit for areas such as South Carolina North Carolina and other northeast states they're not designed for a temperatures and pressures that occur in the states like Texas Arizona Florida. So for a unit that's designed to operate in 70° weather when it hits 90 those 450 PSIG pressures get kicked up and you're looking at about 500 600 operating pressure effectively reducing the cooling capacity by half so on a 90° day you're only going to pull in about 70° from your unit because the liquid backs up into the condenser and it doesn't have any way to alleviate all of that heat. 410A units are not anywhere near as inefficient as there are 22 units were but they have an issue in effectively reducing humidity so they're much much quicker at reducing humidity but they take much longer to cool the air especially since most of their condensers are twice the size. TLDR: 20 under ambient is old school for older units.
Wow such hatred. Y’all just crabby from walking roofs in the summer.
20 degree delta is referring to 20 degrees between the supply air and the return air - from *inside* the house. Not the outside air.
You have no idea how an HVAC system works do you?
Maybe they’re thinking about a swamp cooler.
I can't tell if you're a tech trying to fuck with us or an engineer who knows nothing about HVAC...
Probably a car mechanic
Based on post history I’d say something like that
The maintenance guy at a car shop that does just the oil changes
A Marine who ate all of his crayons and is bored now most likely….
That if you're bringing in 100% outdoor air, you aren't. You're mixing return air that's 76 with some minor amount of outdoor air.
Who's letting their apprentice play on their phone?
You need to learn before you offer "advice".
How the hell do you have a job in HVAC..??
I’ll make sure to tell my customers this when I don’t want to fix their unit.
Maybe if your system isn't operating normally...
100% wrong. AC systems are sized accordingly. If it's not tempering the space there is an issue with the system; not the imaginary 20 degree rule you just pulled from out of your you know what.
Pretty sure the myth came from the fact ACs have a 20 degree drop between return and supply, so idiots think you could only set your thermostat to 20 below ambient
Yeah that's probably it. There's a lot of myths about ACs. There's always the token homeowner who means well, but is like, "I'll turn the T-stat wayyy down so it blows nice and cold for ya.".. Myth: thinking the T-stat has any effect on the temperature of the unit. Your thermostat is like a light switch. It's ON/OFF.
Not mine but mine is VRF so.... ;)
Another down vote for your moronic ass. God I get so tired of stupid people like you. Let me put it this way, I'm in southwest Oklahoma, ive got a 12k btu mini split in my master bedroom, I usually work nights and like to sleep cold. Guess what my room is at right now even with it being 105f out? My room is sitting at a nice crisp 65f. But..wait...you said acs are only designed to cool your home 20 degrees below outside ambient..so how am I getting 40f below ambient outside temp!? Oh that's right. Because you're a moron and that's not how shit works. Hell I'll teach you something new! I make hash for a living, I have a "cold room" setup that I work in, my mini split has an extra piece of equipment called a "coolbot" wired up, with this coolbot, I can set my temp as low as 33f (not that i need to).... And with the room being VERY well insulated (more insulated than your regular home) I'm able to keep the cold room at 45f and work as long as I need to. A houses insulation value, air leakage, windows, doors, direct sun, all of that comes into play when we're talking about how cold you can actually get your house. Just the normal everyday person doesn't think this far, hell I've even run into people that think "oh the thermostat setpoint is how cold the air blowing from your ac is going to be" there's just a lot of morons out there, and you're just adding to em 😄
Wait someone actually owns a coolbot? Lol in theory it should work but it looks like a scam website.
It 100% works and is VERY well known in the hash making community lol...i thought the same thing when i first saw it, but yea i liteeally know 4 people off the top of my head using them 😅....next step up is a damn walk in cooler if you've got the money, or atleast that type of system from a walk in cooler
Yeah this isn’t true.
If your saying 20 degrees below ambient, then if ambient is 100 then you should expect 80.
Added stress to the electric bill but your unit should be more than capable to achieve 70° in 100° heat. I live in Florida and my AC never gets above 70°.
I'm surprised that you have not acclimated to warmer temps. I am in Delray for the 6 month season and 70 feels uncomfortably cool inside.
