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Misc Sizzling Shenanigans: warm season whamby

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ILMRoss said:
question for the board- at around what heat index does your AC begin to get overpowered?

i bought my house in november (naive first time homeowner here) and new hvac was installed/vents put in but i'm trying to quantify the effectiveness. seems like the threshold is 103-105 before things get hairy and i'm going to bed to a gross temperature.

my insulation is meh and there are some drafts i need to seal (that will be easier to find in the winter), but just trying to get a sense of where my house stands
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Points made about sizing are correct. How old is the house? I have a nearly 100 year old house with empty wall cavities and rigid foam over the original siding and hardie plank over that. Windows are new and have a very good insulation rating though. Blown in insulation in the attic and an insulated floor. Our hvac was redone completely in 2020 and we had some uncomfortable afternoons until I put an attic fan in. It's a Quiet Cool model from home depot that has bluetooth. Mounted to plywood and secured against an existing gable vent it lowered the attic temps from 120+ to around 100. Air handler is up there and it makes all the difference in the world in keeping the house cool. I have it set to come on low at 90 degrees on the internal sensor and high at 105 but I've never heard it kick on high.
 
Weird seeing the Carolinas and Virginia radar today. Each cell doing its own thing and going wherever they decide to go. I know it’s not a squall line and because of that some variance can occur, but this was unique as each cell had a different direction. Looked like mice scavenging for food.
 
ChrisAMB said:
Points made about sizing are correct. How old is the house? I have a nearly 100 year old house with empty wall cavities and rigid foam over the original siding and hardie plank over that. Windows are new and have a very good insulation rating though. Blown in insulation in the attic and an insulated floor. Our hvac was redone completely in 2020 and we had some uncomfortable afternoons until I put an attic fan in. It's a Quiet Cool model from home depot that has bluetooth. Mounted to plywood and secured against an existing gable vent it lowered the attic temps from 120+ to around 100. Air handler is up there and it makes all the difference in the world in keeping the house cool. I have it set to come on low at 90 degrees on the internal sensor and high at 105 but I've never heard it kick on high.
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I have looked at putting in a attic fan up there before. If it helps this much I’ll definitely invest in one.
 
ok thanks yall. great responses. i'm happy to be going through my dumb homeowner phase now and not when i have a wife and kids to keep comfy
GaWx said:
Is the tonnage appropriate for your house size? I’ve also learned you don’t want too large because besides it being more expensive, it won’t reduce RH as well due to more frequent cycling on and off though variable speed indoor unit helps.
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tonnage if anything could be a smidge more. 2.5 tons for 1550ish on a house with high ceilings. one big bandaid was sealing off an area near my entrance that was leaking cool air on my porch (i could feel it when i got my mail barefoot) so it's not sucking
J.C. said:
You answered your first question in your question. You need to get the insulation right before anything. I generally try to keep my house within 10 to 20 degrees of the outside temperature during the day max. I have not had triple digit heat, but if I did I would probably go as high as 75 or 76 during those afternoon hours. You don't want to freeze the coils. At night I try to keep it within 10 degrees separation, and never have any issue. I also have a lot of shade.
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this is probably it, i meant to get blown in insulation in the spring in the attic but it got put on the backburner. when i first got the place i had to hire folks to take out k&t wiring still active so that blowing it in wouldn't be a huge fire risk. I also want to have an energy audit at some point that dominion energy will do a rebate for. I have a feeling some of the vent work may be suspect in areas
ChrisAMB said:
Points made about sizing are correct. How old is the house? I have a nearly 100 year old house with empty wall cavities and rigid foam over the original siding and hardie plank over that. Windows are new and have a very good insulation rating though. Blown in insulation in the attic and an insulated floor. Our hvac was redone completely in 2020 and we had some uncomfortable afternoons until I put an attic fan in. It's a Quiet Cool model from home depot that has bluetooth. Mounted to plywood and secured against an existing gable vent it lowered the attic temps from 120+ to around 100. Air handler is up there and it makes all the difference in the world in keeping the house cool. I have it set to come on low at 90 degrees on the internal sensor and high at 105 but I've never heard it kick on high.
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interesting.. my house is about your same age. fortunately the windows are completely new. my house was a flip (different conversation) and they took care of a lot of big picture items and new windows was one of them. i will think about the attic fan, but i think there is some low hanging fruit to take care of first.

also rain cold has my dream set up right now, basically showing me that actually yes there are serious improvements i can make because my AC shouldn't be this toothless.
 
This was the best hotdog and fries in Greenville for years! I’d put it up against any dog and hand cut fries in the SE
Covid put them out of business! 🥲528730CD-DBE8-48A4-8D86-084A2561F817.png
 
BHS1975 said:
Yeap like the jungles of Borneo outside. They actually may have lower dews.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Now imagine this heat and moisture with southern hemisphere UV index. I've never been so miserable as I was in Newcastle, Australia years ago.
 
Jan 8.87
Feb 3.81
Mar 6.54
Apr 2.27
May 4.88
Jun 1.14
Jul 1.03

I see a lot of dead pines popping up everywhere, not exactly upset about that. I would expect a lot more trees to start dying off soon in these parts, or at least going dormant.
 
J.C. said:
Jan 8.87
Feb 3.81
Mar 6.54
Apr 2.27
May 4.88
Jun 1.14
Jul 1.03

I see a lot of dead pines popping up everywhere, not exactly upset about that. I would expect a lot more trees to start dying off soon in these parts, or at least going dormant.
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Seeing the same down here. Unfortunately a lot of them are longleaf pines that have had a lot of effort put into restoration.

My poplar trees are dropping leaves like nobody's business even after the little bit of rain yesterday. Don't think we'll have any pecans either.
 
Metwannabe said:
No political statements please but Trump possibly grazed by bullet at his rally. Sounds like shots fired, blood on his face. Crazy!
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A reporter has been shot as well in the head and in critical condition
 
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