“The central AC cycling on and off is not excessive, IMHO — about the same as my AC here in San Diego.”
Yes it is excessive, otherwise you wouldn’t be complaining about the humidity.
A good residential unit will run the fan at a lower speed for a longer duration when dehumidification is needed. Variable speed fans and 2 stages of cooling capacity have made dehumidifying residential applications really easy. Your unit either isn’t set up correctly, or it’s a plain jane old school single stage single speed unit doing 80% sensible heat and 20% latent heat just like it was designed to do. Sized correctly you can see what happens with a higher latent and lower sensible heat load. Oversized in San Diego has no consequence. Throw in humidity and game over.
Get it set up right, get some control over the fan speed, or get a unit to suit the application.
I should add not only will you be comfortable with a 2 stage unit you energy usage should go down as well. The local utility may have a rebate or incentive. Not sure if the fed has a write off this year, they did last.
