I am renting a home in San Antonio, TX. Of course its extremely hot here in the summer and lately its been nothing but hot and dry again. Most of the home stays relatively cool and comfortable, but the living room seems to be about 8-10 degrees hotter than the rest of the house. My thermostat is in the living room, so my AC will run for at least 8 hours a day without shutting off. It reads its about 80-82 in there during the afternoon hours. The AC will usually start running nonstop at 2-3 and finally start shutting off at 10. The sun sets facing the living room.

I was terrified to receive my electric bill, sure enough, we got a $300 bill. This is a 1000Sq ft house, not real big at all. The AC looks somewhat new (so I'm told). The air is cool from the vents, and blows seems to put out a nice amount.

My attic isn't very accessible, in fact there wasn't even an entry for it when I got here. I ended up cutting a hole in my garage on the site wall to see inside. I have a suspicion there isn't much insulation above my living room but I cannot see that far into the attic.

Here's what I've tried:
1. Had an air conditioning man come out and clean the coils, which were extremely filthy.
2. Put a fan at the attic opening to suck out some hot air.
3. Bought blackout "solar reflective" curtains.
4. bought a portable unit to cool just the livingroom in hopes of countering the heat in there, and make my central unit turn off. (which doesn't work, especially during the hours of 3-8 so I usually end up running two units just to make it close to bearable).
None of these have made much, if any impact on the situation.

I just don't know what else to do, my management company will probably do nothing for us. I haven't even tried since we can never even talk to the woman in charge of our property. We leave messages for her and we have someone come out, if were lucky we might get an email response. This house is about 30 years old, and was not taken care of by the previous renters so I wasn't expecting perfect. But it really kills me to sit in my living room trying to enjoy a movie and I'm not only sweating but paying tons of money to sit there and sweat. I work outside for about 10 hours a day, the last thing I want to do is come home and be charged to be hot.

Any help is appreciated, I hope I gave the proper info, this is my first question I've posted on the site.

-Chris

You may want to see what the air flow volume is coming into that room from the main unit.

Of course you don't want to do this, but adding more insulation in attic would be a good thing most likely.

Howdy! From one hot area to another! But you don't get the tropical humidity, my friend. With the dueling A.C.'s, you could always put the portable one close to where you are mostly staying in the living room, and shut the house A.C. off. In the afternoons. Or Block the windows with xeriscaped trees, to add extra cover. Does you're a.C. unit have proper drainage? If enough water backs up, and this even goes for any portable unit, then the compressor will shut down, and only the fan will blow, giving you the illusion of working A.C. Check at the base of the outside unit, and look for a plug, or tube, or even a spigot looking thing. If you have access to the underside of your house, sometimes a wire and fabric A.C. duct will be run to a portion of the house. Check the lowest point of that duct for water retention. Then you get a knife and duct tape and do a quickie repair. Finally, I attended a conference back when Mr. Carter was in office, and the first noises of "green" anything were being talked; and this guy said that if you build a little shed--- basically 4 2" X 4"'s with a slanting cover over the outside unit, allowing plenty of air to go through, that the A.C. would work less, being in the shade, and save you money.

Hopefully that will help you. Oh yeah, I forgot! FPL, my power company, will come out to my home free of charge and do an energy survey. I had one done a while back at another house, and they told me a lot of things with my A.C. that I needed to fix. Perhaps your power company can do the same?

Take Care!

What is the size of the LR? How many supply vents are coming into that room? Is there a return near the Tstat? What is the temp of the incoming cool air

Put a fan at the attic opening to suck out some hot air

It is very possible to suck out the cool air also unless the ceilings in the house are all sealed up and that includes all light fixtures in the ceiling etc.

I'll try to reply to all of the questions here.
The room is 9x14 (I don't know exactly how to configure sq ft)
One supply vent

Adding insulation would be a major pain for me, but I've talked to my dad who knows a family friend who says he can do it for me. I'd just have to pay for supplies and he estimated around $200. So it is a possibility.

The drainage isn't spectacular. I've already had to blow out the line 2 times in 6 months. Once it was backed up and dripping out of the unit and all into the closet. I have a cousin who did AC work for a few years so he can at least save me a call to the management company. I believe the problem has been fixed for the most part. The drainage tube outside is cut off at the slab. I check it every few days to insure its got a puddle out there. The portable unit has a tank inside that fills up when its full it shuts off until we drain it outside lol.

It feels like such an uphill battle, I can't wait to get my own home. I'll make sure I spend a decent amount on the equipment.

Thanks for the responses by the way!

I re read your post, and realized you are renting? Any thoughts of asking the landlord by during the worst part of the day, to talk about it? Of course hide tha portable AC, and mist down your clothing and skin for further effect. :)