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HVAC.net
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HVAC.net


May 28, 2019, 10:58 AM

Got home from a long weekend of rednecky fun at Short Stay, where I haven't been since I was a kid. Hot af, kids had a blast, yada yada, looking forward to couch time in heavy AC. Walk in and was smashed in my stupid face with 89 degrees, downstairs. Condenser was humming, but fan not kicking on. Fuckall. This is gonna be a $300+ call to get somebody out on a holiday, IF I could find somebody.

Ask next door neighbor, who "has a guy" for everything, if he has an HVAC guy. "Sure...but let's take a look at it first." He surmises that it's probably the capacitor. Pulls the panel off, digs around in his garage for some old capacitors he might have, and puts a different (used) one in, a little smaller than the previous. Voltage is correct, but some other mysterious electrical terms may not be an exact match. Either way, when I turned the air back on...the fan kicked on. Seriously, 11 minutes after he walked over, there was cool air coming out of vents. It took until this morning for that single unit to get the house back down to 74ish, and it's still laboring in this heat, but man...that could have been WAY worse. I asked him if I should go grab a matching capacitor off a shelf somewhere, and he's like "that's where the HVAC people get you--you can't really just pick these up anywhere." Most HVAC distributors/retailers would have been closed yesterday. I asked if he'd looked on Amazon, and it hadn't occurred to him. I just typed in the part number a few minutes ago, and instantly had a page of choices. Grabbed one for $17, delivered tomorrow, and I'll throw it in if/when this one fails.

TLDR: my neighbor is way better than your neighbor.

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Always check the capacitor first.


May 28, 2019, 11:00 AM

if it's not that, then call somebody. But yeah got to have the correct one or it's going to get worse.

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I like your funny words magic man


Note to self, get 19B's neighbor's number to call and check


May 28, 2019, 11:06 AM

my capacitor because I have no clue what that is and how it works.

Youtube would be my friend if and when that happens.

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It's a silver cylinder. Good luck***


May 28, 2019, 11:08 AM



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I like your funny words magic man


Do you just throw it in the air conditioner? Like just toss


May 28, 2019, 11:09 AM

it at the fan? Sounds like that wouldn't work.

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You have to shotgun snap it***


May 28, 2019, 11:10 AM



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I like your funny words magic man


Shotgun, extra point, or punt?


May 28, 2019, 11:11 AM

Cause I did the last two in high school and was one of the better long snappers in all of South Carolina 3A Football (per my mom)

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I did the first. Was terrible per my mom.***


May 28, 2019, 11:15 AM



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I like your funny words magic man


On Sunday I learned that my year oldish unit cannot keep


May 28, 2019, 11:30 AM

house at 74 when it is 96 outside. I did not enjoy looking over to see the cool to at 74 and inside temp at 76. This 50 year old insulation has got to get upgraded.

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Been there. I can't get it below 70 on a really hot day


May 28, 2019, 11:32 AM

now. But 74 it will run for an hour. Stay off for 30 minutes.

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I like your funny words magic man


The lack of decent insulation was kinda nice during that


May 28, 2019, 11:47 AM

blackberry winter though. House cooled off right nice.

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You want a unit that can keep the temp inside 30 degrees


May 28, 2019, 11:58 AM [ in reply to On Sunday I learned that my year oldish unit cannot keep ]

cooler than outside. At least around SC. That gives you 75 degrees at 105 outside. Our unit does just that. Few years back when the temp reached 109 in Columbia, our house warmed to 80 degrees. HVAC guy told us that's normal and not to worry and that our unit was working perfectly.

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I imagine you've got far better insulation


May 28, 2019, 12:05 PM

going on with yours. So far as I can tell, I am rocking some original 1970s junk and somehow have a laundry room that didn't get any insulation. That room is also without an vent. It certainly gets hotter but I can't quite tell how much it is impacting the thermostat.

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You can test how effective your insulation is


May 28, 2019, 12:08 PM

without pulling it out of the wall.

If you can hear the drug deals and gunshots going on at night around your house, it's not insulated enough.

I can't hear ####. Somebody could run over my vehicle with a monster truck and I wouldn't hear it.

