re: A/c working to death

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This is the sort of heat that will expose some efficiency issues. Dirty coils, leaks, and poor insulation can be a factor.

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Yep, the above issues will come into play for sure.

I live in a house that's close to 100 years old with 10.5 ft. ceilings, plaster and lath walls, lots of single pane wood sash windows and the only insulation is in the attic above the 2nd floor where our living area is located. I have a 4 yr. old 4 ton central A/C and heat system.
During the days lately it gets to the upper 70's and will cool down to 75 a couple hours after the sun goes down.

The ground floor only has 7.5 ft. ceilings with all walls and between the floors insulated and quite a few less windows. There is a 23K BTU window unit that can cool it down in 1/2 hours time to the low 70's and will easily cycle during the day.

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Are they coming in your mouth?

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Just your mom's mouth.

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This is the sort of heat that will expose some efficiency issues. Dirty coils, leaks, and poor insulation can be a factor.

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yep, good chance the OP has a refrigerant leak...

We just moved into a place that’s 70 years old. No one lived there for a while so I’m sure the house and all it’s contents were 80 degrees. It took days for everything to cool down. Painter has been working the last few weeks and the first thing he did was caulk all the windows. It’s helped.

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wife was showing me the climb in our Entergy bills over the past five months. Our house is not very big and July was $342.

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Oddly, ours has gone down. I say that as I knock on wood. We’re with Demco and last summer we hovered around $400. This year we haven’t gone over $200 and nothing has changed. Wife and kids home all day, ac at 75 during the day and 70 at night, tv’s home and, if I’m not home, every flippin light in the house is on.

Newish systems front and back keeping it as cool as we set it. Three phase keeping the bill reasonable too.

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Glad you suggested this. My panel was reading 74 (set at 70) and constantly running. I checked there and every room in the house with a very good digital temp gauge with a probe. It was consistently 72 everywhere except for the master bath (farthest from the panel) which was 75. I ended up closing that vent off and closing the bath. Turned the unit up to 74.

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I wonder how many people who say the set their's in the 60s are actually hitting those temps? I've had a thermometer that shows both indoor and outdoor for a few years now, and mine is 2-3 degrees off pretty much all the time. I keep it at 68/70 and it'll stay around 70-73.

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Don't do this unless its a 2 hose variety.

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Agreed, in general. BTW with some ingenuity you can add a intake hose to most any single hose portable AC if you don't care what it looks like inside. I mentioned the basics of how to do it in a post on the Home/Garden board but there is no use to go through this unless you just have a single-hose version sitting around that you want to make more efficient vs buying a new double hose.

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Google why most "portable" a/c's are straight garbage.

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The problem with single hose versions is they are drawing hot/moist air from outside through every crack and crevice in your house, if it is sealed well then the bathroom vents. As a result, they are very inefficient which is why the DOE requires a separate much lower effective BTU rating. They do work they are just significantly less efficient than a window unit and they also don't reduce humidity as well as a similar-sized window unit.

Wife sets it at 77 every morning. 72 at night and we have a window unit in the bedroom. New AC unit was installed 2 years ago right before we bought the house. Almost frigid at night!