A couple of weeks ago, when Chicky was still home, a couple of her friends came over and spent the night (they still do this when they are in college).
Chicky mentioned that it was really warm in her room, and I checked the air conditioner. It was reading out at 84, however, I had it turned down to 78.
Hmmm.
I had also noticed that the unit in the garage was leaking…
This is a problem I’ve experienced in the past, and a simple call to my air conditioning company has usually resulted in the technicians unclogging the pipes and adding a bit of freon.
Well, let me tell you, what occurred was very different this year.
The young man opened up the front cover and immediately noticed a problem. The evaporator coil was leaking, and it wasn’t going to be a simple fix.
In fact, the cost to replace this part was $2,000 plus labor.
Oh.
My.
Gosh.
We purchased our home nine years ago brand new, so the unit has almost a decade of wear and tear on it. The technician told me that most units last 10-12 years, and he did not recommend replacing the coil because another expensive part could go out of commission given the age of the unit.
To replace the unit would cost me between $5,000 and $6,000.
Oh.
My.
Gosh.
The Mr. came home around this time, and I gave him the bad news.
He’s the money guy…can run numbers in his head like nobody’s business.
After discussing the issue with the technician, we decided to take the plunge. After all, the house had not been cooling off properly for several weeks, the leak had been getting worse, and the electric bill last month had exceeded $350. We normally run between $80 and $125.
All of this occurred on Monday. We were scheduled to have the unit replaced two days later. The technicians turned off our air conditioner and provided us with three portable units to minimize some of the discomfort in the interim.
We placed one in the den, one in the master bedroom, and the third one in Rooster’s room.
Boy, were the dogs happy. They positioned themselves right in front of the units and did not move a whole lot those few days.
Wednesday arrived, and I was eager to begin. The guys arrived at 8:15 and, for the next seven hours, worked hard to install the new unit.
Although they were young, they knew their stuff. They talked about ampage and other things I had no knowledge of.
When they were finished installing everything, they showed me each component and explained a few how-to’s. This was right up my alley…you know how much I love gadgets!
The thermostat is fancy and allows us the option of setting the air temperature to different schedules.
Can I tell you how much I love this feature?! We usually turn the air down a few degrees at night and then turn it back up in the morning. We do this to keep our electric bill down; however, some days, we forget to turn it down. The new thermostat will take care of this for us!
When the guys finished, my air conditioning was purring like a kitten. It’s almost noiseless and cools like a dream. The unit in the garage is soooo shiny!!
The outside unit is a boss!
We are quite the happy bunch, let me tell you.
Poor Chicky. I feel a little badly because she didn’t get to take advantage of the new unit. She’s very hot-natured and suffered a lot this summer.
Oh well. Maybe she won’t dread coming home to visit now!
Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: air conditioning, home repair | Leave a comment »
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