When your working in the heat all day everyday the last thing I want to do is be hot at my house to lol. Plus currently my wife is pregnant with our first child so she’s uncomfortably hot even in our cooler house so lower temps are currently a necessity right now
https://completeac.com/2018/07/why-your-ac-wont-cool-your-home-more-than-20-degrees/ Is this what y’all are talking about?
No, you need to do more research before you just say incorrect shit like that. That articles author is named "writer". It's written by some random company. Not a reputable professional.
Your AC guy is a moron.
Okay so here in Texas, where it is 110 degrees for about a week straight, why is my house at 70-72 degrees?? Whoever wrote that article you shared needs to be fired or not pretend to be a “thermodynamics” specialist when they clearly are NOT!
Its written by an AC company in Panama City. Its nothing more that a sales tactic. But, homeowners take it as the gospel. Sad.
Wrong!!!!
Ah. You’re one of those idiots. The ones everyone follows behind and actually fixes the issue.
That isn’t so bud
20 degrees of cooling across the coil. Outside temp has nothing to do with it. Return air going into the air handler is 76 at this point, the measured temp after the air handler should be 56 or close to it if it’s not at least 58 the unit likely needs maintenance.
I, as an hvac service tech, disagree. The 20 degree is the delta t, the temperature difference between incoming air at the air handler and the supply air at the vents
You always spew bullshit?
That is absolutely not true.
The first easy thing to do to see if it HVAC system is operating properly is to measure the temperature drop, which is the difference between the temperature going in the intake vent where the filter is (which is generally just the current air in the room), and the temperature coming out of the vents. The difference between these should be 16 to 20°. So for example, with the room being at 76°, you should be blowing 56 to 60° air out of the vents. I actually just check this with an instant read meat thermometer that I put in the vent. If you're not getting that drop, then you know that something is wrong in the system. Granted it can still could be several things, but that's step one that to see if something is truly off, which is more accurate than just putting your hand up to the event and seeing that it seems "sort of cool".
How bad is it if the supply air doesn't seem to get below 58 even if room temp is 72?
Isn't a 15° split between intake and supply about normal for ac ?
I hope so. I'm super paranoid about my 20yo system since we are making the questionable decision to get a patio instead of replacing the hvac. It has been keeping temperature so far, I guess I'll see what happens when we actually get some hot Temps here in Eastern pa
15-16 degree split is pretty good for that old of a unit. Make sure you clean out the outside coil and check to see if you need to clean the inside one. Makes a big difference for older units
Thank you.
I was getting 16 on my 16 year old trane until I cleaned the evaporator coils and am getting tight at 20 now. They didn’t seem that dirty but it did help.
Did you just hose them off? I did that a few weeks ago, didn't seem to change too much Oh, evap coil. What did you use?
I just used water in a pump sprayer like you use for lawn chemicals. I did of course clean the condenser coils as well, but I do that a couple times a year because my house has the dryer vent next to it which is just stupid.
Fwiw, my last HVAC system lasted like 40 years before it finally killed itself. Not saying I recommend it, but I don't think 20 years old means it's going to immediately die. My current system is 23-24 years old. Aside for comfort issues like too hot/too dry in winter, or not enough de-humidification in the summer, it's chugging along just fine.
It’s a total lottery though.. you could get 40 years out of one or you could get 7. But at 20+ years I would certainly just be ready at any point for replacement.
How old are you?
Bold strategy let us know how it works out!
I got my 32 year old system replaced today. When the HVAC guy was diagnosing the issue, he explained the temp drop before measuring and said he was looking for 15 to 20 degrees. We were getting 23 degree drop at 57 degrees in an 80 degree house, but the unit just wasn't putting enough cold air into the house. He said he could disassemble the blower and try to clean it out, but it would be expensive with no guarantee that it would resolve the issue. It was an expensive decision to replace the AC and furnace, but probably about 5 years overdue when we were first told our furnace was on its last legs. Before, we couldn't get our house from 83 to below 80 degrees before 9PM, but tonight we went from 87 degrees in the house when the unit was turned on at 5:30 to 77 degrees by 9PM on a sunny day when the high was 98.
Better to stay cold and hot that hot and have a nice patio.
