Melting Yet?

The house that I grew up in didn’t have central a/c or heat.  In the winter, we had electric baseboard heaters and a wood burning stove; in the summer we had a couple of window a/c units (Four?).  The window units were on when it was really hot outside; any other time, the windows were open.  It was almost never a nice comfy 68 degrees inside during the summer like it is now.  In fact, I have no clue how I came to enjoy such cool temperatures.

We watch “House” re-runs on Friday nights (11pm on USA network).  Just as the program went off at Midnight on Saturday morning, John sat up and asked me if I smelled anything unusual.  I didn’t — but then, that’s not unusual, since I have constant nasal congestion due to an allergy to dust.  After plenty of sniffing and searching, we identified the source of the smell — the heat exchanger in the attic.  John removed the filter in the ceiling and took a look around.  What he found was a burning smell and some smoke.

No worries — our house wasn’t on fire, but the motor for the fan in the heat exchanger had burned up.  That means no A/C for us until it can be replaced.  Our friend, Neil, owns an HVAC company and offered to get us a new motor at cost if John could get up into the attic to get the old one out.  A note about our a/c system:  It was a retrofit on this house, and they decided to put the heat exchanger up in the attic.  I have no clue how they got it there since the access hatch (long since covered by cabinets) isn’t big enough, but they did.  John got the motor out (and nearly collapsed from heat exhaustion in the process).  John and Dave are up at the airport troubleshooting something on the Cessna tonight, and Neil just dropped by in his RV-8 to deliver the new motor and fan.  How’s that for quick service?  We definitely need to buy him dinner for that.

So –

We were away all weekend visiting John’s parents for Father’s Day, so we didn’t have to endure a hot weekend with no a/c.  When we got home last night, it was 85° in the house.  Since it was cool outside, we opened the window and the temperature had dropped to 75° by the time we woke up this morning.  It is supposed to get into the 50’s tonight, so I have all of the windows open.  The thermostat is currently registering 74° — it might get into the 60’s by the time we get up tomorrow morning.

I know, I know …  what’s the point?  I’m sitting here in a warm house with the fans running and all of the windows open.  The curtains are blowing, I can hear cars driving by and can smell the thick humid air.  It’s getting cool enough outside that I feel a chill when I stand next to one of the open windows.  And it reminds me of home.

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