Tuesday, May 8, 2012

AIR CONDITIONING BUT WITH A GLITCH

Sears Kenmore 15,100 BTU Window Unit
Yay, we have cold air, but, alas, with an asterisk.

We bought two of them Friday night after work.  Since they were on sale at a great price, and were the largest BTU's you can get for 110V electrical, the timing was just perfect.  We got them loaded into the Jeep, took them out there, and carried the heavy monsters into the house.  The instructions, as I feared, left a little to be desired, but after about 2 1/2 hours, we had the first one in and turned on.  Wonderful cold air blowing into the room and it started cooling down the house, at least the front part of the house.

So we decided to go ahead and unpack and install the second one too.  Actually, 2nd Man voted for waiting until next weekend, but I said let's just do it, while we don't want to do it and get it over with.  You know, like when you just rip off a band aid.  So we did.  Second one only took about 30 minutes start to finish!  No, we are not available for hire, haha.  We turned it on as well, and there was even more cold air blowing.  It started cooling the back half of the house, and was awesome.  First time in years the house had been that cool,
well, on a 90+ degree day of course.
So we were enjoying it...until....
Blackout
With both of them turned on and running at the same time, they tripped the circuit breakers and everything went dark and quiet (not mention, warm).  I did some checking and it looks like the two outlets, even though they are in different rooms, are on the same circuit.  Unfortunately, we can't move them to different windows and the cord is only long enough to reach those outlets.

However, we can at least run one of them at a time with no problem, so it's not like it will be hot in the house.  Just need to call the electrician back out to do some more work (ugh, more $$).  Until then, we'll just cool the part we're in at the time.  There are a lot of home renovation projects I'll at least attempt to tackle, but electricity is something I don't want to mess with.  Sure I can put up a light fixture, change out a switch, or do something simple like that, but when it comes to circuits and rewiring, I'll leave that to the experts.  If I mess up the plumbing, I get wet.  If I don't lay the tile just right, it will just bug me every time I look at it.  If I paint something wrong, I can just paint over it.  But if I don't do the electricity just right, it could have serious, life altering consequences, LOL.

Anyway, we have them in, we know they work and we know they will completely cool down the house so this is but a mere hiccup in the road.  At least the next time I mow, I will have cold air when I come inside.

11 comments:

  1. When I read the title of your post, I just knew that's what happened. You can always run a heavy extension cord to another outlet until you get the electrician back.

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    1. You know, I should have put that in the post. I was wondering if an extension cord was a possibility. I guess as long as it's a heavy duty one, it should work. I need to look at the stats and see about that. Called the electrician who did some work for us before twice, and he hasn't called back. ugh. So might have to use the extension cord for a bit, which is ok with me, cool trumps waiting. ha. Thanks for the advice. :-)

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    2. You need to find a chart to calculate the amperage and distance of the cord to get the correct wire weight for the extension cord. This is a safety matter. There is one here at the bottom of the page.

      http://home.mchsi.com/~gweidner/extension-cords.pdf

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    3. Crafty indeed! LOL!

      Thanks for the link Robin, it's perfect. I will get out the manual tonight and figure out the correct load, amps, etc. Thanks again! I'm sure once I get it done, there will be an update post about it, ha.

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  2. It is a wise man indeed who knows his limitations! Stay safe.

    judydee

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    Replies
    1. Amen! Yes, I don't mess with electricity, except to plug something in, ha.

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  3. Boo to power outage. LOL to the blackout picture

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    1. Thought that was funny. OK, so it wasn't quite THAT dark but it was kind of funny as we stood there and went "well, DAMN!"

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  4. Robin gives some good advice, make sure you get a heavy duty extension cord and you should be fine.

    i used to freak at the prospect of screwing with wiring.. i am comfortable with re-wiring anything now. this book REALLY helped:

    http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-Complete-Guide-Wiring/dp/1589232135

    get it and save a ton of money, hassle and waiting! i don't normally put a link in a comment, but here is a mini project i did with baseboard heating and some lighting re-wiring.. if you can swap a switch, you can do the rest!!

    http://framboisemanor.blogspot.ca/2011/10/how-to-bathroom-heater-upgrade.html

    http://framboisemanor.blogspot.ca/2011/10/hellhole-part-2-lighting-up-attic-1.html

    cheers!

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    Replies
    1. Wow, thank you for that!!! It means a lot! I'll have to look at that book. Don't worry about the links, they were great (already commented, ha!). Love your blog and welcome to our little farm!

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