AC not cooling properly? Think before blaming your AC; here’s what you should check instead

AC Not cooling

Our first instinct when the AC’s cooling fails is to call the service centre and the term “Lagta hai gas leak hai”. Ideally, there’s a possibility of that happening, and there could be some other issue with your AC, too. Before all of that, there’s one important factor that most of us fail to consider and jump directly to the conclusion.

You may ask, “What’s that?” and what else could be the reason behind AC not cooling properly, apart from something being wrong with the AC?”.

There’s one thing – your Curtains.

Sound silly, right?

As silly as this may sound, it could be the actual culprit. Let me explain:

Let’s understand this

Imagine the outside temperature is around 50 degrees, and your home, despite keeping the windows closed, remains relatively hot, and the temperature remains somewhere around 45 degrees inside the house.

You fire up your AC and set the temperature to let’s say around 24 degrees.

So, ideally, you want the room temperature to drop to 24 degrees. Your AC starts the cooling process. But the problem is the indoor temperature, which is around 45 degrees.

Either it will take the AC too long to cool the room and reach the set temperature. Or, it will fail to drop the room temperature altogether.

The culprit here is the indoor temperature.

Now, imagine that the indoor temperature is around 35 degrees, and the same AC will manage to drop the temperature to 24 degrees relatively fast and without too much load on the compressor.

I am not saying that your existing curtains are good or bad. It’s just adding insulated curtains or blinds, also known as blackout curtains or blinds, will help keep the heat away from the house and indoors relatively cool, and the same AC will perform much better and faster.

Switching to blackout curtains or insulated blinds can drastically improve your room’s cooling performance. These specially designed window coverings block up to 99% of sunlight and UV rays, keeping the room significantly cooler. By limiting heat inflow, they help your AC cool the space faster and maintain the temperature with less effort.

Studies have shown that using blackout or thermal curtains can reduce indoor temperatures by up to 7 degrees Celsius during peak summer hours. This means your AC won’t have to run continuously, and you’ll notice a reduction in power consumption too.

As the headline reads, AC cooling issues can happen due to an actual issue with the air conditioner. But it is not always true. Other factors matter when it comes to cooling efficiency of the AC, and Curtains or blinds are one of them.