*sigh*
OK, I live in the south (of the US), OK, I know it's going to be hot and humid. Air Conditioning is a fact of life. Virtually every home built in the last 40 years has central air. I get that. But what no one ever thinks about is how much those things cost to replace!
So, amid forecasts of high 90's temps and high humidity this weekend and last, our downstairs central air died. The upstairs unit is running 24/7 trying to compensate. The system is 14 years old and a "builder's special" put in when the house was built - in other words it's the cheapest POS you can imagine. We've repaired the downstairs and upstairs units before, but now it feels like putting money into a sinking ship.
So it's time to get a new system, upstairs and down. At least the new one will be more efficient, more effective, quieter and more reliable - and under warranty. Still, replacing the furnace/air handlers, cooling coils, heat exchangers and compressor units does not come cheap. Actually, I could buy a car for the same amount. A new car, and not a sub-compact either. The first folks we had quote us wanted as much money as I would spend on a luxury car, so we passed on that, and went with another system. One way or the other though, it's an expensive thing to do. Hopefully we'll be fully installed by the weekend. It can't come soon enough. During the day, the system can't maintain anything below about 80 degrees in our family room. That's about 8 more degrees than I like (being from the UK and having a Scottish father and all that, I can barely cope with 80 degrees in the shade on a dry day -
), and the poor thing can't cope with the humidity at all. The new one will keep us both dry and frosty - ideal conditions for humans, cats and dolliehs...
But, the expense...no one warned me of this aspect of home ownership in the South. It is very, very much teh suckz.