Hot, Establishing a trend, The BIG one
Cindy contacted me late yesterday afternoon to let me know the AC in the house was off again. On Monday night the system had shut off. When I went out to check the air handler there was water in the float cut off switch area. When that happens the system cuts off as a fail safe. I thought this was weird because part of what I did when I had the air handler open on Saturday to pull out the dead UV light was suck out the drain line from both sides with the shop vac, a normal preventative maintenance step. To have water in the float area already was a head scratcher but I sucked the water out again and put the float switch back in, after doing so the system started running again normally.
So when Cindy contacted me it was the exact same scenario. Water had tripped the float switch. I tried giving her guidance over the phone but she was saying the thermostat display was still blank. She said Katie’s boyfriend Daniel was home and could come over. Daniel does HVAC for a living. I told her that was fine but I would leave early to see if we could tag team the issue.
When I got home Daniel still had everything ripped apart. He even had the cover to the electronics removed on the compressor outside. He had swapped out two transformers, saying they felt abnormally warm. I explained to him the scenario of what I did and how things normally go with this unit, it’s a higher end Trane system which I don’t think he saw a lot of. He bypassed the float switch from the system temporarily and the thermostat kicked back on. It seems like the float switch itself may be flaky, which is not a very common failure. He swapped back all of the transformers he pulled but he did not have a replacement float switch on his truck so he just left it out of the loop temporarily.
The system fired back up and started cooling the house which had crept up to 80 degrees, not bad considering it was 94 degrees outside. I think the metal roof really does a nice job of reflecting much of the heat. Daniel is getting a replacement float switch today and will put it in later. I still have some confusion about why water started collecting in the float in the first place. The drain line seems clear so if this scenario happens again once the float is replaced more thorough investigation is going to be needed. I am going to have to open the air handler back up again anyway when the correct UV bulb shows up.
Luckily the AC work didn’t run too long. Cindy and I were still able to get out to the beach last night. We followed a similar game plan as two weeks ago, grabbing a cheap, quick meal at Tijuana Flats and then headed to Vanderbilt Beach. Both the restaurant and the beach were less crowded than two weeks ago which was Cinco de Mayo, which made sense.
The water, unlike last time, was almost as smooth as a lake with next to no waves whatsoever. The water itself was also the most clear that I could recall seeing in a very long time, perhaps related to the lack of wave action. We could clearly see the bottom. We mostly just sat and watched the sun drop from the sky, enjoying the sights and sounds around us. I really like forcing myself to just step out of my weekly routine to enjoy the fruits of living where we do. It’s good for me. Cindy loves it too.
Today is my second Moderna shot, the shot that has knocked a bunch of people I know on their ass. I plan to hydrate as much as I can and I have my bottle of extra strength Tylenol on hand as recommended to try to knock down any symptoms I have. The reaction can be pretty severe according to others, like severe flu. The bright side is it is normally short lived, 1-2 days at most. Like most unpleasant things in my life, my desire is to just get this out of the way so I can emerge from the other side, ready to address what comes next. If disaster strikes and you never hear from me again, let me leave you with the life advice I gave to my niece as part of a questionnaire she gave me for a school project.
#19. What’s your best piece of wisdom you can share?
Don’t take the path of least resistance in life. The rewarding parts of life come from overcoming obstacles, not avoiding them.