Thermostat set to 73, it's 77 in the house.

Great.

Lines and compressor iced up and no cooling. It's sure to be low on refrigerant, the question is why. Last time was the evap coil and $800.

Capacitor

In reply to Nick_Comstock:

All the fans and the compressor are running. The way the lines are iced up, I'm thinking low on refrigerant. It's probably sprung another leak. It's getting kind of old.

I have no idea, it was just a WAG using a semi big word to make be feel smart.

Cheaper to replace it.

Might just need the coils cleaned, but if it's a leak look into a Goodman.

Yeah, I've been studying that all evening.

I've been considering putting a couple of multi-split units in so I can shut down the rooms that aren't used and to balance the cooling better. The afternoon summer sun heats up the kitchen and our bedroom but the thermostat is on the other side of the house. I'd also like to bring the garage into the equation. I haven't done all the research yet, but the seer ratings are in the 20s. It's tempting.

I'm probably going to patch this one together one more time and get my ducks in a row for replacement next fall or spring. I hate buying stuff in a hurry.

Screw SEER ratings.

Unless your house is huge you don't need more than 13-16. Look into zoning setups instead. Puts dampers into the ductwork that open and close depending on which floor has priority.

I've got a zoned system now. It works fair. On cool days it doesn't dehumidify enough and on real hot days it doesn't cool enough.

We use a lot of A/C because I hate a hot humid house. Cooling this place was running $270+ a month last summer. If I can dump that cooling into the rooms that actually need them, like the kitchen and den, rather than the entire house I might be able to drop that some. We stayed in a house set up like that in the Turks and Caicos islands a couple of years ago, it worked surprisingly well. The biggest disadvantage would be the cost of the systems. Probably $6K to install the multi-splits, compared to $2500 for the conventional unit.

I've still got a lot of thinking to do. It will probably end up with a conventional unit again.

My furnace is still running, its 35 degrees outside

How old is the A/C?

I was fairly shocked at what a difference it made when I hung blinds to keep the sun off the house in the afternoon. It is the master, and there is a big window. I already put the tint on that, which helped some, but it still would stay pretty warm in that room. It is a stucco wall, light color, still gets hot enough to get uncomfortable to put your hand on when it is 110* out, late in the afternoon when the sun has been hammering it the last 8 hours. I was after a cheapo plastic blind.

I initially thought I would buy some that were about the right size for the window, but figured I might as well get the biggest one they had, 10' by maybe 6' or 8', to shade a larger area. I am on my second one now, the sun sort of fries them after a few years. The nicer blind on the deck is at least ten years old and is still pretty decent looking. It went from being uncomfortable, even with a ceiling fan going, to being okay for the wife in the bedroom. Really, that is all I was shooting for, because I was just fine after the tint was up. I bet it dropped the temp in that room 8 or 10 degrees after I put that blind on there, maybe more than that really, because I installed them in the afternoon. Significant difference in how hot that stucco was with it, in the shade or the sun. If the wall never gets hot, the room never gets hot, go figure. Hung it from under the eaves and secure the bottom if it looks like it is going to be windy, roll it up if the delta breeze is going, or if there are blooms on the orange or grapefruit trees. The citrus trees are not tall enough to shade the house much yet. The grapefruit is a dwarf, so it won't be much help, but the orange is a standard size, so eventually it will be tall enough. Maybe a trellis with some jasmine or bougainvillea to shelter that wall from the sun.

A ceiling fan will make a room feel more comfortable. When I lived in Texas, we had them in every room. I always thought a dehumidifier would be nice to have, it was a fairly humid down there. It was 100* and 102% humidity the guy said on the weather report one time, which sounded wrong to me. More than 100% humidity? I am thinking 100% is sort of the top end of the scale, and call the TV station to ask about it. They put me on hold, and pretty soon the weather man is on the line, like the guy that was just on the air. It surprised me, though I suppose it should not have. I bet that would be the sort of gig where you would have a lot of free time to talk on the telephone, unless there was a hurricane or something. The guy patiently explains to me that it is the "relative" humidity, which is relative to a humidity at some agreed upon temperature, barometric pressure and amount of water in the air. Apparently, at certain times, there is an unfortunate confluence of temp, dew point and pressure where the relative humidity is actually greater than 100%. Houston is not the most air conditioned place on Earth by mistake. There are some pretty rough conditions, from time to time, on the Gulf Coast. Oh, and those doppler radar graphics that show how much it rains, you know, green if it is raining, yellow if it is raining really hard, red if it is inadvisable to go outside it is coming down so hard, that one. It is purple and then black as it goes up the scale, did you know that? I found out one weekend when I was stranded at my father in law's place. If anyone had told me that one day, I would be digging a ditch in the pouring rain, I would have told them they were nuts. Turns out, not so much. The hardwood floors he had just put in were safe though, so it worked out. Had to wait two days for the water to go down enough that I could drive the 15 miles to my house. Lucky I took Wayne to get a case of beer right before getting stuck. Generator kept the fridge going, and the lights were only out about a day anyway.