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I like your funny words magic man


Your being deaf has nothing to do with insulation.***


May 28, 2019, 12:09 PM



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Odd because in our last house we had basically the same


May 28, 2019, 12:21 PM [ in reply to You can test how effective your insulation is ]

electric bills we have in our new home. New home has 2400 more square feet though. Some of that is the difference between our current co-op electric company and SCE&G at our old house. Still, old house was sealed tight. You couldn't hear your neighbor mowing his lawn, or even ME mowing the lawn. New house you can hear outside noise easily.

Heck, for $23K I can have foam blown into the attic ceiling, and the crawlspace encapsulated. Add some solar panels (anbother 10K) and I'd be getting a check from the electric company. Would probably pay for itself in 30 years or so.

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$33K pay back in 30 years?


May 28, 2019, 12:41 PM

And that's if you never have to repair any of it, or get a new roof. Think you'll save $1100/year? That's almost $100/month.

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That is why I was in no hurry to finance the $5,000 of


May 28, 2019, 12:49 PM

insulation, foam sealing, and duct stuff a company wanted to do. Maybe I could then keep my house at 68 degrees and not blink an eye, but even at saving $100 a month it would take far too long to recoup the money.

All that may also not be worth it to potential buyers later.

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A house has to be pretty tight to keep it at 68 degrees


May 28, 2019, 1:01 PM

when its 100 degrees out. Especially when its at humid as it is here. Ductwork, insulation, window type construction, roof type and even slab vs crawl space all play into the R rating for insulating the house. Its not just A/C size as many folks think.

Too large of an A/C unit can cause mold issues due to condensation at the air registers. Aside from just being cheap, that's my gut reason why most tract homes have a little bit under sized A/C units.

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Oh yeah, I'd save $1k a year easily.


May 28, 2019, 1:03 PM [ in reply to $33K pay back in 30 years? ]

But like you said it's a huge investment that would take decades to pay for itself, and even then that assumes no hail storms, etc.

It was a non-starter for me. But in theory between solar panels and added insulation, my electric bill would zero out or be negative.

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How many square feet and what average power bill


May 28, 2019, 1:23 PM

in the hot times are we talking here? Duke had me projected at $90.00 before this heat wave. I'm on 1440 sqft.

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$90 for a light bill?


May 28, 2019, 1:24 PM

they fuggin lied to you

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I like your funny words magic man


Hey dumb dumb, you aint my grandparents, don't call it a


May 28, 2019, 1:29 PM

light bill. Last month it was $65.

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Probably ought to call the Light Company


May 28, 2019, 3:19 PM [ in reply to $90 for a light bill? ]

and see how many lights you're being charged for.

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Highest summer electric bills are around $300


May 28, 2019, 1:41 PM [ in reply to How many square feet and what average power bill ]

Oh, 4250 sq/ft.

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ahhhh, yes. I'd take bigger measures at that size too.***


May 28, 2019, 1:43 PM



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Pops has a friend who installed solar panels on his house


May 28, 2019, 1:07 PM [ in reply to $33K pay back in 30 years? ]

and I swear Dad told me it cost him $60k. His reasoning was that he wouldn't pay an electric bill anymore and would instead GET A CHECK from the provider. My dad is 70 and his friend is easily in his 80's. There is zero chance he gets even close to 25% payback before he is dead. I think he just has so much money he can just say fuck it and waste $50-60k. I would be pissed if I was his grandkid waiting on that inheritance.

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Well, its his money.***


May 28, 2019, 1:08 PM



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Digging a well is probably more cost effective.


May 28, 2019, 1:12 PM [ in reply to Pops has a friend who installed solar panels on his house ]

I've priced that and I know it would pay for itself in 10 years, if I just used it for irrigation.

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Well...sorta.


May 28, 2019, 12:39 PM [ in reply to You want a unit that can keep the temp inside 30 degrees ]

You should have a 15~20 degree temperature differential between the air return (where the filter is) and the air registers. More is better, but that's a better measurement of how well the unit is working.

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Please explain this further.


May 28, 2019, 12:47 PM

I don't want portion of the house to be 15 degrees different than anyplace else.

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Maybe I didn't explain it correctly


May 28, 2019, 12:55 PM

If you have an infrared thermometer (and if not, get one--they are cheap at Harbor Freight or Nothern Tool and you can use them for all sorts of stuff), Point it at the a/c intake (where the filter is). Make note of that reading.

