Air Conditioning

[Magical Dreams]

Ours is also on 24/7 to make sure the house is kept to the right temperature.
Our guest book as all the info you would need and if all else fails you could always ring our MC.

As others have said, after a couple of days you forget about it.

It is very rare you would have a problem with it especially if the system is maintained regularly.

We were told not to drop the temperature below 74 Degrees .
This way the system will work fine and should not cause issues.

[Pegasus928]

In the first villa we stayed in it did give a minimum temp to set it to, also advising us that if we went below this the unit would have to work extra hard and could be damaged as a result (especially if the pool door etc was left open).
If this were to happen we would lose the security deposit, so make sure you do check the villas guest book and follow the advise given.
After staying in a few hotels and struggling with the air-con they provide it really was a luxury to be cool all day - every day.
God Bless the villa lifestyle
The Pegs

[steph_goodrum]

Although most villas have an adjustable thermostat it's best not to adjust it unless you find it absolutely necessary and then only within any parameters set by the owners according to their particular system.

We generally have ours set on Auto so the the cooling will come on as and when required to keep the preset temperature. Around 78 when the villa is occupied is comfortable and if you turn it up to 80 if you are going out for the day it will still feel cool when you first come home (but not too cool if the temperature has dropped after sundown) and will save a fair amount of electricity (which along with water, as I'm sure you can imagine Florida is struggling to find ways to conserve energy resources at the moment, so all savings are appreciated).

Jackie
Thank you for asking the question though as most of us in the UK dont have AC so it takes a while to understand the concept and guests have in the past tried all sorts of things if they weren't comfortable if someone else has adjusted the system rather than just ask.

For the benefit of those who may not know how the air conditioning works, the easiest way to think of it is as a giant fridge/freezer, The compressoer runs to keep the air inside the freezer at a constant cool temperature and once it has achieved that can chug along quite nicely, to maintain it. However if you were to open the door of the "freezer" and leave it open for any length of time , as I'm sure most have done at some stage with your fridge/freezer, the compressor is having to work extra hard to cool the constant warm air flow that is coming in, if you leave your freezer door open for too long it makes the ice build up, and this is exactly what happens if you open doors and windows with the aircon on, the compressor has a build up of ice and freezes the unit which means someone has to call out to service it and obviously does the unit no good.

It's exactly the same when you are driving in your car, if you have the aircon on then you should have the windows closed to create a sealed unit that the aircon can cool efficiently.

[Robert5988]

One important factor not mentioned above is the effect of humidity.

A room temperature of 78 with high humidity is uncomfortably 'sticky', at least for me. With low humidity it is fine.

Air conditioning is the way most homes control the humidity, which is another reason to keep windows and doors closed. Air Conditioning units extract moisture from the air and you would be surprised to see how much water runs into the drains. The same effect can be seen with the puddles under cars parked with their aircon running.

In summer I use a dehumidifier to reduce the humidity in my property and this is a lot cheaper to run than aircon - but I don't rent.

[lorraine51]

We had lots of problems with ours freezing up last year with renters altering the settings,leaving doors and windows open. Its set now and a sign alongside it advises not to alter settings from what it is set out and explains why(i.e. freezing up).

[Rhosyn]

It would be lovely to think we needed it here in the UK instead of the heating !! but it is so lovely to walk into an air conditioned house after being out in that glorious sun all day ! It always seems a bit cool at night but you do get used to it.

[chrizzy100]

I'm a lot happier having the windows open than living with the AC...I only use my AC on the Cape if its humid..I just use fans if its not even in very hot weather...having my windows open all summer is one thing I miss about the UK..

[steph_goodrum]

I must admit when we are "in residence" in our home in Florida we often turn off the AC and have the doors and windows open and use the fans, mind you there is usually some painting of some description going on in the house and its nice to get rid of the fumes that way.

[Ray9]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by lorraine51
We had lots of problems with ours freezing up last year with renters altering the settings,leaving doors and windows open. Its set now and a sign alongside it advises not to alter settings from what it is set out and explains why(i.e. freezing up).
[/quote]
Can also mean your freon is on the low side .....and may need a top up

[Pegasus928]

The last villa we stayed in we couldn't leave the door open because of the alarms that are fitted to it. Any longer than 10 seconds and the whole neighbourhood knew what we'd done wrong [msnscared]