Life without AC in Houston (Is this even possible?) (how much, house)

[marykate1]

Hi,

Our AC Unit for downstairs died yesterday. I think there is something wrong with the Capacitor. That is what I have heard from the symptoms. My husband was going crazy since he hate heat.

Anyway, We adjusted our lounge fan so instead of blowing all the air up it should just push all the air down. This made a very big difference as the fan is pretty large and was cooling us quickly. Our upstairs AC unit is working but we fixed it to 80F since we don't want it to work for both the downstairs and upstairs.

The faulty AC unit has a buzzing sound but the fan is not running. We are trying to see if we can survive a couple of days without our downstairs AC. We have fans in all of our rooms. And we also have a small ground fan which works great.

Any stories on living without an AC in HOUSTON!! Is that even possible

[EasilyAmused]

Originally Posted by marykate1

The faulty AC unit has a buzzing sound but the fan is not running. We are trying to see if we can survive a couple of days without our downstairs AC. We have fans in all of our rooms. And we also have a small ground fan which works great.

Any stories on living without an AC in HOUSTON!! Is that even possible

I had unit doing that (buzz and the fan not running on the compressor outside) a couple weeks ago, deep in rural Texas where there is no such thing as "Emergency Service." Turned out it was a bad contact on the unit. It was 103 that day. I was not a happy person nor could I sleep until 2 am, when the house finally cooled down to 80.

Ps-Many of us lived without AC for over 1-2 weeks after the hurricane last year. But, the weather was helpful and it wasn't that hot outside

[marykate1]

Hi EasilyAmused,

Thanks for the fast reply!

Can you please explain what is bad contact on the unit and do I need to call the service people to service that or change that? Also how much does it charge to fix the bad contact!

I am a girl and not familiar with these terms. Thanks

[ShelbyGirl1]

Yup...spent nearly 2 weeks with out AC after Ike. That was NOT fun.

[tstone]

Bad capacitor huh. Let me know how much you get charged for that $5 part.

There was a cool front that came down a couple days after the hurricane struck and lasted several days. It could've been MUCH worse.

[EasilyAmused]

Originally Posted by marykate1

Hi EasilyAmused,

Thanks for the fast reply!

Can you please explain what is bad contact on the unit and do I need to call the service people to service that or change that? Also how much does it charge to fix the bad contact!

I am a girl and not familiar with these terms. Thanks

I'm a girl too, that's just what the AC guy told me at 10pm, after I had been waiting 12 hours. I had American Home Sheild on that unit so it only was 60 dollars. But it wasn't a major part, so I can't imagine it would be too terrific of a repair. Standard AC guy could do it.

[marykate1]

Hi ShelbyGirl1,

I think it was much tougher for you since we have our upstairs unit working. And we have fans in all of our rooms and they provide much circulation. I think we will find out today when the heat kicks in.

[DJboutit]

My car has not had ac for about a yr now I try to not drive during mid day just do not have $400 to $600 to get it fixed

[marykate1]

Hi tstone,

Actually, I am not sure if that is capacitor or not. I just searched online and it seems like it is a capacitor since I can hear the buzzing sound from the AC unit but the fan is not starting!

[tstone]

It might be the cap. The cap usually helps kick start the fan, and the current keeps it going. If you're slick and slightly brave, you can reach in there and spin the fan by hand to get it going. Your fan motor might be bad also.

BTW, make sure if you have American Home Shield, the guy who comes out puts the CORRECT capacitor in there, not spare refrigerator parts he had lying around in his van!!! Same goes for correct horsepower rating on the fan motor.