[OT] Help me I'm Melting!!!

I think my frickin' air conditioner is going out (great - right before a
holiday!!). It's 91F degrees in the house right now even though I have the
thermostat set on 70F. There is no way I'm going to get an AC maintenance
guy out here before Tuesday without mortgaging my soul to pay for it! ARGH!
I think I'm going to sign off for a while and go sit in a cold shower for
the next 3 hours!!! ;

Hugs,

CatNipped

This has happened to me many times when we were in s.
FL (equal to your sticky discomfort in every way!) but
I have a suggestion if you - as I think - have central a/c in that big house
of yours (mine was a spread-out, all one-story ranch type): mess w/the
thermostat and try resetting it. With mine back there, it was a bad
thermostat and not the a/c itself. I limped along like that (resetting it
when it went nuts) for years. Can't hurt to try.


"Catnipped" wrote in message
...
I think my frickin' air conditioner is going out (great - right before a
holiday!!). It's 91F degrees in the house right now even though I have
the
thermostat set on 70F. There is no way I'm going to get an AC maintenance
guy out here before Tuesday without mortgaging my soul to pay for it!
ARGH!
I think I'm going to sign off for a while and go sit in a cold shower for
the next 3 hours!!! ;

Hugs,

CatNipped

"Hopitus" wrote in message
...
This has happened to me many times when we were in s.
FL (equal to your sticky discomfort in every way!) but
I have a suggestion if you - as I think - have central a/c in that big
house
of yours (mine was a spread-out, all one-story ranch type): mess w/the
thermostat and try resetting it. With mine back there, it was a bad
thermostat and not the a/c itself. I limped along like that (resetting it
when it went nuts) for years. Can't hurt to try.

I'll give it a shot, but I don't think that's it. The air coming out of the
vents is warm and I have it set so that the fan doesn't run constantly but
only when the compressor turns on. I think it has to be something wrong
with something mechanical and not just the heat because it's unseasonably
cool here at only 87F outside! ;

Hugs,

CatNipped

"Catnipped" wrote in message
...
I think my frickin' air conditioner is going out (great - right before a
holiday!!). It's 91F degrees in the house right now even though I have
the
thermostat set on 70F. There is no way I'm going to get an AC
maintenance
guy out here before Tuesday without mortgaging my soul to pay for it!
ARGH!
I think I'm going to sign off for a while and go sit in a cold shower
for
the next 3 hours!!! ;

Hugs,

CatNipped

On 2005-05-29, Catnipped penned:
I think my frickin' air conditioner is going out (great - right
before a holiday!!). It's 91F degrees in the house right now even
though I have the thermostat set on 70F. There is no way I'm going
to get an AC maintenance guy out here before Tuesday without
mortgaging my soul to pay for it! ARGH! I think I'm going to sign
off for a while and go sit in a cold shower for the next 3 hours!!!
;


Hrm, I was whining because the temp's dropped to 60 and it's drizzling
here ... but you've shown me the folly of my ways! At least I can
wear more layers.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

Ugh on having greeblings in the A/C when the hot weather's on its way in.

We've started seeing personal misting devices like these:
http://mistymate.com/personal-cooling.html

in stores in the Philly area. IMO, they're a brilliant idea. They spray
micro-sized droplets that cool you and/or the air around you as they
evaporate. No batteries needed: it has an air pump that allows you to
manually increase air pressure in the device so the droplets will spray
out.

This might not be a perfect solution for an air conditioner that needs
repair, but A) it might be a convenient temporary stopgap and B) you'd
still have the misting device even after the A/C is working properly. You
can use it at other times when you're going to be outdoors in the heat.

I hope this helps.

Donna, Captain, and Stanley

Yeah, good old CO, cold here in almost June. At least Nipped lives in an
area where I have lived - high heat and humidity - instead of like here
where instead of your a/c going nuts, the local weather does.
Anyway, have you tried abandoning "temp settings", going to "auto" setting
it for full blast (expensive if it works but at least you won't be sweating
till Tuesday)
and going *outside* to see if the compressor is going?
That is what I meant by the *thermostat* going nuts; I managed to outsmart
it as it was actually turning on the reverse cycle heating element by
itself!!! If the compressor is dead it's all over but try what I said to get
the cooling element going *full blast* w/no temp control.

"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message
...
On 2005-05-29, Catnipped penned:
I think my frickin' air conditioner is going out (great - right
before a holiday!!). It's 91F degrees in the house right now even
though I have the thermostat set on 70F. There is no way I'm going
to get an AC maintenance guy out here before Tuesday without
mortgaging my soul to pay for it! ARGH! I think I'm going to sign
off for a while and go sit in a cold shower for the next 3 hours!!!
;


Hrm, I was whining because the temp's dropped to 60 and it's drizzling
here ... but you've shown me the folly of my ways! At least I can
wear more layers.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

Gabey8 wrote:
Ugh on having greeblings in the A/C when the hot weather's on its way
in.

