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When fall weather is NOT fall weather
Here in Florida, we use our air conditioners almost year round. There may be a few days here and there (or like last February, a week!) where the temperature hovers near freezing and the heater awakens from it's slumber to warm our little house; however, this October has been unusually warm.
I'm a sucker for fall weather. I love the crispness in the air, the bonfire smell at night and the rare chance (as a Floridian) that I get to wear my cute sweaters and scarves. Last week while my dad was in town, we had a perfect day. The humidity was gone and by evening, we even needed a light jacket. I thought that day meant that fall had finally wrong. I was in for a rude awakening.
I woke up Saturday morning to an 82 degree house. Thermostat was set to 77, but the temperature inside kept climbing. Since Jason was at work, I decided to see what I could do with my handyman skills. I took the front of the unit apart and tried to turn it back on. No such luck. Since we'd just had it serviced (for the second time) a few weeks earlier, I called the same guys back to come out and see what they could do. A few hours later, they stopped by and within five minutes had told me that the motor was broken beyond repair and would need to be special ordered, which couldn't be done until Monday.
After a lot of researching and discussing what would be best for our house long-term, Jason and I decided that the best option would be to replace our 12-year old air conditioner all together. I don't know much about the technical side of this, but we had a 10 SEER unit and the minimum you can buy these days is a 13 SEER unit. The max you can get (and priciest) is a 19 SEER. We're getting a Carrier 15 SEER unit, which also has a $1500 tax credit.
Two nights of sleeping in a hot and humid house was plenty. The new unit is getting installed as I type this and I am counting down the minutes until we can turn it on. I'll leave you with this photo of our thermostat (yes, that's the temperature INSIDE the house).
