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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Night Owls Save Lives

It's a good thing I stayed up late blogging last night, or I wouldn't have noticed that our AC was no longer working and that our thermostat was registering in the 80's.  We could have suffocated.  Or not.  Larry thinks I exaggerate.  But HE doesn't get hot flashes, so what the heck does he know?

Anyhow, I managed to prevent our collective demise by flinging open windows (the humidity had dropped, by some miracle) and installing window fans.  Because that's what I like to do at midnight, instead of going to bed....

This is me in the humidity.
The AC guy arrived today  - early enough to prevent our dying of heat stroke, but not soon enough to keep my floors from getting so sticky from the humidity that the Swiffer wouldn't work on them.  He said lots of complicated things about burned-out capacitors and power surges and tried to sell me some sort of whole-house surge protector for "only" $150.

Seeing as how we pay for a maintenance contract that (among other things) requires the company to replace burned-out capacitors for free, I have no incentive to surge-protect my house. In fact, I told  him the company should just install it for free so they don't have to come out again for this same problem.  But he refused.  Imagine that!

And I strongly suspect that, next time I need a repair, the service guy is not going to show up quite so quickly.  I'd better buy more fans, don't you think?


[Witch image: Long Island Press]
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7 comments:

  1. Karen (formerly kcinnova)June 27, 2013

    I am jealous of your a/c (as long as it is working!) because I just saw the forecast for Monday and Tuesday: 104 degrees at my house... and at work, with south-facing windows...

    If you need me, I'll be slipping ice cubes down my shirt.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Homemaker ManJune 28, 2013

    Last night I found myself at 1 am wide awake and eating a cold corn and black bean empanada. So yeah, we save lives.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Suburban CorrespondentJune 28, 2013

      It's a lonely job, but someone's gotta do it.

      Delete
  3. mommeeof10June 28, 2013

    We have an old house. We refer to our window ac for each room as zone air conditioning. In the past week I have disassembled 8 of the ac units, scrubbed them out with a cleaner with bleach, rinsed and reassembled them. Only one of them, a 7000 BTU unit that is probably 15 years old, is not working. Only one more to do. That 12,000 BTU unit's motor bearings are making a very loud screeching noise. I can't remember when we bought it, but probably 3 years ago. I need to see if it has plugs that can be removed to oil the bearings. If not, I may disassemble the motor, sand the motor shaft with emery paper, then lube and reassemble it. ;) If that does not work, the noise is not too bad, It goes in the upstairs hallway, we run it during very hot days only and keeps the bedroom doors shut. As long as it is cooling, I can deal with a little noise.

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  4. Common Household MomJune 29, 2013

    I am usually awake from about 4:30 a.m. onward, but I have never saved lives like you have. Bravo! (but yes, buy more fans).

    ReplyDelete
  5. anymommyJune 30, 2013

    You are practically a hero. Now I want to come over because we have no A/C and we're supposed to hit 104 this week as well.

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  6. Julie HJuly 04, 2013

    My AC has been running non stop all week. I'm just waiting for it to kick the bucket. We've had it so long I don't even remember how old it is and I just paid off my Sears card.

    ReplyDelete