Well, this has been quite an interesting week. Our AC went out the day before yesterday, or at least I think it did. My best guess is that it’s just very low on Freon due to a small leak that needs to be patched. We keep saying the unit is 20 years old, but it occurred to me yesterday that it’s actually 26. It was the original AC with this house, so no surprise there.

The last two years we’ve had someone come out to fill it with Freon and just kind of hoped for the best. And honestly, when you know you’re going to be moving in the next few years, putting in a brand new air conditioning unit isn’t exactly at the top of your list. We do have a Home Choice warranty, but I’m sure it will still cost us somewhere in the range of $5,000 to $7,000 out of pocket. That’s the part of homeownership that never gets easier, because at the end of the day it’s your problem to solve and nobody’s coming to save you. 🙄🥵

I don’t want to complain though. Twenty-six years is a long time for a unit to survive in the Florida sun, and it’s been a good one. Our house has always been so comfortable, no matter what time of day. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they can patch it again and squeeze one more summer out of it, but at the same time, if we’re going to sell this house, a new AC unit wouldn’t exactly hurt the listing. We’ll see what the technician says tomorrow morning.

That’s the one downside of a home warranty. It does pick up things your regular insurance won’t, but it takes time to get someone out here. The process isn’t complicated compared to some things we’ve dealt with, but it is time consuming, and when you live in this climate, waiting 48 hours for a technician feels like a very long time.

We do have a portable AC in our bedroom, which has helped. And for some reason, last night we noticed it started cooling again. We’d had the unit off all day and turned it on right before bed just to see what it would do, and it actually brought the house from 86° down to 73° and held there all night. Right now it’s 74° in here and very comfortable. Yesterday it hit 87° inside, so this is a welcome change.

We have one of those thermal guns, and apparently when you point it at the intake and then at the inside of the vent, your intake should read about 16 to 17° warmer than the outflow. As of this morning we’re sitting at a 16° difference, not bad at all. I just don’t know why it couldn’t keep up for a full 24 hours. Regardless, we need a technician out here. My guess is we’re low on Freon and it simply couldn’t keep up during the extreme heat this week. It’s been brutal. Today is much cooler and very overcast, so that’s helping.

Fingers crossed we can squeeze one more year out of the old girl. 🤞