How Much Can an Air Conditioner Drop the Temperature?

Here in the Coachella Valley, air conditioners are our saving grace from the hot desert temperatures outside. But combatting extremely hot days isn’t always easy, and our air conditioners sometimes don’t cool our homes down to the temperature at which our thermostats are set.

As it turns out, there’s a good reason for that. Today we’re going to talk about how much your air conditioner can drop the temperature in your home and how you can use that information to choose the right thermostat settings!

How Cool Should AC Air Be?

Air conditioners are designed to lower the temperature of your home’s air by about 20 degrees. So if the air in your home is 85 degrees, for example, your air conditioner can lower your air’s temperature to about 65 degrees.

If your air conditioner lowered your air’s temperature any more than 20 degrees, the air coming out of your vents would be frigid and uncomfortable. Sure, the cold air would cool down your home, but you’d be reaching for a blanket every time that your air conditioner was in a cooling cycle!

On extremely hot days, the air in your home might be warmer than usual. Assume, for example, the air in your home was 95 degrees and your thermostat was set at 72. Your air conditioner would cool your air down to about 75 degrees, but it might never be able to lower it all the way down to 72. When this happens, your air conditioner will run constantly until your home’s air cools down and your system is able to bring your home’s temperature down to 72 degrees.

What factors impact your air conditioner’s temperature drop?

The 20 degree air conditioner temperature drop that we described above is applicable when your system is in good working condition. However, if your air conditioner has dirty cooling coils, frozen cooling coils, low refrigerant levels or poor airflow, the temperature drop it is capable of achieving will be much smaller. In order to avoid problems like these, be sure to change your air filter every month, schedule a tune-up for your air conditioner every year and call Hydes whenever you suspect something is wrong with your system.

Use your air conditioner’s temperature drop to choose the right thermostat settings

Now that you know how much your air conditioner is able to lower the temperature of your home’s air, you can use that information to choose the right thermostat settings. On days when you know it will be extremely hot outside, consider raising your thermostat by at least a few degrees to give it a helping hand. This will prevent your system from constantly running, which will decrease the chance of it overheating or breaking down on the days when you need it the most. Raising your thermostat setting on hot days will also help keep your cooling bills low because your air conditioner won’t have to work as hard.

If you have any questions about air conditioner temperature drop, or if you’d like a cooling system serviced or installed in your home, contact Hydes, your Indio, CA, air conditioning contractor.