Topic: I Had Forgotten

[britman]

Yesterday, my 26 year old central air system took its last breath.  The fan motor is completely locked up and according to the HAVC man chances of even finding a replacement are slim to none and with repair costs in mind, looks like a entire new system is in my immediate future.  I have one estimate already and getting two more next week and all I say is "DAMN".....

Currently the temps here in Virginia have dropped down from the 100+ degree days and running in the mid 80's, but as the old saying goes, "You don't miss it until it is gone".  I grew up poor, don't get me wrong, there was always food on the table clothes on our back for my two sisters and I.   A lot of the grub came in the form of wild game or fish harvested by my Father and me and believe me, we kids had no idea what name brand clothes and foot ware were.  We lived in what was the country back then, now the area is covered with townhouses and urban sprawl.  I did not see any air conditioning until I was in my very late teens and getting ready to leave the nest and that was one single small window unit.   Up till then AC was in the form of window screens/fans and heat from wood or a giant old oil burning stove.  (Of course plastic was applied over all the windows before the real heating season set in to cut down on the drafts.)

The strange thing is, of all the childhood memories I don't recall any extreme discomfort with heat or cold within that environment.  Maybe you just adapted back then because you had not been spoiled with all the comfort or you plain block those experiences out.  Now my Wife and I wondering how we are gong to cope for probably the next week or two.  Needless to say, the dog and two cats are looking at us with that "What in the hell is going on" look to adding to the drama. We will survive and trust me folks, will appreciate that good cold air when it finally returns.....Yep, remember those good old days......

[Kevin]

I can relate!
I also live in Virginia (2 year job assignment) and recently visited my home in Washington state for a few weeks. The temps were in the 90's and like most houses that were built in the Seattle area pre 1990, it has no A/C.
We sure missed our air-conditioned house in VA!
Today, it is pouring down rain in VA and 80 degrees. The humidity is awful! We're thankful for the A/C.
I think I prefer the weather in Washington state.
Hang in there, Britman! I hope they get you all fixed up soon!

Sent from my SM-S908U1 using Tapatalk

[CycleRanger]

My ~20 year old system died about six years ago smack in the middle of July.
It took about week to get the system replaced. In the meantime I shoved a portable unit in the bedroom window so I could sleep.
Temps were in the 100's and it must have been 150 in my attic where the air handler was located.
The guys doing to the install botched the job (probably because it was 150 in the attic!) and a year later after many issues the company had to come back out and replace the entire unit in the attic again.
On their dime, fortunately.

 I grew up without AC. Didn't live in a house with central air until I was 21 when I moved to Texas.
The house I lived in as a kid was built in ~1900 and it got pretty hot in the summer and you'd just strip down and sleep on top of the sheets with the box fan running.
In the winter you'd just throw on more blankets and I could see my breath sometimes when I got up in the morning.
This all seemed perfectly normal back then. Unthinkable now!

[grcamna2]

britman,I hope they(maybe you can locate one somewhere?)search and find another AC motor to keep your old system operating;it's possible to install HD bearings too.

I live in a 2nd floor apt.(top floor)and it's been over 100 'outside' for a few weeks over here.
I've rented this apt. in high-rent Ca. for 6 yrs.(Noisy,right at a red light intersection) and(thankfully)one of the interim managers here who was only here for just a month replaced the window-style AC unit in the front(wall)room 2 years ago during 100+ weather before the corporate slum lord owners could stop her.
I don't have any AC in the bedroom and it's difficult to sleep unless I use a 20" fan in the bedroom window to pull cooler(79 & less)air from the courtyard window on the other end of the apt. which I need to do after Midnight.
I have slept in my little recliner in the front room,sometimes..
This place must have had 8 managers since I've lived here.
I'm waiting for a small inheritance from my uncle so I can move back over East of the Mississippi and find a decent apt. in a smaller town where there's more nice,deep woods,rather than such wide open spaces with no trees out West here.

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

There has to be a replacement out there somewhere even if it is a salvage.

