A residential air conditioner has a straightforward job: remove heat from a house using refrigerant and release the heat outside, cooling down the air inside the house so it can then be spread through the rooms. This process is called heat transfer, in that it shifts heat from one place to another. A good way to think of it your AC is as a pump that pumps out the heat from your house to make you feel cooler.
But how much heat can an air conditioner pump out? What are the limits on how cool your air conditioner can make your house during a heat wave? You’ve come to right place for an answer, since we are a NATE-certified air conditioning contractor in Katy, TX who work with all types of systems.
What’s the worst problem a central air conditioner can face? We won’t keep you in—it’s a dead compressor. When you turn on the air conditioning system to cool down your home, and you hear no sound from the outdoor cabinet aside from the fan, the compressor has stopped working. The fault might not be a dead compressor—it could be a failed capacitor or an electrical issue—but it’s a possibility.
During a hot summer day in Katy, air conditioners in home put in long hours. You’re used to hearing the air conditioner humming away for long stretches during a 90°+ late summer afternoon. This is normal, although we recommend setting the thermostat as high as comfortably possible. This will reduce the strain on the AC and allow it to cycle down for periods.
Your air conditioner is not a magic wand. It’s an electronic device that works with wires, switches, capacitors, and everything else that’s contained within our modern technology. So when something goes wrong, there’s usually a technical way to figure out what’s going on. Troubleshooting electrical devices isn’t rocket science.
The heat we’re experiencing right now in Katy is extreme. It’s not easy to stay outdoors for long, but at least you have a home with a powerful air conditioning system so you can always retreat to it.
What sort of sounds do you hear coming from your air conditioning system? You expect to hear the whir of the fans and the hum of the compressor when it turns on. But what about the dripping of water? Yes, this is one of the routine noises you can expect to hear coming from your AC as it works on a hot day. It’s the condensate moisture in the system dripping down into a pan, where it is then pumped down a drain and out of the house.
When the Katy summer heat settles in, it doesn’t fool around! When it’s hot, it’s hot. You want to be assured that your home is always a cool retreat from the summer heat thanks to a central air conditioning system.
Heat pumps are a popular option for home comfort here in Katy because they are ideally suited to our climate: hot weather during most of the year with a short, cool winter. A heat pump works as both an air conditioner and heater, able to switch between the two modes with only an adjustment on the thermostat. During hot weather, a heat pump is as powerful as an air conditioner of the same cooling tonnage. During colder weather, a heat pump delivers heat at lower cost than using an electric furnace.
The runaway air conditioner is a common cooling problem homeowners may run into during the summer. Everyone knows why it’s bad news when an air conditioning system won’t turn on at all. But an air conditioner that just won’t power down and keeps its compressor running on and on is just as bad a problem. In most cases, the AC will need to have professional repairs to fix what’s wrong. 