Prosthetically Hip

It’s Goddamn Electric

July 18, 2010

So, the A/C guy came by Saturday. Saturday!

Turns out, his company is no longer a subsidiary of Dial One – I can let my little dinky back-up switch go for that. All perceived grievances are now annulled.

While he was here, I had him look at the front unit that had frozen up the other night. I was right, it had frozen up. He opened up the unit in the attic and showed me the cause – absolutely filthy cooling coils from years upon years of neglect.

At this point, I’m looking at either spending ~$600 to have them cleaned ( this actually involves removing the coils, and they may not survive ), leaving it be until it dies a horrible screeching death, or dropping a few grand on a new unit.

*sigh*

So, for those of you who are looking into buying a house, or may at some point in the future, please, PLEASE, save yourself a lot of hassle and money and have an actual A/C guy be a part of your inspections.

And to boot, one of my 20A breakers keeps flipping. Unfortunately, it’s the circuit the fridge lives on. I went and got a new one and replaced it, but it just keeps flipping. Maybe a 30A will do the trick – I wouldn’t imagine it’d do harm, but then again, I don’t really know these things.

Any other NOLA homeowners have an electrician they can recommend?

A Different Kind of Hurricane Prep

July 16, 2010

At some point yesterday, the A/C for the front of the house froze up. When we finally realized this, I killed the A/C, made a mental note to go get a new air filter, and moved on.

I decided that even though it was about 85° in the front, I’d still sleep upstairs – the ceiling fan still worked perfectly fine, and I didn’t have a problem “roughing it” without A/C. We are in the middle of storm season after all, so there’s not telling when I might have to do it again, sans-fan. A little toughening up / mental prep won’t hurt.

Bea chose to sleep downstairs on the couch, in the splendor of conditioned air.

I got a little better of an air filter and installed it and also left a message on the A/C guys’ voice mail. He was supposed to come replace a redundant overflow-type switch about 8 months ago, so I’m wondering if he hates me or just is kind of a dick.

Anyone have an A/C guy?