We ran an a/c unit that was over sized quite a bit for our square footage down there, and it was sheltered from the sun by some pretty big cottonwood trees, and faced a lake on the other side. Problem there was the master was over the garage, and my old bug would be pretty hot sometimes when I got home. I had a big shop fan to blow the heat out a bit, but it still made the bedroom get hot, even after I blew insulation into the ceiling of the garage/floor of the bedroom. My wife never got that either. First new car I ever bought, parked outside for the convertible to stay in the garage.

Double pane windows made a big difference for temperature and noise in the living room.

I read somewhere that you may want a smaller unit than recommended if humidity is a problem. Constant running, instead of on and off is better from that standpoint.

We are getting some light snow tonight!

In reply to Toyman01:

Do you have a built in dehumidifier or are you just using AC to keep it cold? Maybe look into one of those if not.

Something like this, although I dunno about Lennox... http://www.lennox.com/healthy-indoor-air/healthy-climate-solutions/dehumidifiers.asp

Gearheadotaku wrote: My furnace is still running, its 35 degrees outside

mine too … it was 38° yesterday morning and this morning … high yesterday was ~60° but with steady 25mph winds … inside of the car was quite warm, outside much cooler than 60° should have felt like … this is about the longest dogwood winter I've ever experienced

In reply to Grizz:

No humidifier, we use the A/C to suck the moisture out of the house. That's something to consider though.

One of the other reasons I like the multi-split is, they are variable speed compressors and fans, so a 3 ton unit will behave like a 1 ton when needed. Outstanding dehumidifying and then lots of cooling when needed. I thought someone also made a conventional unit with a variable speed compressor but I haven't found any information on them yet.

This weekends plan will be to beat around the internet and see what I can find. I've got a portable unit that will keep the house bearable for the foreseeable future, so I've got some time to do some digging.

Grizz wrote: Screw SEER ratings. Unless your house is huge you don't need more than 13-16. Look into zoning setups instead. Puts dampers into the ductwork that open and close depending on which floor has priority.

What?

Me thinks you are confusing SEER with AC tonnage.

Grizz wrote: Cheaper to replace it. Might just need the coils cleaned, but if it's a leak look into a Goodman.

that's what we did. With a totally different brand.

Expensive, but much less likely to break, cheaper to run, and tax break.

BTW- no sypanthy for your problem this time of year- it was 23F last night here. I think I lost most of the plants I put in the ground last weekend.

The HVAC company is going to stop by today. What happens will depend on the cost of repairs.

If someone can explain how a lack of refrigerant can cause it to ice up, I'd love to hear it. I've heard this repeated many times, but never with a scientific explanation.

Does the coil ice up when your car leaks refrigerant?

My vote is the coil is dirty until someone can explain it to me.

The simple version.

When the refrigerant levels are correct the liquid turns to gas in the expansion coil, cooling it, which in turn cools the air. If the refrigerant level is low, the liquid starts turning to gas in the compressor and the lines leading to the coil. That causes the lines to ice up because they have no air flow.

Edit: Dirty coils usually ice the line after the coil or the coil itself.

My recommendation if replacing: add another 1/2 ton capacity. A neighbor and friend who did HVAC for a living turned me on to that idea; he said the way most people size units to houses in the Manual J calcs they tend to be undersized, that's because they rely on square footage rather than the interior volume in cubic feet. That means that in temp extremes either way the system is going to stay on way longer than it should. So I sorta scratched my head and said something about cycling, which is to cut down on moisture buildup, he said that's a non issue unless you go WAY too big, for instance a full ton.

So when the 3 ton unit at my house barfed (ice storm damage) he and I replaced it with a 3 1/2 ton. Not only was the house more comfortable in the very hot or very cold part of the day, my electric bills actually DROPPED. And I compared them all the way back to when I first bought the house. No problem with moisture buildup.

On my last house I had 2 thermostats on one unit. Was told over and over it wouldn't work. It has for years so I'm happy. One in the bedroom and one in the main area. That way the thermostat that sees the need triggers the unit. Another thing that helped is a thermostat with a "circulate" setting. It turns on the fan once an hour for 5 minutes or so to mix up the air in the house. It really helps to stabilize the temperatures room to room.

Toyman01 wrote: Great. Lines and compressor iced up and no cooling. It's sure to be low on refrigerant, the question is why. Last time was the evap coil and $800.

oh whoopdie freaking doo. it was 27 last night, i hope my paint and caulk in the work van didn't freeze. waaaaaaaa my a/c isn't blowing cold. first world problems.

we replaced a little air conditioner with a 3 ton heat pump this fall. so far it's been the best thing done to this house in years. can't wait to see what the energy usage is for cooling versus the 25 year old unit, if it ever gets warm enough to warrant turning the a/c on.

In reply to patgizz:

Didn't y'all get the memo up there? Spring is sprung. Warm weather is here and I'm ready for winter again.

I've been told that the reason for iced up coils is low refridgerant. Without enough freon in the system it doesn't cycle off and allow the condensation on the coils to drip down into the catch pan. But everyone has their own theory so maybe my HVAC friend is wrong.

My house has two units, one new and one old. The new one (Goodman) is fine and needs nothing. The old one has a small leak and after paying $150 each year to have a pound and a half of freon pumped back into it I sourced a 30 lb bottle on CL which should carry me through the next decade unless it gets dramatically worse.