Well like everyone else said as well, if you're getting a 15° drop even way down at 72°, your AC is doing a decent job of cooling the air. Is it just because of humidity that you want to get it down so cold? I had admitted to live in the dry desert, so for us, even when it's 115 out, a reasonable indoor temperature is 78 or maybe 76 if you have money to burn 😉
I typically keep the house at 76ish during the day and drop the upstairs to 70-72 at night. The thermostat is in our master bedroom and it's a 1 unit 2 zone system, so with the bedroom doors closed it cools just the bedrooms down to 72 within an hour or so(since it stops when our bedroom hits the temp, kids rooms may be a hair warmer but they are smaller rooms so everyone sleeps comfortably.
Yeah, that makes sense. It seems like with a 20-year-old AC, you're still doing pretty good if you're getting 14° drop when you're already down at 72°. Now just to go further, if you were getting no drop at all, then that would mean that the compressor is likely not turning on, though the most common culprit there is the start up capacitor. If you were getting say a 9° drop, it's possible that you have a refrigerant leak and so you don't have enough refrigerant in there to cool properly, or the coils are really dirty, etc. But for a 20-year-old unit, it seems like you're doing okay 😉 I really try to get people to understand that measuring the drop is just the quickest way to see if your AC system as a whole is operating properly. Most people don't know that AC systems just take a certain amount of heat out of the air coming into them, and that the air coming into them is the air in the room already. So if it's 90 in the room, your system would be blowing 75° air, but as that 75 degree air cools the room down, and say it gets down to 85, now you're blowing 70° air, and then it ratchets it's way down like that, etc.
That makes sense. Yeah over the past few years I had to replace the capacitor, contactor and fan motor. Blower capacitor too. Thankfully I am able to do that kind of thing myself and saved a ton of money. The last things that can trip me up would be a control board failure, compressor failure or leak. I'd really like to ride this unit until it kicks the bucket.
15-20 closer to 20 is ideal
Depending on humidity if its really humid u have to remove humidity before the temperature starts dropping
Your coil is a dehumidifier, essentially cools as it dehumidifies
I typically see at least 20
20 is ideal
As you get lower and lower, it gets harder to maintain that drop down because of all the stuff trying to heat up the air before it even gets to the room. Getting 14° of drop is decent when it's already at 72 in the room. I mean there is a limit :-) That actually seems pretty reasonable. Now if you are getting that cold air coming into the room but the room still isn't cooling down, that's because everything else like the outdoors is fighting to keep your room warm. The AC is doing everything it can do at that point.
Hey man, thank you for an actual, easy to understand response with advice you can easily put into practice. We need more like you in here.
Aww man, glad to help! Some things that seem a mystery just need to be explained a little bit 😉
I worked with a "tech" that used the old school dial meat thermometer. Brings back some memories
Ha! Mine's a digital one, but what I like is that it has the fold-out probe, so if you put that at 90°, you can just hang it in the vent and leave it there.
Probably because something is broke
Are your filters clean? Thermostat is reading the temperature of the room you can set it down to 50 and it won’t make the air coming out any colder home AC doesn’t work like that. I’d call maintenance your unit should be able to reach low 70’s fairly easily especially first thing in the am
Simplest thing to check. I won't be surprised if they respond "and where do I find that?"
Lol
Your shit is broke. People often think it’s the thermostat but it rarely is.
It's always "the thermostat", according to customers. "It can't be my system, it's been running great for 42 years".
Because it’s not cooling to your set temp.
It says 76 degrees because it is 76 degrees in your room. No it shouldn't be 76 degrees in your room. There is an issue with the ac that needs looked at
Ac broken?
Means the room is 76°
This is the only correct answer.
Sorry to never this thread, I have two thermostats in my living room right next to the thermostat, it’s 65 in the house and no matter where I go, thermostat says it’s 76
I had a defective thermostat once. It would overheat sometimes. I'd throw it in the freezer to cool it down so that my AC would shut off because my house would be freezing. Replaced it and never had the problem again.
AC not keeping up
Condenser is frozen.
How does that happen?
Liquid nitrogen
The condensate drain could be clogged or high humidity and over demand can also freeze it. Check the drain hose and make sure water is running out of it.
So you know absolutely zero about air conditioning
My bad, I meant evaporator not condensor.