Me, I have a seldom used Trane that is 23 years old. Maybe less than 1 week a year. I'm sure there is nothing wrong that a shot of freon couldn't fix. R22. Phased our but available. Any technician I get to come out will want to replace the entire system and not even attempt a retrofit. Still works but not optimal. I need an AC friend haha

[Don R]

 He might be right about the unit, but a fan motor isn't usually anything exotic or rare. I could park a farm store shop fan on top of mine if I had to and just let it run.

[Steve F]

When we were kids before AC, the air handler was located in the basement.  My dad would close up the house, go into the basement and open the furnace blower compartment and hotwired the blower motor to come on.  The cooler basement air would circulate throughout the house and that would bring the temps down quite a bit.

[grcamna2]

When we were kids before AC, the air handler was located in the basement.  My dad would close up the house, go into the basement and open the furnace blower compartment and hotwired the blower motor to come on.  The cooler basement air would circulate throughout the house and that would bring the temps down quite a bit.

Cool basements 

[willbird]

We had a 2 story house that was shaded on the west side by large trees so that helped. We did have a couple window units but temps had to go ballistic before my parents would fire them up. I do not think we were ever exactly "poor" but we also did not have an excess of $$.

Bill

[BenelliSEI]

When we built our farmhouse I copied the +150 year old design of a “1.5 story Ontario Farm House”. Because the “roof soffit is below the midpoint of the second floor windows” the farmer was taxed as a single story dwelling. Only a really wealthy man went up a full two stories…..

What I didn’t realize was how clever the design of the porch is. The main floor bricks never see direct sunlight. They cool at night and the main floor is always the same temp. We open everything up over night, and lock it all shut for the day….. Brilliant.

[RAFster122s]

The big porches of yesteryear house designs had a purpose and it worked well. My dad grew up in SW Virginia farm country and the house was huge but Dad was one of 12 kids, so it was a 2 story with added room carved out in attic. Massive place with a lot of oak flooring and stairs with high ceilings downstairs and transom windows over many of the downstairs doorways. Gorgeous farmhouse with massive wrap around porch and additional porch added at rear outside kitchen. Like yours the porch overhangs kept the sun off the lower level and house didn't get super hot like most houses do today. Spent time in summers and few winters shorter stays with my uncle Dean who owned the place as an adult after rest of family married off and Dean farmed after getting out of military, Korea, and helped take care of Granny until she died...
I enjoyed helping on farm with crops, dairy cattle, etc...

[britman]

When we built our farmhouse I copied the +150 year old design of a “1.5 story Ontario Farm House”. Because the “roof soffit is below the midpoint of the second floor windows” the farmer was taxed as a single story dwelling. Only a really wealthy man went up a full two stories…..

What I didn’t realize was how clever the design of the porch is. The main floor bricks never see direct sunlight. They cool at night and the main floor is always the same temp. We open everything up over night, and lock it all shut for the day….. Brilliant.

John, that is absolutely beautiful.------Down here in the South a lot of us are like RAFster122 and remember the "Old Home Place"..... On both sides my Grandparents never had air conditioning in the homes.  Both were two story, meant to house a ton of kids, and hand built on practically as the blueprint......Both places are long gone now and that lifestyle has disappeared along with the dwellings.

In my case the HAVC company arrives in the morning, all new system, gas furnace/air handler under the house and outside A/C unit.   It is going to be a "bear" to install and the price certainly reflected that.  Hopefully by the weekend I will be sitting back fat and cool and broke.......

 

[newday777]

When we built our farmhouse I copied the +150 year old design of a “1.5 story Ontario Farm House”. Because the “roof soffit is below the midpoint of the second floor windows” the farmer was taxed as a single story dwelling. Only a really wealthy man went up a full two stories…..

What I didn’t realize was how clever the design of the porch is. The main floor bricks never see direct sunlight. They cool at night and the main floor is always the same temp. We open everything up over night, and lock it all shut for the day….. Brilliant.

Love it John. As a lifelong carpenter with design background, the roof lines make a house. Today's cookie box houses are such a bore and as you said, a heat sink.
Wrap around porches are more than just a place to sit and while away the day.

