Eli5: How do building central cool/heat work?

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I’m living in a high rise building with central air, and they switch the entire system from heating in winter to cooling in summer. We have a thermostat, but I’m not sure it does anything. It’s usually too hot or cold, all I can do is turn off the unit or play around with the fan speed.

Do you think there’s a shaft the sends hot or cold air depending on the season up my entire building and my unit turns on a fan to pull in some of that air if needed? Why is my unit always too cold or too hot and adjusting the thermostat doesn’t don much?

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4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Central hvac has one big heater, one big a/c and one big fan. You can control your vent but the vent is usually always blowing. They cannot have both heat and a/c at the same time so they have to switch between the two.

For this reason these systems are not common in multi family buildings. It can be convenient for single family homes or things like warehouses where there aren’t a lot of rooms.

The best thing you can do is by a portable a/c and heater to keep yourself comfortable.

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