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| Tuesday, July 10, 2007 01:46 PM |
| A Comedy of Errors |
 by Fëanor |
One night last week, the thermostat on the wall was claiming that the system was on, and the machine (furnace?) in our shed out back was churning away, but it wasn't getting colder in the house. In fact, it was getting hotter. Somewhere in the mid-80s. The last time this happened, we called an air conditioner repairman and he came all the way out to our place only to discover that we hadn't replaced the filter for way too long, it was clogged up, and that was the issue. Boy, did I feel stupid. But now I have something I know to check first whenever the air doesn't seem to be working. So I went into the shed and, as it turns out, the filter we'd put in some three months ago was only supposed to last for about three months, so I changed in a new one. Unfortunately, this didn't seem to help. The house just kept getting hotter. So I thought, well, maybe I put the new filter in the wrong way, so I went back out to check on it, and discovered I couldn't get into the shed anymore, because the door was locked. In fact the door had probably been locked for some time, I just hadn't shut it all the way until just then. And, of course, we don't have the key to that door; never did.
Awesome.
I'm sitting in our extremely hot house trying to sleep while I'm listening to our dog panting violently, and starting to get afraid that he's going to die from the heat and it's going to be all my fault. I apply various items to the door in an attempt to get it open, including every key I can find (you know, just in case), credit cards and credit card-like objects, my pocket knife, a cheese knife, a lettuce knife, and a hammer. I even go on the internet looking for methods of opening locked doors, and wander into some pretty questionable forums, but I fail to find anything particularly helpful. It doesn't help, of course, that pretty much all the tools we own (except that one hammer) are locked on the other side of the door.
So, next morning, we get organized. Poppy calls her Dad to come to the house, where he can possibly try to get the door open, and if that doesn't work, we'll call a locksmith. I call my parents so they can come and take the dog to their place while this is all going on, and then once the door is open I'll call the A/C repairman. As it turns out, Sarah's Dad easily pops the door open with a coathanger (why didn't I think of that?!? Well, there's something I'll remember to try next time that happens...) so no locksmith is required. When the A/C guy gets there, he determines that the issue is a blown fuse and replaces it. And now I have another thing I know I can check the next time the A/C stops working.
And that's that.
UNTIL... yesterday, when I get home to find the house is 80 degrees and only getting hotter. By around 8PM, it's 85 and nearly unbearable in there. The filter is brand new, so no need to check that; time to check the fuse. Thankfully, poppy's Dad was nice enough to buy us a couple of spare fuses, and when I couldn't find the fuse box, I called him up and he was good enough to direct me to it, and to tell me which of the compressors downstairs was ours. When I got down there, I found that yes, in fact, our compressor was not running, which seemed like a bad sign. I was a little confused when I couldn't get what I thought was our fuse box open, until I noticed the one next to it said our address on it, and it opened easily. So I changed both fuses this time (since I had no way of knowing which of the two was the one that had just been replaced - they both looked pretty much the same, and neither was obviously "blown"). And shortly after, the A/C seemed to start working again. Blessed cool air started blowing out of the vents, and the temperature on the thermostat started to go down. By this morning, the temperature had dropped to below the hold line and the system was off.
Still, I'm not convinced this is the end of our little A/C adventure. Hopefully, the other fuse was just old and blew itself out, and now that it's been replaced, all will be well. But it could also be true that there's a more complex electrical problem that is causing the fuses to blow out. Here's hoping that's not the case. |
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