How Cool Should My Home Get in the Heat of Summer?

Here in Colorado, summertime temperatures run somewhere between hot, real hot, and let’s fry-some-eggs-on-the-pavement hot! With heat indexes that can reach into the 100’s on many days, you want your a/c to perform at its peak every day. But how can you tell if it is running as efficiently and effectively as possible?

One key indicator is whether your system is striking the correct temperature balance between the indoor and outdoor air. More specifically, for our area, most systems are designed to lower your indoor temperature about 20°F from the outdoors. So, on days when it’s 100°F outside, and your system is running at its peak efficiency, your indoor temperature will likely never maintain a level lower than about 80°F.

Your HVAC system should maintain a comfortable temperature in every room. Reasonable temperature expectations are 68°F during the winter and 78°F (or 15-20°F) below an outside air temperature of 95°F in the summer.

Your a/c is not designed for 100 degrees. There is likely nothing wrong with your system. While it seems abnormal for your house to be 77 degrees when it’s set for 71 degrees, the sustained high temperature outside is also abnormal. Your a/c is sized for what the temperature is most likely to be in the summer with the high 80’s to low 90’s being the norm for our area. Your a/c is designed to cool a maximum of 20 degrees from the outside temperature. Pretty simple math: if it’s 100 degrees outside and your a/c is getting to the 80 degrees range – it is doing its job.