Air Conditioning Woes

I've always maintained that Alabama was meant for plants, not people. Between the rain, the heat, and the bugs there's no way man was intended to live here.

Yesterday our air conditioner broke. Yes, our brand new, two week old air conditioner.

In the morning we noticed it was a little warm, but we keep the thermostat high to save power. However, when I was in the kitchen I could feel that there was hardly any air coming out of the vent. With a little investigation we discovered that the last three vents on the duct line were not blowing even though the registers were wide open.

At first we assumed that meant something was knocked loose under the house. After all, the first five vents were working fine. We turned on a few fans to compensate and figured I'd make a warranty call in the morning. But as the day went on it became painfully obvious that something was wrong with the air conditioner itself. The house was getting hotter despite our best efforts. John stuck his fermentation thermometer over a working vent. Even blowing as hard as it could the air was reading at 87F degrees, the same temperature as outside. This trend continued into the night, which is the only thing that made it bearable in that the external temp dropped to 72F. Running constantly, the A/C unit and available registers were able to cool the whole house to 78F by 6AM. Of course, it was back to 82 by 10AM.

As soon as was seemly, I called the company we bought the house from to see what they'd do and how fast. I know they're sick of hearing from me about all the million little things that I think aren't being done fast enough or aren't being done right, but I assure you that it isn't nearly as sick as I am of calling them. Don't get me wrong. They're great people who bent over backwards to help us get a nice home at an affordable price, but my socialization skills and patience are wearing thin.

By 11:30AM they'd sent out a heating and cooling guy. Turns out, there wasn't enough Freon in the system. He said it's pretty rare, like getting a half-charged battery in a pack, but that sometimes they systems that come pre-put-together for homes like ours don't get the "charge" they need before leaving the factory. He checked everywhere inside and out for leaks just to make sure and topped us off.

As far as the vents went, he said he saw some ice collecting, and that because of the way the ducts have to bend under the house, if a clump of ice was blocking it it would cut off the air flow. I was a little incredulous as to how ice could get in our ducts on a 90 degree day, but apparently it's a legitimate thing. The coils freeze up, condensation builds up in the duct bend, that freezes up, and before you know it the whole thing stops working. He fixed it, though. By noon the ice was beginning to melt, the air pressure was slowly but surely increasing and the cats were much, MUCH happier.

The gentleman that came out was kind enough to take me around and show me what all the pipes do and how to tell if it's freezing up again. I like learning all this stuff about our house. I may not can fix it, but at least I can tell someone what's wrong next time!