Friday afternoon, my air conditioning stopped cooling. Right before the weekend. Great timing. And with a heat wave of 100+ degree temps forecast. The service company didn't think they could squeeze me in before late Saturday evening, if not Sunday. This wasn't very encouraging.
Overnight, the temperature inside got up to 87 degrees, but with the ceiling fans and a floor fan running, it wasn't as bad as it sounds. I left mid-morning to go to Alan's monthly writers' group meeting, although I felt bad about leaving the cats in the house with no a/c. I kept telling myself that outdoor cats would be in that heat all the time, so it should be okay.
But then ... a miracle! While I was at the writers' meeting, the service company called and said a repairman could be at my house in 30 minutes. I raced home from south Austin, and within about 20 minutes, it was fixed. Turned out, the outside condenser fan had stopped running because the motor was going bad. He showed me how to reset a switch that gets tripped when the fan stops, and how to use a stick or a saw blade (yes, a saw blade) to push the fan and get it going again.
I've known for months that it was time to replace the entire HVAC system, so I figured this was the push I needed. I made an appointment to get an estimate on Monday; the repair guy charged me a nominal service fee and went on his way.
Except ... before the house got below 83 degrees, the fan stopped again. All the sticks I tried broke before they got the fan moving. And even the saw blade didn't help; the fan would move a little and then stop. Needless to say, I was pissed. And it was already mid-afternoon, so the service company couldn't fit me in again until ... well, they didn't even say when.
Earlier, Michelle had offered the use of her apartment pool if I needed to escape my house and cool off. As I was only getting more and more pissed at home, I clearly needed to get away for awhile. And I knew she was already at the pool. So I took off and joined her poolside. It may not make a ton of sense to go lay out in 100-degree rays to cool off (we never actually got in the pool), but it was way better than sitting at home. Barbara eventually joined us, and then we escaped to the air conditioning of Michelle's apartment, where I stayed soaking up the cool air (and eating the stir fry for three that Michelle made) until I had to leave to go to my play. Yes, I'm in a play ... which explains the lack of posts over the past month. More on that next post.
When I got home late that night after the play, it was 88 in the house. Outside, it was starting to cool into the upper 70s, so I opened up a few windows to try to draw in some cooler air. However, I don't like sleeping with open windows. And I didn't want to turn on lights or the TV or the desktop computer and add heat into the house, so I stayed up till 2 am, doing nothing but laying on the sofa, until the house cooled down to 84 degrees. Then I woke up early Sunday morning to open up the windows for a couple hours.
Sunday was the worst. The high was 103. The service company never called, and all I could do was leave voice mail at an automated system. The day dragged on as the temperature climbed. I tried putting a big bowl of ice in front of the floor fan, but it didn't seem to make much difference. Finally, late in the afternoon, I met Michelle and Barbara for a movie. I thought the theater a/c would do me good, but I felt a bit sick instead. I think I was overheated from spending all day in my house. I didn't feel better until halfway through the play that night, but then I got overheated again when I went for a late dinner afterwards with Tom, Virginia, Craig, and Suzanne and we sat outside.
Then, by the time I got home, it was 90 in my house. At 11 pm. And outside, it wasn't cooling off enough either, so opening the windows did nothing. All the fans running brought it down to ... 89. Somehow I fell asleep on the sofa for about an hour, waking up with sweat pouring down my face. Nice.
It was now 12:30 am. It was still hot even outside. No breeze. I walked around my front yard for a few minutes, then sat on my back patio in a lounge chair and tried to sleep. No dice. A tree roach raced across the porch. A tiny toad jumped onto the chair next to me. All sorts of things were rustling around in the dark, but with the porch light on, nothing ventured near. Still, it was doing me no good. So I went back in.
Now past 1 am, I was feverishly trying to figure out what to do. Find a hotel at this hour? What about the cats? Did I dare call any of my friends to ask if I could crash on their couch? Who should I call? I ran through the list of all those who live closest to me, but I couldn't bring myself to bother anyone.
Finally, around 2 am, I decided to try the outside condenser fan one last time. So I went out, saw and flashlight in hand to try to push that damn fan back to life. And ... it ran. And kept running. So I went inside and sat in a cool spot as the house cooled down to a balmy 87.
And then the cooling stopped. So I sat on the sofa and waited 15 minutes. Then I went outside again and successfully restarted the fan. Each time I did this, the fan would run for up to 20 minutes before I had to go outside again. I imagine the sight of a guy carrying a saw and flashlight at 3 am would be cause for alarm.
"Fixing" the condenser fan (saw teeth pointed away from the fan blade)Click photo to enlargeI repeated this pattern for the next 2 hours until the house was down to 82. Then, at 4 am, I turned off the a/c and went to bed.
I woke up at 7 am and got ready for work. I decided to work from home after lunch. The house had only warmed to 84, and I was able to use the restarting method successfully each time the cooling stopped. Outside, it warmed up to 103 again, but then some clouds and, I assume, a front rolled in and it dropped into the low 80s outside. So that helped a ton. I was able to stay comfortable all afternoon long until the sales rep came over to give me an estimate on a new system.
So now tomorrow (Tuesday), I'm getting the entire system replaced. Brand-spanking new everything. It'll take all day, and I'll work from home even though it's likely to get hot inside, but I would like to be around for it.
But it's interesting to learn what you take for granted. Central air, for one thing. I know millions of people live in 90-degree conditions all over the world with no artificial cooling. Yet I could barely stand one night. Also, I started thinking about what gives off heat in the house. I haven't run the dishwasher in days because the drying cycle will likely heat things up in the house. The amplifier connected to my TV gets very warm. The desktop spits out some warm air from time to time. My 100-watt floor lamp? Forget it! Only the dim light gets used for now. So I've watched less TV these past few days, though I couldn't stay off the computer for more than one night.
So, by tomorrow evening, I should have a space-age, energy-efficient, quieter, finally-equipped-with-a-standard-filter-size (who the hell makes a 10" x 36" air intake grill???), brand-spanking-new HVAC system.
Whew.
Labels: Home repair, Life, Photos
