In my apartment, the living room has a vaulted ceiling. I live in Florida so it's about 92 outside, and there is so much heat just sitting up in the ceiling. The heat is too high up to be felt when standing on the floor, but it prevents the living room from ever getting cool. Not much air comes out of the vents in the living room since the system is small, and designed to cool the bedrooms more than the living room.

I was wondering if pointing the register vent up so that the air blows into the heat up there, would make any difference in the temp in the room. There is a big vent, but a damper with a small hole in it is at the end so that only a small amount of air can come out. If I remove it, none of the other rooms get air.

The reason why I am asking this is because in the day, the house will get no cooler than 78 even if the unit runs all day. There is just so much heat up there that it is slowly being mixed in with the cooler air downwards, and basically cancelling out the cooling of the living room.

The heat at the ceiling is not the problem. If you mix it with the living space air (8' and lower) it will put more of a heat load on the a/c system. A new system will keep the indoor temp 20* lower than the outside temp. 92* outside 72* inside. The higher the humidity the worse it is.

The air coming out of the vents should be 18* lower than the room temp. If under 15* have the freon levels checked or one of the heat strips staying on.

Over 20* is slow air flow. Make sure the evap coil is clean and the blower wheel. If not have it profesionally cleaned

Make sure the outside coil is clean. The faster it removes the heat from the outside system the faster it will cool on the inside.

If the system is old it could just be inefficient and needs replacement

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Originally Posted by Kender

The heat at the ceiling is not the problem. If you mix it with the living space air (8' and lower) it will put more of a heat load on the a/c system. A new system will keep the indoor temp 20* lower than the outside temp. 92* outside 72* inside. The higher the humidity the worse it is.

The air comming out of the vents should be 18* lower than the room temp. If under 15* have the freon levels checked or one of the heat strips staying on.

Over 20* is slow air flow. Make sure the evap coil is clean and the blower wheel. If not have it profesionally cleaned

Make sure the outside coil is clean. The faster it removes the heat from the outside system the faster it will cool on the inside.

If the system is old it could just be inefficient and needs replacement

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Okay. Another person said the same thing on another forum, so I won't do that. My system is 18 years old, it was put in when the apartment was first built. Usually, when it is 92 outside, the inside air won't go below 78 or 77. This is because the place has so many large windows that absorb so much heat.

The air out of the vents is anywhere from 54-58 in different rooms. Room temp is 76-78.

Air flow into my bedroom, my sister's and the living room (with a damper though) is strong, but my mom's bedroom and the other vents farther away are weaker. The coil is not clogged up, but it is filled with nasty moldy stuff that gives it the air a bad smell when it is running. Tried spraying degreaser and cleaner on it, but no good. My landlord is extremely reluctant to have someone remove and clean/replace it... I can't persuade him enough.

The outdoor thing is full of dirt and dust in the fins, but the air coming out of the top is strong and warm. Dopn't know if it's supposed to be hot, cooler, or stronger.

I think the bolded statement sums this up. There is no way the landlord would replace the unit if he won't even get someone in to replace the evap coil... I don't know how much heat it is supposed to remove, but I know that the air is cool from the vents, and it "works" fine (fully functional).

There are some factors you may want to consider: Huge windows, sun directly on two windows at sunset, vaulted ceiling, 2nd floor out of 2, and thin walls.

Cleaning the outdoor coil will help. Just with a water hose (NO CHEMICALS) and make sure the water sprays through the coil until clean.
The air coming out of the outdoor unit at its warmest spot should be less than 30* higher than the outside temp. If warmer than that then the coil needs cleaned.


The system does have slow inside air flow. The evap coil is thick and could look clean on the surface but blocked in the center of it. They make foaming cleaners for it that gets inside the coil and the foam pushes the dirt out and cleans the coil that way but it is VERY messy and most are ACID based that will burn the skin and will eat away the coil if not rinsed enough and when the system is running will get into the blower motor and burn it out. That is why the coil should be pulled and cleaned.

Landloards only care if it happens to their system or if they have to pay FP&L for the A/C to be running 24 hrs a day. Good luck on it!

Ceiling fans may help a bit - particularly in the room with the vaulted ceiling. According to how the room is set up, there may be a stagnant layer of hot air in the vaulted area.

Actually, the fan in the living room does the opposite: It pushes all the warm air downwards, doing absolutely nothing. I turned it to low so that it doesn't do that whenever we (hardly ever) need to turn it on.

Maybe you need to change the direction of the fan (direction switch on the side) so that you draw cool air upwards and not force warm air downwards.