You want to cool down quickly when it's hot outside. It's possible that your air conditioner will take longer than you'd like to cool down the room.


We talked to experts in HVAC to help you learn how to cool your AC faster.

Turn on the fans

To begin, turn on all of your home's lights.

"Any kind of fan will help," says Rob R. Terry, owner of Terry's A/C & Heating. "A ceiling fan, a reciprocating fan, or a box fan."

You should even turn on the vent fan in the bathroom and the hood fan in the kitchen, especially if someone just took a shower or is cooking.

Terry says this plan doesn't help the air conditioner cool down faster. Evaporative cooling or wind chill, on the other hand, will make you feel cooler.

Keep the house cooler.

It fights against all the hot air in your house when your AC unit goes on. The walls, floors, furniture, and other parts of the house are also very hot.

In this video, Terry talks about how you can help the AC unit fight.

"A/C units can only cool as fast as they can." It will take longer for the AC to cool down if there is a big temperature difference to deal with because your house is warm inside, he says.

Keep the temperature fixed, with only a few degrees of change. Terry says that this helps the AC unit reach the right temperature more quickly.

Close the blinds.

Terry says that closing the blinds and curtains on windows that get a lot of sun will make you feel a little cooler. Even better, this will keep your room from getting too hot. When there is less heat gain, it is easier for an AC unit to cool down.

Put blackout shades that block the sun on the warm side of the house. These keep at least 80% of the sun from coming into the house.

Really cool at night

Terry says that you can make your home even cooler at night by lowering the thermostat. This means that the AC will not have to work as hard the next day to cool the house down.

During the day, keep the temperature inside between 75°F and 78°F. Turn the temperature down to 60 to 67°F at night to really cool down your home.

Not only does it make the unit less busy, but studies show that beds that are cooler help people sleep better. 1.

Always have the AC on.

Terry says that you should leave your air conditioner on all the time, even when you're not home. Keep the house ice-cold all the time, but that's not always necessary. Instead, it means leaving the unit on all the time.

Clean the AC condenser coils on the outside.

Jeff Ring, owner of Modern Heating & Cooling, says that a simple way to get your AC to cool down faster is to make sure that the outside condenser coils are clean.

The box outside the house with vents on the sides and a fan on top is the condenser. It is made of metal and is square. It takes longer for the AC to cool the house when the coils inside the box are dirty.

A fin comb, a few common tools, and two cans of foaming A/C condenser coil cleaner are all you will need to clean the heater's condenser coils.

After taking off the top cover, hoover up the big pieces of dirt and use the coil cleaner. The cleaner is a solvent, and it takes a while for it to break down the rust. Finally, rinse off the cleaner with water.

Clean the filter on the inside.

As you try to quickly cool down your home when the AC filter is jammed, it's like pulling water out of a hose that is tight. It does run, but not as fast.

"Verify the indoor AC filter is clean and there is minimal interference of airflow," Ring points out.

Fill in the empty air supply duct

Randal Fuller, owner of Fuller Services, says, "One less well known way to help your central air cool your home faster has to do with how your air supply ductwork is set up."

An air supply duct access panel for the AC is hidden behind a big area. There needs to be some room, but older systems often have extra-large gaps.

"When the system starts, cold air fills that void before moving through the ductwork," Fuller adds. "This delays things." That is why it takes longer for cooler air to get to homes.

Fill in some of that empty space to get rid of the delay and speed up the flow of cool air to the vents in the room.

"It's a small adjustment, but it can noticeably improve how fast your home cools down," Fuller adds.

AC on the fritz? Contact Hersey Group for HVAC repair recommendations.