To clarify things, I don’t know much about air conditioning. I know that when I turn it on, it makes the place colder. But mine didn’t do that anymore. It was annoying. Last Saturday the house got up to 88°F, a wholly unsatisfying temperature to be in.
Since it was Saturday, I wasn’t about to call a repairman in and pay higher rates, and I just suffered through it. On Monday I called our regular guy, Dave. Well, to be specific, I tried to call Dave. Dave isn’t someone you just call, even if you have his cell phone number. So I left him a voicemail message. Later that day I get a call back. He told me to save time (and a service call) check to see if the fuses are blown. He then explained to me where the fuses are.
So I found them, and hooked up my trusty digital multimeter to test continuity through the fuses, since they’re big and aren’t transparent like the fuses normal people like you and me are used to seeing. Anyway, sure enough, one of the two was blown out, and needed replacing.
On my way to work yesterday, I stopped by Lowe’s to pick up a spare. I figured a big place like that would have a fuse. I figured wrong. Apparently that’s too specialized for them. I ended up going to this hole-in-the-wall appliance repair shop on Best Avenue to get it. I bought two.
When I got home last night, I plugged in the replacement fuse, flipped the breaker on back at the main panel in my garage and voila, nothing happened. That’s because since Saturday it’s been cold and the A/C won’t come on. So I tried fooling it and telling it I like room temperature to be 62°F. After a few minutes it kicked on, the outside unit’s fan came on, and I was basking in the arctic blast coming from the vents that were until so recently heating up the place.
So the good that comes out of this is that a) I can fix a simple fuse blown on my air conditioner; b) I have a spare fuse for when the next one goes; and c) I can now cool the house off again.
I suspected the fuse burned out last summer, but it was at the tail end of the hot season. It seemed to me that the A/C wasn’t working as well as it should be, but I brushed it off. With summer coming up soon (maybe) it’ll be nice to be able to cool the house off once again and not suffer through unholy temperatures.
2 Responses to “Fixed My Air Conditioner”
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Quoth BenY
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 pm Air conditioning? I figured you guys still had snow there. Last weekend it was hot here, though not quite that hot. But since I was working all weekend with my laptop blowing hot air on my already hot lap, I was not happy. |
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Quoth Webmonster
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:14 am The snow is all gone except for the top 1/4 of nearby mountains, and that’s getting sparse now. That Saturday was unseasonable hot, but it was only one day. Since then I don’t think it’s gotten higher than maybe 73° outside. I’m a complete disbeliever in global warming now, unless by global warming they mean large areas are colder than usual. This past winter was a monster cold one, with record-breaking snowfall. Now we’re paying for it as the snowpack is melting and our rivers are several feet above normal. Global warming? Not here. |