Your heating and cooling system is essential to keeping your building at a comfortable, safe temperature. This is why it is so important to maintain that system. If you don’t know about HVAC technicians coming in regularly, you should start doing so. Hire a company to maintain your HVAC system with regular inspections and repairs. Minor repairs will be cheaper than major repairs, so you can save money by catching issues early. Talk to the AC department at your chosen service and make sure that everything is in good shape for hot weather. This will save you frustration later.
If you have someone maintain your system regularly, they can often do minor repairs as well. If your AC heater fan needs to be replaced, they can do it. They can also usually do repairs on your AC heating and cooling unit fairly quickly. Don’t wait until the busy season to get these repairs done. While you won’t need your heat or cooling during temperate weather, waiting can result in higher prices and longer service times that you can avoid by acting now.
At least it did not happen while you were out of town on vacation.
At least the rain cooled things off last night.
At least the company is no longer staying at your house.
At least your husband is out of town for the week.
You keep trying to look for positives, but the fact is your air conditioner not working during the hottest week of the summer is an inconvenience. All four of your bedrooms are up on the second floor, the space that is affected, so sleeping has been nearly impossible the last two nights. In fact, the couple of days before you called the service company the unit was not really keeping up. You blamed it on just getting home from vacation, doing lots of laundry, baking things in the over. In the end, however, when the HVAC service team came out they realized that the problem was a leak. When they tried to refill the unit with refrigerant to get you through the first night, however, you realized just how bad the leak was. The whole house filled with a haze starting on the second floor. As the smoke like vapor filtered downstairs you called the service representative and he explained that the issue was probably just condensation.
Fortunately, you had turned on all of these exhaust fans in the four bathrooms in the house and sat by an open window. The fact that you turned on the six ceiling fans in the house likely helped as well. And while the added coolant helped to keep the second floor more comfortable that first night, by the time the technician returned the second morning he found that all of the coolant he had added was gone. This, he explained, was likely the reason for the haze you experienced in the house. The service technician explained to the HVAC manufacturers that in his company’s experience with thousands of customers they had never seem a leak that was this bad. It was so severe, in fact, that the crack in the coil led to the compressor completely locking up. The local HVAC company spent $250 to overnight a new unit from nearly 300 miles away, and they are hopeful that the needed unit will arrive by this afternoon, so you can avoid another sleepless night.
Of course, this is the week when the temperatures are supposed to climb into the mid to high 90s and there appears to be no relief insight. Unless, of course, the HVAC manufacturers can get the mechanical contractors, the sheet metal fabricators, and the parts that they need coordinated.
HVAC Manufacturers Are Often Especially Busy During the Summer Months
Murphy’s Law predicts that anything that can go wrong will go wrong at the worst possible time. This saying, of course, applies to a heating and cooling unit. It always quits working when you need it the most. Unfortunately, a heating or cooling system will rarely malfunction when it is not in use, so it should come as no surprise that on the hottest day of the year the AC will go out. If you have purchased your HVAC system from one of the reputable HVAC manufacturers you should have a warranty for parts, and sometimes labor.
In fact, some of the best units come with service contracts and warranties that last the length of the payment cycle and beyond. In fact, there are now many 10 year warranties available if you are purchasing high end heating and cooling units. These warranties, however, often require a home owner to make sure they are scheduling twice a year inspections to help track any service needs or unexpected problems.
The majority of buildings in the U.S. are air conditioned, so it should come as no surprise that the employment for refrigeration, heating, and air conditioning mechanics and installers is expected to grow by 15% by 2026. This is good news if you are a home owner who has a unit that is not working on the hottest summer day. Even if the problem did not happen while you were out of town on vacation.
When there is no rain to cool things off at night.
When company is no longer staying at your house.
When your husband is out of town for the week.
