This year's Memorial Day weekend had its share of sun, high temperatures, planting, and an unexpected occurrence. For a month now, my family has had trouble with our HVAC system. Moving from heat to air conditioning seemed to be a difficult transition. When the thermostat posted a note that gave me cause to be alarmed, I started a long process of trying to find out why. Of course, the problem happened on the weekend when it was challenging to find help.
I turned to the customer service office that handles emergency problems. The tech started off the conversation in a friendly tone that quickly turned to more difficult questioning. I had to run from the loft thermostat to the first floor one and then outside to my Carrier unit. I got so confused by the questioning that the tech started to repeat the question which only got me more confused. When he asked me to pull off the cover of the thermostat and look at the wires, I knew that I was in trouble. There was no way that I would ever be calm enough to start pulling out wires and joining them. My husband said definitely not and that settled everything. We were not comfortable with this virtual type of resolving the problem of no air on a very hot and sticky day. I gave up on this unusual way of solving my problem. Next, I tried the HVAC weekend office. I ended up in the hands of another tech who said he could come out to look at the problem but not until the next day. We had no choice so I asked my son to monitor the heat situation and turn on the fan at night.
The day before Memorial Day, the tech came out and checked the thermostat upstairs. He found the same issues I told him about. Thinking back over the past month, I noticed problems on and off but especially now since the outdoor temperatures were rising. To sum up the afternoon visit, the tech found a capacitor problem and just so happened to have a new one in his truck. Unfortunately, this did not fix the problem. The unit started getting hotter so the system needed to be turned off completely. We had no choice but to make the air conditioning system downstairs cooler. Now the challenge was to stay cool as the temperatures rose.
Today, I woke early thinking about the issue. The heat was already rising and was my stress level. My husband and I called the HVAC company but we were asked to leave a message. Then, we tried the builder's warranty department but no one responded. Another message was left. We had to wait. Patience is not our strong suit. I finally got an email saying that a part was ordered but that didn't help because we thought it was more than one part that was needed. By this afternoon the temperature outside was in the high 90s and the town next door was already at 100 degrees.
All that was left to do was wait but waiting is not our forte. Country Living has a quote that I am now trying to live by.
I now join the Tuesday Slice of Life at Two Writing Teachers.
Oh, that sounds like a stressful weekend! I had the opposite problem here in the Pacific Northwest--it was so cold over the weekend that I needed to turn my heater on. It didn't even make it out of the 50's on Saturday and Sunday. I hope they get your HVAC issues resolved soon!
ReplyDeleteLove the quote about patience, and I SO appreciate your annoyance. I was nodding, shaking, wincing, and rolling my eyes throughout the post. Someone needs to invent a way to teleport and be in the same room with people when they can't help with things like broken air conditioners on 90 degree days!
ReplyDeleteOh my, Carol. Talk about Murphy's Law. So many service calls end up with a tech trying to talk you through resolving your own problem. They should start paying us for doing their work. Hope things get resolved for you. AC is a necessity during hot days.
ReplyDeleteMy stress level raised just from reading this. I hope your problem gets solved soon. You are wise to focus on what you can control, your patience, when the situation is not under your control.
ReplyDeleteOh, Carol, I feel your pain. When I moved to TX many, many years ago, my realtor told me the two most important people in my life would be the a/c man and the pest control man! And she was totally right, especially about the a/c man. We actually stayed in a hotel once when the a/c wasn't working. On a sad note, we just replaced our a/c unit this past spring, but are moving mid-July, so we'll barely get to use it.
ReplyDeleteOh my...losing the A/C in 100 degree heat IS stressful...hah...it happened to us, though we caught a lucky break...this time! I'm glad yours was resolved. I LOVE your quote and am writing it into my journal, because it's not just for country living.
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