HVAC Repair Tips for Homeowners

I have some deep concerns over the kids growing up today.

From the limited experience I have with them, they are terrible.

They do not look up from their phones for three straight seconds, and they aren’t using that space-age tool to gain any valuable knowledge, that is for sure. I’m blown away time and time again by all the common sense things these idiots don’t know. For instance, I learned recently that my 16 year old niece doesn’t know what taxes are. It’s not that she’s having trouble filing her own taxes, which is understandable – no, she literally didn’t know about taxes. Federal, state, or sales. I almost cried when we had that talk, and so did she. Don’t even get me started on my 14 year old nephew, though, because he’s even more clueless. The other day he legitimately almost burnt down my house trying to increase the air temperature by a few degrees. How is this possible, you ask? Well, I left the little moron alone to go rent a Redbox movie yesterday, and in that time he decided the indoor air temperature was insufficient. Rather than adjusting the thermostat, like a human would, he decided it was best to light up the fireplace. Isn’t this off to a bad start? Well so was his fire. Apparently he could not get the logs to light, so in his “freezing cold desperation,” he decided to dump lighter fluid all over the fireplace. This would be a dangerous situation normally, it it was a wood burning fireplace… however, I own a gas fireplace. This stupid kid set fire to my fake plastic logs. The melted puddle of plastic and lighter fluid was finally starting to heat up the house, right as I walked in the front door.

 

 

Indoor air cleaning system

I am not known amongst my friends for being a super outdoorsy sort of person.

My idea of getting down and dirty is hiking a few trails with my dog, breaking a good sweat, and cooling down with a refreshing cocktail somewhere on a patio afterwards.

I’m certainly not out there plowing my own trails or trying to survive Man vs Wild style. At best, I’m working to manage my own mental health with exercise and nature escapism. That’s why I was a little tentative when they started talking about camping the other week. I was nervous, but I agreed so that I wouldn’t be the stinker in the group. As worried as I felt, apparently someone felt worse. Our friend Steve’s girlfriend was quite a spectacle. I’ll cut right to the chase; she brought heating and cooling devices with on our camping trip. I’m not talking about a little desk fan or a camping heat lamp here, either. I mean that this girl brought a full mini-break ductless HVAC system with, and expected the heating and cooling equipment to be installed in their nylon tent. I don’t even know how she expected the ventilation system to work in those conditions. Apparently just because the system doesn’t require ductwork, she thought the HVAC plan could be stuck anywhere? As soon as they arrived, she had Steve lugging the HVAC machinery across the campground, just so he could demonstrate to her the many ways it wouldn’t work properly without an air intake component located outside the tent. She refused to take his advice, and also refused to try camping without the large temperature control device. About an hour later, she departed in a perfectly air conditioned Uber.

Cooling and heating business

My boyfriend has such an interesting work life.

He is a percussion professor, and teaches advanced lessons at institutions all over the city.

Most of the places he works are pretty swanky private schools, and he’s compensated very well for his time with these upper class children. The strange part is, even with the enormous operating budgets at these private institutions, the art programs are largely defunded. One of the schools he works for spends millions of dollars every year in cultural programming efforts, but for some reason, my boyfriend is teaching his lessons out of a trailer on the school grounds. Not only is this depressing, but it’s incredibly uncomfortable for him and his students. You see, at best, these little trailers are equipped with a single window AC unit. They are small, and there isn’t a huge volume of air to treat, yet the cooling units struggle to keep up with the temperature demand. There are two reasons for this. First of all, the trailer is a tiny metal box, collecting all the heat and humidity of Atlanta and trapping it a sardine can. The sun constantly pounding down onto the metal room certainly increases the indoor air temperature and creates a convection oven all afternoon long. Secondly, the window AC units themselves are quite old and poorly maintained. My boyfriend thinks that the air filters have never been changed out, so he’s been bringing in his own air filters to perform the routine service himself. He also thinks the freon needs to be recharged, but he’s not tackling that task. I’m just blown away by the fact that parents pay $150 an hour for lessons, but the kids don’t get a comfortable learning space or a real HVAC system.

 

 

Local business

I am one of those people who tends to freak out about privacy and personal space, generally speaking.

I do not like people in my room, looking at my things, or moving any of my items around.

I have an issue with controlling my environment and keeping everything exactly where I left it. That being said, I’m trying very hard to let go of some of these anxieties, especially considering how many house guests we have these days. I hardly have any privacy whatsoever, with all the humans rotating through our home. I’ve managed to let go quite a bit, but every so often I’m reminded of my underlying concerns. For instance, last weekend when our in laws stayed over and managed to break our furnace within 2 days. We were out of town, but allowed them to use our house for the weekend. On their way out the door, they thought it would be kind to shut off the heating and cooling system to reduce our energy usage while the house was vacant. Little did they know, they would do a lot of HVAC damage with their good intentions. You see, they are accustomed to living in Florida heat. When they arrived, it was going to be only 60 degrees outside, so I powered up the furnace to a low operating level for extra warmth to keep them comfortable. They clearly didn’t realize that the heat was running, interpreting the slightly chilly outdoor air as indoor AC. As such, as they left the house, the thermostat was bumped up to 85 degrees in order to keep the air conditioner from cycling unnecessarily. Well, flash forward to our arrival home 5 days later… The house was burning hot, humid, and stagnant inside, and our furnace was a smoldering, inoperable hunk of metal. Our energy bill was through the roof, and we have to replace our central heating system. So much for saving us money.

 

 

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