Monday, July 20, 2009

Losing My Cool

I awoke at 2:30am the other day and realized there was an unusual sound going on that was what woke me. I quickly realized it was coming from the a/c vent and thought maybe the fan motor had burned out. I shut the system off and found a dusty filter was slightly bowed, indicating the system was struggling to pull air. The blower assembly is fairly new and I was afraid of how much it would cost to repair it.

I tried to go back to sleep, but quit fighting and went to Walmart. I only saw one other person in the store as I walked to the back and got my new filter. I wanted to show the repairman that I had changed it, even if a little late. 3am appears to be the optimal time to go to Walmart. Lots of parking spaces and no lines at the only checkout that was open.

I was quite relieved when I got home, replaced the filter and restarted the a/c and felt the cool air flowing again. We have had some triple digit temperatures lately. I just wish that was the end of the story.

For some time now the air conditioner has had less effect late in the day. I attributed that to poor insulation in our house, no storm windows and lots of sun. Last night the cool stopped totally. We shut off the system again and opened the doors and windows and soon the temperature matched the outside at about 86 degrees. We put in a work order for someone to come look at it Monday, but after starting it up again a couple of hours later it has worked all night. I'm hoping the repairman will say, "Oh, this was plugged. We fixed it easily." That's what I'm hoping he'll say anyway.

I'd have made a hot, sweaty pioneer.

Twist

PS

The a/c repairman came, put freon in the system and was done in less than 5 minutes. $60 later the air is cooler, but it was too late in the day and the house is already hot. I guess we'll know tomorrow if that worked.

Twist