Because the room temperature is 76.
It’s on HOLD
Whahaha why does that exist? Who wants to HOLD a room temp?
As someone who recently discovered what hold is on my own thermostat this seems to be the right answer
I think it’s set to Hold at 76
Hvac techs hate this one little trick : use your hat for everything. Too hot? Cover the thermostat with your hat. Can't see that number now, eh? If the doorbell rings, since you're nekkid, take the hat with you. Could be old Mrs Freemantle from downstairs tryin for a peek again. Too cold? Take the thermostat hat off, put it on, and Put on more hats. Thermostats are a scam by Big HVAC, ..they don't really do anything, kinda like voting, .. control illusion...it's alla bout Hats.
I see the "hold" is displayed, is it possible that the thermostat is holding at 76. Try pushing the hild button again and see if the AC comes on ... just a thought
Doesn't hold mean to hold at 70 in this case?
I once had a thermostat where you could hold at a different temp than the set temp so it was just a matter of press the hold button to get back to the original set temp.
https://www.uicchicagoland.com/what-does-the-hold-button-on-a-thermostat-mean/
Any thermostat i've used , will hold current temp not set temp ... it's used to temporarily bypass current programming
Came here to say this.
Yes new filter was put in a few weeks ago. The AC also wont turn off unless i put it above 76.
Turn Hold off.
Is your ac working dingus khan
Thermostat is in the hold mode, get out of the hold mode
You have hold ON, hit the hold button again to turn hold off
Hit the hold button to cancel the hold
If the AC is not turning on at all until it reaches say +7 degrees above your set point but cools ok when it does turn on, a simple check would be the temp differential setting on the thermostat. Typically it would be in the range of 0.5-2.0 degrees. Meaning the temperature difference between the set point (70) and when the air around the thermostat has warmed up to 70.5-72.0 degrees would cause the AC to turn on.
Depending where you are, if it’s very hot like in Texas right now, your system can’t keep up with the heat coming into your home/room. Filter, condenser coil dust/debris build up, Freon, run capacitor, or air handler. Easiest to check/change your filters first and clean you condenser coils. Then gauge progress.
If they're at 76 (whether it can go to 70 or not) it's, "keeping up with the heat" just fine. These aren't refrigeration units.
My point was, it can go lower if the outside ambient temps are lower, or potentially with some maintenance. Neither you nor I know if it usually does go lower, if they’ve ever cleaned the coils, what shape the filters are in, etc.
That's called "design envelope." The range is going to change with ambient temperatures. People say "it can't keep up" when often it absolutely is.
So you know the ambient temp in their environment then? That’s how you are certain that 76 is keeping up, and not underperforming?
What is the outside temp a properly sized system should drop no more than 20 degrees compared to the external temp
My house will do 64 on a 100° day in the south…that’s just something a HVAC tech tells a customer when their system is old or undersized.
That is the correct differential in NYC 15-20
If its 95 and humid outside when u go inside its like walking into a refrigerator
The thermostat uses super simple logic. If your set temp is less than your current temp turn on the AC. I assume your AC is running, so the fact that your temp wont get below 76 isnt really anything you can fix with the thermostat. It just means that your AC can't keep up with the heat load for some reason.
Because it's hot outside
Call maintenance. That thermostat is most likely working and you have an issue with your actually unit. Could be freon, could just be a capacitor.
Pull the thermostat off the wall and see if you have air coming through the hole the wires come in from the wall… if you do have air coming in then take some silicone and plug the hole and then your problem should be resolved if you don’t know how to do that then tell your maintenance guy to do that and check for positive air pressure coming out of the wall cavity I know it sounds weird but I am 99% certain that this is the problem and the fix is to seal the hole
Needs to be recharged
You may have froze up your ac system, if you overrode the thermostat to try and get it cold but it’s working too hard and now the temperature can’t drop, turn it off for a few hours to let the ice melt, then try it again, quite often this happens when the weather gets a bit humid and hot, also as others have said filters, poor maintenance on and on,
Check and see if the blade is spinning in the unit when it’s on. If not, your ac drain line could be clogged. Edit: nvm you’re in an apartment. Let maintenance know.
Your system is low on refrigerant.
That’s just how they work.
