Home Air Conditioning Problem?

It sounds like you have had a lot of people look into your problem, the only thing I could suggest is hiring a TAB contractor to analyze your system. Look in the phone book under test and balance.

Try and hire a certified company - NEBB, AABC or TABB. It will not be cheap but they should be able to give you a detailed report on your entire HVAC system.

The problem could be a couple of things. If the unit has been checked 3 times then I assume that the freon was checked. If you have gas heat the the coil is located inside the unit inside the house and needs to be cleaned along with a new filter. Make sure all duct lines are intact and not separated, thus blowing cold air under the floor or in the attic. If all the above checks out then the compressor is probably going bad thus pulling more amps, which would explain the high bills. An electrician can check the amps the unit is pulling and tell right away. Next time buy American Standard. Trane is over priced and I had the same problem with a Trane unit. I replaced it with another brand and everything is OK. Good luck!

If you have low air volume out of your registers, you may have a defective blower motor, a defective blower, a blockage somewhere in the ducting, loose ducting, or the fan is stuck on low speed.

Re-check your filter, make sure the return duct is clear, e.g., no furniture recently moved to block it, a throw rug over the return, or a stuffed animal crammed into the duct. Check all of the registers and verify that they are in the full open position. On very rare instances, the insulation in a duct will come loose, flap down and block a duct, but this is very rare. On some homes, ductwork is made of flexible tubing, and this tubing can come loose, or tear allowing air to escape. If your attic or crawl space is cooler, you may be losing air from your ductwork.

If you feel comfortable and can safely open the front of the air-handler (inside unit) when the unit is operating, examine the fan and motor and see if it is spinning in the correct direction, or if it is running quickly. If it is, with the door off, check your supply registers to see if more air is coming out now. If it is, there is a blockage in the return ducting. If there is not more air coming out and the fan is spinning fast, you may have a blockage in the supply duct(s).

Open the cabinet where the evaporator coil is located and examine the evaporator coil. Is it dirty or clean? does it seem like air is flowing through the coil or trying to go around instead?

If you don't feel comfortable doing this, call in a reputable service company

you said the magic word when u said Florida I also live in Florida Tampa bay area my home was built in 58 After several 300+ bills i re insulted an had a window tint co tint windows with a reflective tint rated a 5% Installed a auto programble thermostst . now im paying 250. a month florida = hot humid sunny weather= high ac bills Last fall I started my own budget plan so far its working great During the winter (no ac ) I looked at the last 12 months bills added a small incress totat it all up devided by 12 an thats what i send every month Its a much better plan than the one power co offers theres goe every three months There are a lot more tricks that will help e mail me at nikipoo at yahoo good luck

ahhh...you're in Florida, no wonder it's hot indoors...I'm in Florida too, and I just got finished putting double plastic on my windows, plus a dark shade, plus a two-layered blanket, plus a quilt on each window just to block out the heat...and that's on EACH window. In the past 20 years it's gotten hotter and drier here. I have insulation around the dors to the outside, and insulation around the window wood as well as at the bottom of the window at the closure. Our windows have metal pieces in them and they just heat up the house a lot. We also have a drop ceiling in the kitchen which I think I'm going to, in another month, block off the kitchen from the rest of the house.

It gets really stuffy, hot and humid when I use the stove for any purpose or the burners, so I've switched to using the microwave for everything. I alternate using my fans with my ac, and I keep it down to 87F during the day. If I tried to keep it lower than that I'd burn out the ac.

I don't really know, cause I haven't tried it, to get another ac like one in the window, and I'm wondering if the btu's aren't enough for the square footage of a home, any home here, these days. I know there's a lot of insulation but then again we have a black roof which holds the heat. There are supposed to be fans in the attic. I don't think there are any here. If you have metal siding then that too would be keeping the heat in. I would suggest you get some trees. The heat is part of global warming and everyone is having this problem. Just be sure you have a back-up generator for the summer. You might want to consider installing some solar panels for cooling.

I tried to add MW as a contact but she doesn't want to know us other Floridians...sniff sniff..oh well