Nothing compares to the feeling of walking into an air-conditioned home after spending time outdoors during the summer. Georgia is known for its hot and humid summers. Air conditioning systems, however, operate in cycles. Your air conditioning system won’t run indefinitely. Rather, it will run for a period of time, after which it will cut off. For a better understanding of air conditioning cycles, keep reading.

What Is an Air Conditioning Cycle?

An air conditioning cycle is essentially the runtime that’s needed to cool your home. When the temperature inside of your home rises above that for which you’ve set the thermostat, your air conditioning system will turn on. It will continue to run until the indoor temperature has reached the temperature on the thermostat. The duration for which your air conditioning system runs while cooling your home is a cycle.

It’s known as an “air conditioning cycle” because the process repeats itself. If your air conditioning system isn’t running, the temperature inside of your home will likely rise – assuming it’s hot outside. Once rising above the temperature on the thermostat, your air conditioning system will turn back on, thereby repeating the process.

It’s important to note that your air conditioning system’s fan may continue to run after it has cooled your home. Thermostats generally have two fan settings, one of which synchronizes the fan with the air conditioning system, whereas the other setting runs the fan constantly. If you use the latter setting, the fan will always run.

How Long Should an Air Conditioning Cycle Be?

There’s no universal rule for the length of an air conditioning cycle. On mild summer days, most air conditioning systems will experience shorter cycles. On excessively hot summer days, conversely, they’ll experience longer cycles.

Mild temperatures means that your air conditioning system won’t have to work as hard to cool your home. Therefore, it will experience shorter cycles when compared to excessive hot summer days. With that said, most air conditioning systems have a cycle length of 15 to 30 minutes.

If your air conditioning system experiences shorter cycles than 15 minutes, it could be suffering from short cycling. Short cycling means that it’s cooling your home too quickly. This is a concern because it encourages premature wear and tear. As it constantly turns off and back on, your air conditioning system will degrade. Short cycling can also cause humidity problems since it doesn’t allow your air conditioning system to dehumidify the air.