Compressor Stressor

One night this week I awoke feeling a bit overheated and uncomfortable. Almost immediately I thought, “Oh Lord, please let this be a bad dream and not a broken down air conditioner!” I tried to go back to sleep, but it was too hot and muggy in the room. So I got up and fumbled around the house until I finally made my way outside to the compressor. Sure enough, it was not running. Not a bad dream, but the nightmare was just beginning.

A service guy came the next day and did an inspection. It turns out that only a breaker had been flipped due to high usage. $75.00 for the guy to flip a switch.

But I knew the A/C was getting old, so I called up some places in the Heights to come give us a quote on repairs, upgrades, or even a new system. One guy quoted $1500 for repairs and upgrades. That sounded good. We were going to do give that guy a call and say, “Come fix it!”, but within about 1 hour the A/C suddenly quit working again. This time it wouldn’t come back on at all! It just so happened a third Air/Heat Technician arrived to give us a quote and he confirmed that the compressor (outside unit) was now completely dead. Suddenly we went from $1500 in repairs to $5000 or more to replace the A/C system.

Trying to sleep in a house with no A/C in Houston is torture. So after a few uncomfortable nights, and $11,000 later (OMG!), we have a completely new A/C & Heating system. We went with the good stuff and bought American Standard products installed by the guys from Air of Houston. They even installed a nifty thermostat that tells the weather and humidity (inside and out), can be remotely controlled, and will even display a slideshow of family photos.