# A/C under warranty - company says it works **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 30, 2019, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-c-under-warranty-company-says-it-works/837893 "2019-07-30T19:08:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2019, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-c-under-warranty-company-says-it-works/837893/81 "2019-09-01T03:28:52Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I get that a lot at my work as well. At night (in winter), we’ll turn the t-stat way down. It might take an hour or two to feel warm in the morning, yet everyday people (usually the same people) will complain about how cold it is ask for someone to turn the temperature up. No amount of explaining that “it’s set to 72 and it’s only 70 in here, you’ll be just as cold for just as long if we set it to 80” gets through to them\*. > In college we had these junky hydronic baseboard heaters, and to make it worse, these dorms had 7 people in them, they had a main/living room and 4 bedrooms and one t-stat to control the heaters for the entire unit. > On move in day, the RA gave us a really good tip about them. He said that if you’re cold or hot, adjust it by just a tiny bit (the dial had numbers, not temps, so move it from 7 to 8 or 6 to 5 etc) and wait a day or so before adjusting it again. He said he sees people constantly fighting with it all year long. They’re cold so they turn it up to 9, then an two hours later it feels like a sauna so they turn it down to 2 and back and forth all winter, never just putting it at 5 and seeing what happens. > Even after the RA said this and I tried to explain it to them over and over they still did it. I found it was easiest to keep my door closed, let them do whatever they want with the t-stat and I just opened and closed my window as necessary. > > This is the same reason you have to let the temp in your fridge settle for a few hours or a day before you adjust it again. > At work, adjusting the temp on our big walk in cooler can take days to get right. While this is 100% true there is an addendum. When my central went down I used a room AC. There’s the temperature in the vicinity of the AC and then there’s the rest of the room. Heat soak of the surround walls would heat the room quickly when the AC shut off. The AC would read the temp of the air next to it and not the room in general. And for whatever reason it got confused. I’d dial it down a degree. Nothing. I’d dial it down 2 degrees. Nothing. I’d have to drop it 5 degrees to get it to turn on. It had a remote. it would be nice if I could switch to the remote and use it as a thermostat and then set it away from the AC so it had a better read of the room like a regular central air system would do. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2019, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-c-under-warranty-company-says-it-works/837893/82 "2019-09-01T04:04:27Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > While this is 100% true there is an addendum. When my central went down I used a room AC. There’s the temperature in the vicinity of the AC and then there’s the rest of the room. Heat soak of the surround walls would heat the room quickly when the AC shut off. The AC would read the temp of the air next to it and not the room in general. And for whatever reason it got confused. I’d dial it down a degree. Nothing. I’d dial it down 2 degrees. Nothing. I’d have to drop it 5 degrees to get it to turn on. > > It had a remote. it would be nice if I could switch to the remote and use it as a thermostat and then set it away from the AC so it had a better read of the room like a regular central air system would do. A fan in the room (or even leaving the AC’s fan on) would circulate the room air help fix the situation. Move the freshly cooled air to the rest of the room so the warmer air can make it’s way back over to the AC, which would trip the t-stat. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2019, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-c-under-warranty-company-says-it-works/837893/83 "2019-09-01T04:18:08Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > A fan in the room (or even leaving the AC’s fan on) would circulate the room air help fix the situation. Move the freshly cooled air to the rest of the room so the warmer air can make it’s way back over to the AC, which would trip the t-stat. Absolutely. I did both. Trying t cool a single room when the walls and ceiling are heat soaking it is tough. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-c-under-warranty-company-says-it-works/837893.md?page=4)