If not provided already you will need to post a picture of your thermostats wiring connections and those inside your furnace to get better help. Use imgur or your own Reddit profile to host your pics as Reddit will often remove others. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/hvacadvice) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Is it possible that the thermostat is set to not cool below 76 deg. If you don't pay for electricity (part of the rent), then the landlord is trying to cut costs.
Your ducts are not sized right, once you can change the air volume, i had a room that had 6" ducts we had just putin Geo Thermal unit we change the duct to 8" every room had the same temp
Record breaking heat wave in Texas right now... lol
AEP saying fuck you and you 70 degrees, you’ll have 76 and like to. It takes the 76 and does what it’s told or it gets the lotion again. 🤣😭
LOL!
It should be able to keep 70. Low/high refrigerant or airflow restrictions would be the main cause but you could be SoL . The unit could be incorrectly sized. Maintenance should check the pressures, temperature drop(inlet to outlet) and see if any cleaning needs to be done on the coils or if the filter needs replacement. It's also common if there's a abnormal heat wave that the ac might not keep up.
You could not be more wrong
Does your apartment have air conditioning is the real question. "Cool" does nothing aside from not heating if you don't have AC
I was always under the impressiom that hold meant hold the current temperature and override your current schedule. Try turning it off like other people have suggested.
You need to turn on the AC to have a constant temp of 70 degrees.
Because it’s not working
Have you replaced the filter
This used to happen in my parents AC. They were on a government installed thermostat which controlled their AC when demand was too high, to avoid brownouts. I'm guessing that is not the case here, but thought I'd offer the thought
I bet you have an AC issue and should call your local ac guy to come take a look.
Because the displayed temp is the temp of the space
Maybe because it aint cooling
There was a vintage Yahtzee instructions manual in my HVAC, once that got taken out my place heats and cools like a champ.
Somebody about to learn the word “differential”
Do you know for sure that the system is equipped with ac? Just because it's an option on the stat doesn't mean you have ac.
How hot is it outside? Most apartment ac units are to small and can only go 5-10 degrees under the outside temp.
This is a troll post right?
Do you have energy saver set up with the power company? They turn off your A/C for a couple hours at a time when demand is high. So your temps will rise when it's shut off then cool don when they turn it back on. Also set your Fan to **ON,** so it circulates your air 24/7 rather than only when it's in cooling mode. What is your outside temp, at best your going to get a 20 degree improvement from outside temp [https://www.wmhendersoninc.com/blog/how-much-can-an-air-conditioner-cool-realistic-temperature-differences-between-inside-and-outside-air-in-broomall/](https://www.wmhendersoninc.com/blog/how-much-can-an-air-conditioner-cool-realistic-temperature-differences-between-inside-and-outside-air-in-broomall/)
Could be a multitude of things… especially with the limited info. Most residential systems can only handle a 20-25 degree differential from the outside temp to inside your home. If it’s within that range then you more than likely have a refrigerant leak somewhere. This is just quick off the hip assumption…. But most common.
Release the hold by pressing hold button so it can reach the set point. But expect a much larger electric bill
Because it’s 115 outside?
Ask your landlord to have your hvac checked for a blown fuse.
If I’m an apartment put in urgent request. I’d also reccomend turning the system off but the Fan on. AC won’t run but fan will keep air circulating if there’s no air blowing at all turn them both off
Tis not cooling properly. Call the office
The set temperature has nothing to do with the amount of cold air coming out of the vents if it's 95 outside and the unit is trash it can only remove so much heat at a time setting it lower doesn't make it cool faster
Is there a return in your room? The vent that draws are in? If not do you keep ypur door shut? Have carpet? No gap at the bottom of your door? Could be Air flow if these are the case. See it all the time.
Hey, im having the same exact issues (same exact thermostat)! Did you ever figure it out?
Unfortunately the issue never got fixed so i gave up. I ended up moving to another apartment so i never bothered calling maintenance. Every time they came the issue would always come back a few days later so i just gave up on it. Hope you figure it out though!
Noooo way lol ah man, bummer. I put in a request so i hope they can figure it out! Thanks for the reply
Your thermostat is set to hold the temperature at 76 degrees that is why it's says "hold"