Hi,
I'm somewhat new to mobile home living and i have a lot to learn but as of recently I've been having the worst problem well the heat and humidity my home. Yesterday I spent time crawling around under my home trying to see what could be the issue. I taped up 3 spots where the insulation was showing and felt the air ducts and they were light so I'm assuming they don't have water in them thankfully but there is condensation on the outside of the air duct. I'm not too sure of that poses that much of an issue or not. Even though I did some reading could somebody give me some advice and share some of their experiences with this issue? I appreciate it

 

Welcome to the forums!

If you give us your approximate location so we can know what type of climate you have it would help.
Running your HVAC usually helps, if the humidity is extra bad you may need a dehumidifier.

 

Thanks! I'm not sure how i forgot to mention it but I'm in central Florida

 

I forgot to mention as well that we usually leave our air at 76 to help a little with humidity

 

I used to live in Bithlo [outside of Orlando] I don't miss the humidity!
I wouldn't think the fact that it's a trailer makes a big difference with the humidity although they typically don't have as much insulation and no attic to vent. Unless you have standing water I doubt there is a lot you can do outside to reduce the humidity.

 

For real estate, the 3 most important things are, Location, Location, and Location.
For cooling, the 3 most important things are, Shade, Shade, and Shade.

You want trees to shade the south side of your lot.

You want trees to shade the south side of the house on the lot.

You want the south and west facing windows to have shade (trees or awnings) and then white curtains reflect the sunlight/heat streaming into the house.

You want the air conditioner to be on the northern/ shady side of the house.

Finally, when it gets cool at night, you want to run a fan to exhaust the hot air in the house and pull in cooler evening air. You want to run this, not just to change the air, but to cool down the house over the evening, so that you start the day with cool air in a cool house.

 

Previously did the air conditioning cool and dry out your home? If so there may be a problem with the unit why it is not longer cooling properly. When in doubt always check/replace the air filter. If that doesn't help you may need to call a professional to look at your AC.

 

It would also help to know the approximate age and size of your MH.

 

My mobile home was built in 2003 and it is almost 2,000 sq ft. The unfortunate thing is that i have no shade what so ever over my home which makes sense when it comes to insulation. My front door faces north and i don't have any windows facing east or west. It seems that the sun usually beats down more on the south side of my home as well.

It just blows my mind that my electric bill is always between $250 - $295... We keep our thermostat at 76 degrees and lately have dropped it down to 74 at night for a little more comfort

 

I changed the air filter a few weeks ago but I'm going to put another one in today just for piece of mind. We have a Hisense rolling ac unit that i set up in the living room venting out the window which works great! The problem areas are the rooms on each end of the house.

I haven't noticed any standing water under the house. May be a silly question but do air ducts normally sweat on the outside of them?

as I mentioned before I'm still somewhat new to mobile home living and home repairs in general so I'm trying to take everything in that I can. I really appreciate all the replies I've gotten so far

 

Not my area of expertise but you have cold air inside the duct and hot air on the exterior side. I assume more insulation around the duct would stop that along with making your HVAC more efficient. While I've lived in and worked on a lot of single wide MHs, I've had little dealings with double wides.

Not a short term fix but I'd plant a few trees, just be mindful of where your septic drain field is. Maples grow fairly fast. I suggested planting a few trees to guy in orange county and his reply was they take too long to grow ...... he had already lived there for over 20 yrs. Had he planted trees when he first parked that single wide he would have had shade by then.

 

What color is the roof and what sort of slope?
I'd seriously consider whitewashing an asphalt shingle roof, or white pool paint for a flat roof.

A dark roof in the southern US can easily heat up to 170-200 degrees, while a white roof can be 45-80 degrees cooler.
Paint My Asphalt Shingle Roof White? Does It Make A Difference? | Houston Cool Metal Roofs

A few other options are
- letting the grass grow a little longer, e.g. mow at your highest mower height setting. Short grass means the GROUND stores heat all day, while longer grass means the GRASS gets the heat, the ground gets a bit of shade.
- a trellis or netting along the south side of the house to create some partial shade
- garden beds with any kind of broad-leaf plant like pumpkin vines, tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash - anything that grows up off the ground and provides shade.

 

A solid coat of paint doesn't hold up well over asphalt shingles. You can mist the shingles with watered down paint but that only works with subtle color changes. White shingles in fla are prone to mildew might not be an issue where the dew dries promptly but will affect the northern side.

 

My roof has a gamble slope and it is metal.

 

A guy at work recommended me laying down some white paint as well. He used a certain kind and said it has worked well for him. I get mildew on the north facing (front) side of my house i don't know if it'd be a problem on the roof though. Again, thank you guys for the advice.

over the weekend I watched a possum walk around the back of my house and I'm pretty sure went up underneath my house. I guess I'm going to need to do a thorough look around in the belly the crawl space. I've had a few spots in the underbelly where insulation was showing I just hope that there isn't anyting waiting for me

 

I put Kool Seal on the roof of one of my enclosed trailer and it seemed to help with the heat. I applied a oil based primer first then two coats of Kool Seal as the top coat.

 

I'd guess your vents are in the floor? Cold air goes down - into your duct work - close or cover them with a magazine.

Do you have any larger windows on the south side?

 

I prefer the oil base [silver] kool seal [any brand] as it doesn't need a primer and will hold back rust. The white roof coating [elastomeric] works well but because it's latex it needs an oil base primer to stop/prevent rust.