Then point it at the nearest supply (closest vent that has cooling air coming from it) and take a reading there. That reading should be 15-20 degrees lower than your first reading. If its less than 15-20 degrees, you may have some insulation or ductwork flow/pressurization issues.

Obviously, it will probably be cooler air coming from the closest supply to the A/C unit. It shouldn't vary a whole lot though from any air register on that zone.

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Oh, when our units first turns on I get a BLAST of hot air.


May 28, 2019, 1:18 PM

Then it gets cool. I've thought about getting a roof vent that spins, because our ridge vents suck. We have a funky roof, and there's maybe 15 or so feet of ridge vent for 40+ feet of house. I've been told you can't run ridge vents down an angle on the roof, so it has to be at the top. Only other way to get the heat out is some kind of active vent put in the roof. Our attic gets extremely hot for a newer house, mainly because there's a very small ridge vent compared to the size of the attic floor space. Last house had a roof that ran the length of the house, so it had a ridge vent over the entire attic space. MUCH cooler attic.

Now that investment may pay for itself in just a few years.

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I'm told that if the attic is insulated enough, temperature


May 28, 2019, 1:23 PM

in the attic doesn't really matter.

A buddy has spray foam insulation in his attic, and its not vented.

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Yeah, they seal it up when they do the foam***


May 28, 2019, 1:42 PM



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Hey, wanna swap neighbors?


May 28, 2019, 11:35 AM

Mine has a flux capacitor that he can loan you if you need to travel back in time.

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ALL A/C units should come with what is called a


May 28, 2019, 11:39 AM

"cold start kit". Basically, its a capacitor that's 2-3x the size of what is normally installed in them.It allows the fan and compressor to come on with all of the amperage they need to start immediately, rather than "browning" when they first are started.

I don;t know why this isn't a standard thing, but not only will the capacitor last longer, but so will the fan and compressor. Thats cool he had one laying around.

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I know why it isn't a standard thing.....


May 28, 2019, 11:55 AM

HVAC guys and manufacturers NEED the things to break. About the only thing engineers have truly been making last longer are vehicles. And that's because they wear out anyway, so they make them wear out over longer periods of time.

YOU CAN MAKE A REFRIGERATOR that lasts 50+ years. Same for an AC unit. Same for a garage door opener. Each of those examples, when they first came on the market, lasted 50+, 25+, and 25+ years respectively. But if you only buy one refrigerator in your lifetime, the manufacturer goes belly up. Same for AC and garage door openers.

Nowadays, when you buy the most expensive product, that means it has the most bells and whistles, not the longest lasting. I'd pay 10 grand for a refrigerator that I know would last 40 years or more. Watched a fridge guy repair our Samsung refrigerator. He had to replace a cheap piece of crap plastic part with a brand new, cheap plastic part.

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Probably a lot of truth to that.


May 28, 2019, 11:59 AM

Planned obsolescence.

It seems most major home purchases last about 10-12 years. Roofs, A/C systems, washers and dryers, refrigerators, hot water heaters. If they last past that, they are on borrowed time.

My second house all of that stuff went within a year of each other. I couldn't get out of that place fast enough.

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Can confirm. Last house was built in 2007, and it was


May 28, 2019, 12:12 PM

systematically falling apart. Neighbors house was built the year before mine, my stuff would go out around a year after his. We had made our way through all major appliances but the fridge and washing machine, I suspected HVAC and water heater would be next.

I drove by the other day and the guy and his g/f or whatever were outside on the patio on a ~ 95 degree day. I was like yep, know what's going on there. Guarantee the air had gone out. Been there.

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Surprisingly, 19She called it. She noticed an HVAC van a


May 28, 2019, 12:16 PM

a few doors down when we left on Friday, and started worrying on Sunday that the guinea pigs were going to die because our AC went out. "All those track homes with the same builder--that's what happens." I told her she was crazy.

I'm not used to eating that brand of crow.

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Well, they aren't called guinea pigs for no reason


May 28, 2019, 12:24 PM

If they die, you know it's not safe for y'all, either.

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First house built in 1996, replaced HVAC on Christmas Eve


May 28, 2019, 1:04 PM [ in reply to Can confirm. Last house was built in 2007, and it was ]

2007. Also had to replace multiple vent fans, stove, hot water heater heating element (tank kept BARELY ticking) and well pump. That was all so much fun.

