We here in Birmingham, Alabama have been experiencing a severe drought for 2007. At last check, we are 21″ below our average rain level. Keep in mind, when I first moved here 5 years ago, a statistic claimed we had more rain than Seattle on average. We are dry, people.
Eight days ago, our 15 year old A/C unit’s fan motor decided to call it quits. Outside temp was 90. Inside was 92. After a new fan motor ($350), it was purring like new. Two days later, it crapped out again. I called the service tech back out and thankfully it was just the wiring (no charge).
Today, the temperature reached 90 by 11:30. My building and most other businesses off of Hwy 280 in Inverness lost it’s power. I decided to take an early lunch and cruise around. I got back an hour later to a blacked-out building. My supervisor suggested we leave for the day. I grabbed my laptop to work from home and never looked back.
About an hour after I got home in Trussville (20 miles away), we lost power in our neighborhood as well! I called Wonderwife who still thinks I am radiating something. She called Alabama Power and to their credit, rolled in about 20 minutes later. Impressive. Power was restored in about 30-40 minutes.
You’d think that was the end of it, wouldn’t you? Not so fast my friend. Keep reading.
Shortly after the power was restored, there is an acrid smell in the air and coming from the air vents. There was no blowing air, mind you.
#$@%*!
Another call to the company that installed the fan motor and rewired to make it work a second time. To their credit, they were here in about 20 minutes as well. The same tech that was here the 2 previous times returns, looks at the unit. Checks the blower. Everything looks fine. We check out the thermostat and ZAP! He gets hit with a nice little 24 watt jolt. Some more tinkering and ZAP! Another jolt. This time his voltage meter runs up to 92. No way a thermostat should get that high. The 15 year old thermostat is replaced with a digital one, something on my list of things to do anyway.
No air is blowing after this so we check the motor again. Two wires had wrapped around each other causing overheating and meltdown, which explains the aforementioned acrid smell. It also fried 2 couplings.
The friendly service tech didn’t even write up a bill because he felt like it was their responsibility (um, yeah). I admit and he suggested that this was a “unique incident” but I would still recommend calling Tri-County to keep your cool.
Wonderwife predicted all of this heat as “the worst summer” when she found out she was pregnant in January. I’m told summer pregnancies are tough. This prediction is right on track. It is hot & dry, people.
In closing, summer officially begins tomorrow (June 21) but it has already been here for the past 3 months!
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