I do not remember when our beach house did not have an A/C because I have had mine for years.
This is the 13th year without much of a complaint.
Besides the very occasional a/c repairs that our Heating as well as Air Conditioning specialist handles, the unit works perfectly. So what is our hack? Well, I just listened to the advice our Heating as well as Air Conditioning specialist gave myself and others years ago when the two of us first had the unit installed. I trusted the Heating as well as Air Conditioning business I contracted to find myself and others a suitable system for our beach house since I was pretty red in this area back then. They first came and measured the room sizes and took note of other aspects such as the number of windows I had in our home and the insulation on the attic and walls. Once this was done, they brought in a perfectly-sized unit that was professionally installed. From that time, all I have had to do properly is to change filters, scrub the condenser, and sometimes vacuum the vents. I make sure to have the professionals come in at least before Winter and Summer every year. They check for leaks, supply the ducts a professional deep clean, check for leaks, and supply the unit an overall tune-up. This gets myself and others through Summer and Winter without any hitches, no matter how extreme these more than one seasons get. I recently discovered that our unintentional habit of switching our a/c off every once in a while, especially when the weather is favorable, may have contributed to this. Whether temperature swings happen rarely, our A/C unit can be off for more than one weeks on warmer and cooler days. These kinds of breaks help the unit stay in fine shape since constantly running the a/c unit leads to most of the components wearing out before their intended time.