As in, "him no cool." Nope, not hardly. It started to fall behind last evening and, thanks to an unusually warm and humid night, has never caught up.
The coil doesn't appear to be frozen but we may be low on working fluid. The HVAC man has already been called and should arrive just in time to keep Tam from going to lunch.
Me, I'm going to enjoy a nice, tepid-to-cold shower and get ready for work.
(Gimme several K and I could fix this -- the duct layout is singularly addled, with outputs all near the center of the house, just off the doorways to most rooms, while the return is on an outside wall in the dining room. This might have made sense in 1924 with a low-burning coal furnace without a blower but it's marginal for modern heating and unsuited to cooling except by brute force.)
I feel your pain. One of my first 'home improvement projects" was having the duct work completely redone in my attic. I don't know what drugs the original installer was on, but apparently it made him think multiple U-shaped bends were the optimal way to route the airflow.
ReplyDeleteYou know how people show off their remodeled bathrooms or kitchens? If you come to my place, you get to see my ducts.
No a/c in the heat is not fun. I spent a summer in a house without a/c. I put white posterboard on the west-facing windows, had enough fans running that I had to wear earplugs to sleep.
ReplyDeleteTook a shower in the morning, just before getting dressed, and one in the evening. Gah, it was miserable.
Hope they can fix it without needing too many AMUs.
("AMU" = "Aircraft maintenane unit", a $1,000)
Changing ductwork around in a basement/crawl space is not a "several K job", unless 30-ga sheet metal pipe and related stuff has increased massively in price in the 15 years or so I've been out of the business.
ReplyDeleteI'm planning to move mine out of the slab and into the attic, and I doubt that I'm looking at more than a grand in materials (although I admit I haven't priced it out yet). And that will all have to be fiberglas (either ductboard or flex pipe) because it's in an unconditioned space.
(PS I assume that you would do it yourself, not have someone do it for you. Ductwork is remarkably simple to run. And when you cut yourself on it, the zinc in the galvanized coating helps your cuts heal faster! LOL)
ReplyDeleteNever had A/C before but the BayArea doesn't require it, teh New Mountain Redoubt has it though. Summer temps routinely to 100 and more.
ReplyDeleteDuctwork might be simple but making neat holes in the floor -- and patching the old ones -- is not.
ReplyDeleteTough it out...our ancestors didn't have air conditioning and they got along ok......sort of......
ReplyDeleteYes, after I posted, I thought that might be it. Hardwood floors no doubt.
ReplyDeleteHey, it could be worse. You could live in Vegas, Arizona, or Texas ;) How hot does it get in Indianapolis, anyway?
ReplyDeleteAre you sure the unit is working at its optimum? Many people neglect the condenser coils on the compressor assembly. They get plugged with cottonwood fuzz, etc. and the cooling unit will actually shut down due to excessive internal pressure.
ReplyDeleteToday's A/C units are seldom low on refrigerant, as they almost never leak. If they do, it's usually catastrophic, ALL of the refrigerant leaks out.
A/C works mainly by removing humidity from the environment, so I can see it's value in Indianapolis - especially whenever it's like India. :-)
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