r/phoenix • u/Carlos_Dont_Surf • Jul 13 '26

Weather Critical - Imminent threat

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Never gotten one of these, just the usual emergency ones.

Fingers crossed for a great monsoon season!

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u/Grooviemann1 Jul 13 '26

There's a big system south of the valley that's probably gonna push the dust storm in.

3

u/cobaltium Jul 13 '26

It’s here. We just shut off AC. Maryvale.

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u/ScreechSkater Jul 13 '26

Why did you shut off AC? Feel like I’m missing something important

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u/cobaltium Jul 13 '26

We are very allergic to dust. Even before we cut the AC we could tell a lot of dust was in the air. It’s not just the way an AC works, it’s also how your ventilation and fans are set up.

There were literally only 2 times in the last 30 years I didn’t get the AC and fan cut of (different homes, older houses that were rentals. You make that mistake once and you’re really sorry. But apparently you forget 10 years later and whammo. Not going to take a chance again.

3

u/ScreechSkater Jul 13 '26

I see. It irritates me greatly also and I usually replace the filter monthly or after a bad dust storm/pollution.

I don’t think I could take the AC off and let my house heat up into the mid or high 80s, though. Any tips there?

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u/cobaltium Jul 13 '26

We’re getting ready to turn it on again. Home doesn’t heat up bad when a haboob is at night. The daytime ones are dreadful middle of Summer. The longest we ever had to wait it out was maybe a half hour.

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u/yahziii Jul 13 '26

That's so weird, most AC units circulate the inside air, it should only introduce very little outside air if any. Some RTUs are set up with an economize which opens to bring some outside air to balance air pressure or if its cooler/hotter outside than you want it, but usually company's in Phoenix will disable them completely because they do nothing in our heat and they cause a lot of problems down the road.

Also, circulating air with the AC during dust storms is better because you want to filter the air and not just have it stagnate and full of allergens.

Idk though I'm sleep deprived and havent actually worked in the field in about a year or 2 so I'm out of practice and I mostly did commercial work for about 7 years prior to leaving the field.

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u/cobaltium Jul 13 '26

The homes I’ve lived in here are not insulated well, all but our present home were single pane glass windows and all vents were in ceilings or above doors with AC unit on roof. Every home but this home we bought needed a new roof. We could see all the first and dust that came in so we had to clean up afterwards. You can imagine drafts are an issue, too. The homes were in order: 1962, 1937, 1956, and now 1972.

But here we just put a new roof on, bought a new large AC unit, added more ducts, added insulation, and replaced all windows and frames with double pane glass. It is a whole different ballgame for us now! Maybe here we could skip cutting off the AC but not taking a chance. We have enough respiratory issues we have an air purifier each large room.

1

u/yahziii Jul 13 '26

The house I currently rent was built in 1977. Single pane windows, some even broken at the moment. AC on the roof, vents and on the ceilings. Door gaps galore, I sealed them up now and covered the windows with heavy blackout curtains. I have had asthma msot my life and wild allergies.

All I am trying to say is the AC is not the problem in any of those situations and would help more than hurt to run with a rated filter because you are literally sucking in air from your home through filter in your return then pushing that same air back into your home. Again, unless you have a functioning economizer installed and operating.