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I'll see you neighbor and raise you mine.


May 28, 2019, 11:52 AM

My 70-something neighbor has every tool know to man and probably some from aliens. He keeps them in 1 of his 8 garage bays along with 4 John Deere's including a vintage 1950's dozer (it's yellow, before they really started using green), a front end loader, a gator (with winch and auto dump bed) and a riding mower. He also has a Ford tractor.

1 bay in the 5 bay detached garage is a full metal working shop, 1 a wood shop. The garage has an elevator so he can get to his supplies. He has more hardware, all sorted of course, than a good Ace Hardware.

Another bay is just for power tools - I think he has like 3 different length Stihl chain saws he uses depending on the tree he's cutting. Backpack leaf blower and a cordless handheld. Welder. Generator. Name it.

All this said he is a magician at fixing about anything and if he needs a specific part he can't find he makes it.

Plus he has a 500+ bottle wine cellar.

And the nicest guy you will ever meet.

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https://as1.ftcdn.net/v2/jpg/00/81/16/28/1000_F_81162810_8TlZDomtVuVGlyqWL2I4HA7Wlqw7cr5a.jpg


I wanna do what he does/did for a living.***


May 28, 2019, 11:53 AM



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import/export***


May 28, 2019, 12:01 PM



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That is what I do now. The pay is better than doing


May 28, 2019, 12:08 PM

payroll at a bank, but it still isn't great.

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Honestly...I'm thinking that maybe having a small backpack


May 28, 2019, 12:01 PM [ in reply to I wanna do what he does/did for a living.*** ]

with a few key survival items and walking the earth, meeting people, getting into adventures like Kane in Kung Fu is starting to sound REALLY attractive.

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They got a name for people like that, RH Tig.


May 28, 2019, 12:05 PM

it's called "a bum". And without a job, a residence or legal tender, that's exactly what you're going to be: a fucking bum.

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I'm in a transitional period


May 28, 2019, 12:16 PM

so I don't wanna kill you, I wanna help you.

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He was an engineer at GE in Greenville.***


May 28, 2019, 12:16 PM [ in reply to I wanna do what he does/did for a living.*** ]



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https://as1.ftcdn.net/v2/jpg/00/81/16/28/1000_F_81162810_8TlZDomtVuVGlyqWL2I4HA7Wlqw7cr5a.jpg


That is disheartening.


May 28, 2019, 12:29 PM

He was probably can recall some of the good ole days at Garlington.

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"Used to only take us 5 minutes to get to Woodruff or


May 28, 2019, 12:30 PM

Pelham from the plant. Now that same drive takes 3 hours!"

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That traffic sure aint the plant's fault these days.***


May 28, 2019, 12:40 PM



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Useless fact of the day:


May 28, 2019, 12:07 PM [ in reply to I'll see you neighbor and raise you mine. ]

All Deere commercial construction equipment is yellow (dozers, excavators, loaders, etc). Their agricultural and homeowner lines are "John Deere Green".

flag link military_tech thumb_downthumb_up

Capacitor on my ceiling fan went out a while back.


May 28, 2019, 2:32 PM

I emailed Hunter customer service to find out what kind I needed, cuz I really didn't want to take the MFer down and apart to find out I got the wrong kind.

They emailed be a coupon code for 15% off a new fan, which is like $45 off $325. They said they don't sell replacement parts for the motor, and wouldn't tell me.

#### that noise.

I took the ##### down, got on Amazon, and one day and $6 later, fan's fine.

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just replaced the A/C in a rental,it was a 1992 model


May 28, 2019, 3:17 PM

i'm not banking on the new one lasting 27 yrs

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Window units are cheap***


May 28, 2019, 4:21 PM



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central a/c only has hot water heat***


May 28, 2019, 4:47 PM



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Not so lucky. Having to replace the 2T unit upstairs.


May 28, 2019, 4:53 PM

The distributor sent the wrong unit when they came on Friday, was supposed to have the correct (16 SEER) unit today, but I got nothing (except a new upstairs sauna).

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https://as1.ftcdn.net/v2/jpg/00/81/16/28/1000_F_81162810_8TlZDomtVuVGlyqWL2I4HA7Wlqw7cr5a.jpg


Replies: 59
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