IT’S GETTING HOT IN HERRE

One of the huge bonuses of the townhouse to us was that it had recently been flipped and it looked like almost everything had been upgraded. The one risk we were taking was with the air conditioning and furnace system because it was original to the house. Hello, 25 year old HVAC, you could have a couple graduate degrees under your belt if you were a motivated human. I was hoping for the best and planning for the worst–assuming the worst was that the system failed in a year or two… Okay, so maybe that wasn’t the worst. In hindsight, the worst was the air conditioning not working at all…

We’re not really big air conditioning people to begin with. We like to have our windows open and let in a breeze, after all, that worked so well at the Mt. House. But that place was in the foothills in a valley so the air flow was good. There were a few warm days at the townhouse this spring, but we survived. Coincidentally, the only days where it was getting into the 90s was when we were gone on vacation. So, before we left, I would close the windows and turn on the A/C for our dog sitters… it wasn’t until returning from the third or fourth trip that I realized the air wasn’t as cool as it should have been (sorry Suzanne and Deb!).

We made an appointment through our home warranty, that was included in the contract of the sale of the house, and had someone come out about ten days later (apparently it was the rush period). They came out for a deductible fee of $55 and I was told that there was no refrigerant left in the unit because it had been leaking out (or on) a coil in the unit downstairs. His diagnosis for repair was to replace, otherwise it would cost $1,200 to fix the coil and another $800 to refill the refrigerant. His replacement quote was $3,000. Bombshell? He also suggested we replace the furnace which he quoted at $2,500.

After many calls and conversations with the warranty company, it was discovered that they wouldn’t cover anything on the HVAC system. So much for them. Additionally, once it was discovered that the system wouldn’t be covered, I received an additional bill for $95 from the company that came out to look at the unit. Apparently the deductible only counts if the item your having inspected is covered, regardless of if you have a home warranty in place. Ugh. Oh well… I’m just happy at this point that I didn’t pay for this home warranty in the first place.

So where are we now? We are going to replace our quarter century old units… soon. But we’re buying ourselves some time this summer and we decided to invest in some second hand portable air conditioners. We got two and they each are meant to cool a 400 square foot space. They retail at about $450 which is what the seller told us they paid for them and used them lightly when they were in a similar situation. We bought both units from them for $250 each and immediately felt satisfaction when we installed them in our bedrooms. I can handle a warm house as long as I have somewhere cool to sleep.

Meanwhile, we’ll be getting some bids to see who we’ll be requesting to install a new HVAC. The good news it that by getting a newer one, everything will be more energy efficient, and we like being energy efficient! Xcel tells me we’re in the 17th percentile of our area. Have any of you had a new furnace or air conditioner installed in your house? How did it go? Any tips?? Oh, and I don’t plan on paying for a home warranty out of my own pocket ever, so there’s that lesson too.

Love, Shauna