The HVAC Saga

Friends and Kitties!

Sheebie here.

Please excuse my perspiration--it's 115 F in the back yard--actually it's too dry to sweat.  What is with the weather this year?  The HOTS shouldn't be here for another month!  We got our new A/C installed just in time...or did we?  Because next Tuesday we're getting a brand-new replacement replacement unit.

Let me bring you up to speed.

1.  This spring Scott and I noticed a few water spots on the ceiling.  We thought it might have been the driving rain combined with 60 mph winds letting water in by the furnace flashing.

2.  A few weeks later I looked up and the ceiling in the hall was flooded and coming down.  Turns out the pan under the condensing unit had rusted out.

3.  Later that week we got a whole new HVAC system.  Complete with a plastic pan that wouldn't corrode.

Are you following so far?  Now for the latest...

The new system is high-efficiency, and the blower is slower to move air across the A/C coils to extract more cool air (or warm, with the furnace) per a given volume.  Translated this means it wasn't cooling our house effectively.  We called, and a service guy came out and adjusted the coolant in the system.  The next day, Monday, it still wasn't right.  The service guy, Nick, (we're on a first-name basis at this point) came out again  and conducted a thorough inspection, and concluded that the way the duct work was routed most of the cold air was going to the back of the house, leaving the great room and kitchen hot.  They installed--at their expense--valving in the duct work to direct the air evenly, and it worked great.  The front of the house was cool and the bedrooms were too no longer available to hang meat.  Seriously, it got down to 62 in Scott's bedroom!

An ignorantly blissful week goes by...and last Wednesday morning the ceiling was pouring down water, again.  I may have been a little terse on the phone at 5:30 in the morning...Nick was there by 8:00 with the owner of the business...turns out the new unit had a cracked condenser pan!  They were mortified.  Nick says once or twice a year there's the job from hell and we are the lucky ones this time.  *sigh*  Thankfully  Scott works from home and we are familiar with all kinds of reno problems so we know how things go sometimes.

So...next Tuesday we'll try this again.  We're getting a whole new unit, plus the furnace will be higher efficiency, at no extra charge, about a $500 upgrade.  The company is going to stand the expense of fixing the ceiling--all of it--and replace the insulation that's been tramped down in the attic.  They appear very committed to making us happy customers, which is very reassuring that this will turn out well, if not as expeditiously as we'd originally imagined.

Wish us luck.

In other news, physio on my knee is going well!  My whole left leg aches, but that's more muscle soreness from working it than joint pain in my knee.  Progress is definitely being made.  And you know what?  It's the small things in life that really count.  I never thought something as trivial as being able to bend both my knees while I read in bed was actually so important.  But it is.  Which kinda puts the whole A/C debacle in perspective.

Happy Sunday, and have a COMFORTABLE Week!

XX  Sheebie  XX