RedFlameOut’s Musings

It is absolutely amazing the cost of home repairs. The forced air system in my home that heats and cools in those odd days we need either stopped working. On a rather warm day a few weeks ago it ceased functioning. No display on the thermostat, no tripped breakers, nothing.

After several weeks of work tracking down the lawyer of the former owner of the company that installed the system for us, it looked like we were simply “out”. My wife called Amana, the manufacturer, and they gave us a list of companies that do warranty repair for them.

Yesterday, a repairman from Fix My AC came. I knew we had to pay labor and the parts should be covered. That turned out to be $175US for a failed power transformer, labor only. Since the amount of air flowing to the downstairs vents in my two story townhome is really insufficient, they inspected the ducting and found that a portion of it was damaged. This will be $400US more. Oh goody!

By the way, I am very pleased yesterday with the professional attitude and demeanor of William from Fix My AC! I look forward to having them perform the repairs.

Apparently one of the three groups of repairmen over the last couple of years that we had working in the attic, where the forced air unit is located, must have sat on the ducting or stepped on it. This is maddening as whom ever did it should have owned up to the deed. We don’t know when it occurred and can not finger any of the companies involved.

Later today the repairman comes back to fix everything. Before we can use it we need to replace the incoming air filter. With a lot of construction in the area, it is clogged and filthy.

For those of you that may be upset with me over using AC with the scare of global warming, we use fans as needed until it is unbearable and then use the AC. Our system is filled with a “green” gas of some kind that is supposedly gentle to the ozone layer and not heat trapping. We try to use as little electricity as possible but without going extreme.

I am not a proponent of man induced global warming. Human kind is helping it along I am sure but there are too many variables involved to point to one major source only. Having said this, it is important that as we think of the future we reduce and then eliminate the pollution we pour into the environment. This includes gases that are not natural to the environment or at least we must use gases that will be inert or decompose quickly with few ill affects.