We've started seeing personal misting devices like these:
http://mistymate.com/personal-cooling.html

in stores in the Philly area. IMO, they're a brilliant idea. They
spray micro-sized droplets that cool you and/or the air around you as
they evaporate. No batteries needed: it has an air pump that allows
you to manually increase air pressure in the device so the droplets
will spray out.

Oh MAN! My SO and I can so use these when we're working those outdoor art
shows in the middle of summer! Thanks!

Jill

This might not be a perfect solution for an air conditioner that needs
repair, but A) it might be a convenient temporary stopgap and B) you'd
still have the misting device even after the A/C is working properly.
You can use it at other times when you're going to be outdoors in the
heat.

I hope this helps.

Donna, Captain, and Stanley

"Catnipped" wrote in message
...
I think my frickin' air conditioner is going out (great - right before a
holiday!!). It's 91F degrees in the house right now even though I have
the
thermostat set on 70F. There is no way I'm going to get an AC maintenance
guy out here before Tuesday without mortgaging my soul to pay for it!
ARGH!
I think I'm going to sign off for a while and go sit in a cold shower for
the next 3 hours!!! ;

Hugs,

CatNipped


Not too cold. Your body fights really cold water and you end up tired, not
cooler. Just a bit cooler than body temperature will cool you better and
for longer.

Also heat loss, a good thing in summer, is more rapid in the feet and from
the top of the head. So sitting with your feet in water or putting a bag of
ice cubes on your head really does help.

Here is the California central valley where it gets very hot for a lot of
the summer, you see people running around shopping and running errands with
their hair wet all the time. It helps a lot.

And look for one of those water bottle battery operated fan things. Put ice
cubes in the bottle and you can spray your face and neck with a cold mist
backed up with a breeze for evaporation. (How we survive day time ball
games)

Jo

Jo

"Catnipped" wrote in message
...
"Hopitus" wrote in message
...
This has happened to me many times when we were in s.
FL (equal to your sticky discomfort in every way!) but
I have a suggestion if you - as I think - have central a/c in that big
house
of yours (mine was a spread-out, all one-story ranch type): mess w/the
thermostat and try resetting it. With mine back there, it was a bad
thermostat and not the a/c itself. I limped along like that (resetting it
when it went nuts) for years. Can't hurt to try.

I'll give it a shot, but I don't think that's it. The air coming out of
the
vents is warm and I have it set so that the fan doesn't run constantly but
only when the compressor turns on. I think it has to be something wrong
with something mechanical and not just the heat because it's unseasonably
cool here at only 87F outside! ;

Hugs,


Have you checked the circuit breaker to the compressor? That's usually the
problem here.

Jo

"Hopitus" wrote in message
...
Yeah, good old CO, cold here in almost June. At least Nipped lives in an
area where I have lived - high heat and humidity - instead of like here
where instead of your a/c going nuts, the local weather does.
Anyway, have you tried abandoning "temp settings", going to "auto" setting
it for full blast (expensive if it works but at least you won't be
sweating
till Tuesday)
and going *outside* to see if the compressor is going?
That is what I meant by the *thermostat* going nuts; I managed to outsmart
it as it was actually turning on the reverse cycle heating element by
itself!!! If the compressor is dead it's all over but try what I said to
get
the cooling element going *full blast* w/no temp control.

Ah, OK, I didn't go outside to see if the compressor is running - I'm going
to do that right now. Thanks!

OK, here's what I did. I checked outside and the compressor was not
running. I went upstairs and made sure "Fan" was on "Auto", I set the
temperature all the way down to 60, flipped the switch from A/C to Heat,
then back again - then went back outside and the compressor was still dead
(the inside fan is on, but the fan on the outside compressor isn't on and
the compressor is not running). Then I went to our switch box and made sure
none of the swithces had been thrown.

So... either the thermostat isn't turning the compressor on (which I doubt
since the inside fan is running and it's on "Auto") or my compressor is dead
and we're looking at $3K - $4K to replace it or, hopefully, somewhat less to
fix it.

Hugs,

CatNipped

"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message
...
On 2005-05-29, Catnipped penned:
I think my frickin' air conditioner is going out (great - right
before a holiday!!). It's 91F degrees in the house right now even
though I have the thermostat set on 70F. There is no way I'm going
to get an AC maintenance guy out here before Tuesday without
mortgaging my soul to pay for it! ARGH! I think I'm going to sign
off for a while and go sit in a cold shower for the next 3 hours!!!
;


Hrm, I was whining because the temp's dropped to 60 and it's drizzling
here ... but you've shown me the folly of my ways! At least I can
wear more layers.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca