27 September 2010

Damn.

It's been perfect convertible weather Thursday, Friday and Saturday with highs in the 90's but lows in the comfortable mid-70's. There has also been a full moon, so I have been doing a lot of night driving with the top down just because.

All that came to an end yesterday for two reasons; first because I had to go to work and second because the rains finally came. We have been needing rain, and this will put our daytime highs in the 70's and nighttime lows in the 60's. That's too cool for convertible cruising at night, but we will be able to open the doors and windows and not run the air conditioner.

That's a good thing, because at about 7PM last night our air conditioner gave up the ghost. We have been nursing it along for the past couple of years, and this time there is some pretty extensive obvious electrical damage with an unknown degree of hidden electrical damage in the control circuitry. The entire system is dead; it tripped the breaker but not before the power transformer that feeds the 240VAC heating coils and 24VAC control circuits got fried.

Add to that the fact that the unit is leaking freon and has had to run for extended periods during the heat of summer just to keep the house 5 to 10 degrees hotter than the thermostat setting and during the cold of winter to keep the house 5 to 10 degrees cooler than the thermostat setting (it's a heat pump). The old unit is 11 years old, and being in a modular home wasn't the highest quality when new. It's time for a replacement.

The replacement will run about $7400 installed including the duct work and electrical. With the rebates and incentives from the power company and the manufacturer plus a $1500 write-off on my taxes, the whole thing will cost me around $5600 when everything pans out, plus my electric bills should be lower. I will have to pay it up front and collect the rebates later.

That's a $7400 hit that I wasn't planning on taking, so the budget just got a lot tighter. The credit card that I had previously been able to pay off is going to get a big charge on it, but I'm going to pay it off over the next seven or eight months since I don't have any other payments that I'm making. That should hopefully keep the interest charges from hurting too badly.

I'm sure that I'll be satisfied with the results in the long run, but the skinflint in me is now cowering in the corner whimpering.

3 comments:

LC Aggie Sith said...

You poor guy...been there in the middle of a Texas summer several times. We finally replaced the damn thing, and took the hit, since living here kinda calls for A/C.

Hope the weather co-operates!!

Larry said...

Estimated $3500 in obvious and probable damage vs $5600 after tax breaks, dealer rebates and electric company incentives (plus better cooling and heating and lower power bills), yep I'm replacing. I just wasn't planning on that hit to the pocketbook.
Thanks for dropping by Aggie!

Larry said...
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