Air Conditioning and Good Friends

Stage Coach RV Park, St. Augustine, Fl.

Sandhill Crane

Okay, so we've been here in Florida now for the better part of 3 months. We can only live in Florida under one condition and that's...air condition(ing).  You may recall that in February this year we had our main air conditioner replaced in anticipation of our return to Florida. We replaced the ailing Carrier (for which we could no longer get parts) with a Coleman Mach 3.
Since perhaps June we've run the a/c continuously. However about 4-5 times a month it would trip the 20 amp breaker for the a/c. It wasn't a problem since we were always home when it happened and it was usually in the morning or evening when the unit was repeatedly cycling on and off.
My remedy had been to run the fan on low and set the thermostat to 75 to keep the system running longer and thus not cycling off as much.
That last few days have been exceptionally humid, I'm talking 90+ degrees and 90 percent plus humidity. Lows have been in the mid 70's with high humidity. Under these conditions, the a/c was tripping the breaker 3-4 times a day over the last few days. Not good! Again it was tripping after the system shut off and cycled back on in the evening and early morning.
I had exhausted my diagnostic ability with regard to this issue and had changed the filter, changed the circuit breaker, checked connections and made sure the condenser on the roof was clean, etc. It was time to call a professional. So we called in Tom's Mobile RV repair. 
Tom checked the amperage draw of the air conditioner and checked all the capacitors and everything checked out fine. So he called the Service Tech hotline to Coleman and explained the situation to include how we operate the system (Low Fan in auto setting, set at 75 in 90 plus degrees with 90 percent plus humidity).
The response was basically "operator error" on our part. 
According to Coleman under our current weather conditions and operating mode, the coil is icing up at which time it shuts off the compressor. However, the thermostat tells it to come back on and thus it trips the breaker. In order to operate properly under our humid conditions, we need to run the fan on hi and preferably in the on (not auto) position to keep more air moving through the coils and prevent the coils from icing up. Also we should set the thermostat to a setting that would allow it to cycle on and off on occasion. So, we paid $165 to the mobile tech for that lesson!
It's good to be back in Florida under the right condition...air condition.

Some good friends of ours, Joe and Leah from the West coast of Florida drove over to spend a weekend with us. So we spent some time in Historic St. Augustine.

Horse drawn carriage for tourists.

There are many historic sites and museums as well as shopping opportunities in St. Augustine.

Historic Church in St. Augustine

We enjoyed the free tour and wine tasting at the San Sebastian Winery in town. Joe and I didn't drink, but the girls had a good time! Of course, it's hard to leave without making a purchase!

Joyce with Joe and Leah at San Sebastian Winery

We were glad that Joe and Leah could take the time to visit and we hope they return soon. We had a great time!