AC unit (turned on year round) leaves so much ice in the blower causing no cooling (pic included)

Question

My mother has asthma and tells me she needs the AC on almost year round. The AC unit is outside the condo we own, and it connects to the coils in the heater/ventilation system.

We are experiencing poor cooling, (not enough cold air circulating - temp is not low enough) and ice where the coils are:

Question:

• What should I do to fix this situation now, and in the long term?

Since she is home alone often I need to understand what causes this so I can perform proactive maintenance, rather than responding to emergencies and giving her unnecessary distress and anxiety.

Much appreciated

Answer 1

I'll let someone else take a stab at helping you fix your immediate problems, but I'll take a crack at the deeper issue. From your profile, I see that you live in New York. Assuming your mother does as well, your climate is wet, but only very hot for a few months out of the year. Running a central A/C unit year-round simply to dry the air out is a gross misuse of the equipment, and is probably making the house freezing cold for no reason, at high cost, and putting unnecessary wear-and-tear on the poor thing.

If your mother needs dry air to alleviate her asthma, have you considered using a dehumidifier to dry the air? It'll be a lot more inexpensive and cost-effective than running the A/C all the time. That must be costing a fortune.