Why Your Las Vegas Home Feels Uncomfortable Even Though the AC Is Running

The thermostat is set at 74, and the system is running, but the house still doesn’t feel right. What gives? You’re not imagining it, and the problem usually isn’t that the temperature is wrong. It’s that temperature is only one of several factors that go into what we consider “comfortable.”

Humidity

Las Vegas is famous for its dry heat, and for most of the year that’s accurate. However, during monsoon season (July through September), the valley gets pulses of moisture-laden air from the Gulf of California that push relative humidity way up. On those evenings, a 74-degree home with 65% relative humidity feels a lot more uncomfortable than a 74-degree home at 30% humidity.

Your AC pulls moisture as a byproduct of cooling. Warm, humid air passes across the cold evaporator coil, and water vapor condenses out. However, this process works best during long, sustained run cycles. A system that’s starting and stopping frequently doesn’t run long enough for effective dehumidification.

If your home feels clammy or “heavy” during monsoon weeks, especially on evenings when outdoor temperatures aren’t very high, humidity is probably the culprit. A whole-home dehumidifier integrated with your HVAC system can help.

Airflow Distribution

A thermostat measures temperature at one point in your home, but the rest of the house may be experiencing something quite different. Rooms can run significantly warmer or cooler than the thermostat suggests depending on where they’re located and other factors.

In Las Vegas homes, a bedroom with west-facing windows in the afternoon has to deal with radiant heat gain that a duct run sized for average conditions may not be able to handle, no matter what the hallway thermostat says.

An air balancing assessment maps the actual airflow to each room against what it should be, and adjusts dampers and registers to distribute cooling more evenly.

Radiant Heat

Mean radiant temperature is the average temperature of the surfaces surrounding you, and it affects perceived comfort independently of air temperature. If you’re sitting near a west-facing window in the late afternoon, or in a room beneath a poorly insulated roof, the surfaces around you are radiating heat toward you even if the air temperature is 74 degrees. You feel warm not because the air is warm, but because the walls and ceiling around you are.

This is why attic insulation improvements and window treatments make such a big difference in comfort. They reduce the radiant heat load, not just the air temperature.

Indoor Air Quality

Stale air, excess dust, pet dander, or inadequate ventilation can create a stuffy, closed-in feeling that makes you feel uncomfortable even when the temperature is fine.  If your home feels stuffy rather than specifically hot, air quality and ventilation are worth checking alongside temperature and humidity. Our air filtration and indoor air quality services can help.

The System Itself

Finally, it’s worth ruling out a performance issue with the AC before digging into everything above. A dirty evaporator coil, low refrigerant, clogged filter, or a blower motor that’s on its way out will all make you less than comfortable.

If your home regularly feels less comfortable than it should, a service call is the fastest way to figure out what’s going on. Schedule your appointment today.