[Stev-o]

My two story house has two units, we replaced the upstairs unit years ago after multiple issues, new one works great.
The downstairs unit is original to the house, about 20 yrs old, works good but needs a shot of freon every spring when the temps start getting hot here, $200.   I know it needs replacement at some point but the bid is $8,000[!!] and my AC guy says he doesn't recommend it, not a good sales guy. It's a small 2 ton unit and the air handler is in a garage closet, seems to me a fairly easy change out [no 120 degree attic]. 
Costs just have skyrocketed...

[Don R]

 There's a mansion in Kewanee Il. built by a well to do businessman in the years before air conditioning, he buried a long run of large clay tile and blew air through it into ducts to cool the house. A fore-runner of geo-thermal cooling. It has been open to tours, I'd like to see it some time.

[grcamna2]

There's a mansion in Kewanee Il. built by a well to do businessman in the years before air conditioning, he buried a long run of large clay tile and blew air through it into ducts to cool the house. A fore-runner of geo-thermal cooling. It has been open to tours, I'd like to see it some time.

I'd like to do a tour of that mansion in the Summer.

[BenelliSEI]

There's a mansion in Kewanee Il. built by a well to do businessman in the years before air conditioning, he buried a long run of large clay tile and blew air through it into ducts to cool the house. A fore-runner of geo-thermal cooling. It has been open to tours, I'd like to see it some time.

Don….. Years ago I worked on the air handling equipment in the sub basement of Union (Train) Station, Toronto, on Front St. This massive edifice has been there since 1927. Built right at the foot of Toronto, backing onto the harbour. The builders ran several immense tunnels (I walked through them) in “U” shapes, under the lake. They were filled with condensation and the arched ceiling dripped water. Every 20’ there were canvas curtain strips hanging from rods in the ceiling, touching the floor, absorbing the moisture. Massive squirrel cage fans forced huge volumes of air into the tunnels and than back around to hundreds of floor grates throughout the building. We measured the cool, moist air returning at about 65 degrees F on the hottest summer days. Absolutely brilliant engineering from 100 years ago.

[Bankerdanny]

I think you'll be amaze how much mor efficient modern AC is than the system you have. I replaced my system about 10 years ago and my summer electric bills fell by almost half. Now my system was MUCH older than yours, but you should still see an improvement.

[Terry in Australia]

When I was a kid we were so poor, my Ma had to cut the pockets out of my pants so I something to play with. We used to steal the clothes off our neighbours clothes line, then when we washed them, they’d steal them back.

It was a real community back then, and I miss the “good old days”, which is probably why I’m still wearing 30 year old jeans, but nowadays I can afford to pay someone else to cut the pockets out……

[grcamna2]

When I was a kid we were so poor, my Ma had to cut the pockets out of my pants so I something to play with. We used to steal the clothes off our neighbours clothes line, then when we washed them, they’d steal them back.

It was a real community back then, and I miss the “good old days”, which is probably why I’m still wearing 30 year old jeans, but nowadays I can afford to pay someone else to cut the pockets out……

LOL  !

[CycleRanger]

When I was a kid we were so poor, my Ma had to cut the pockets out of my pants so I something to play with. We used to steal the clothes off our neighbours clothes line, then when we washed them, they’d steal them back.

It was a real community back then, and I miss the “good old days”, which is probably why I’m still wearing 30 year old jeans, but nowadays I can afford to pay someone else to cut the pockets out……

LOL  !

That deserves a double LOL! 

[britman]

It is the morning after, I am very comfortable except for the fact my savings account is a lot lighter. Of course the weather broke and it is only going to be in the lower 80's today, go figure.  Anyway new system in place and after seeing what the two excellent installers pulled from under the home I am so glad I went with an entire set up.  I am really glad I am not in that line of work. The old gas furnace has even rusted through on one end and really would have not lasted much longer.  The new system is amazing, so quiet, I hardly hear it kick on.  When I asked about the pilot light accessibility on the new furnace, the installer just laughed and said now there are glow plugs, no more crawling under the house to relight.  I am going to have to remodel my crawl space door, they had to widen it just a bit to get the new air handler through.  I am also looking a some type of camera set up that will go to my phone to monitor the water level in the pit doing extreme wet weather since the sump pump is manually operated, long story on that situation too. "Time to pump the pit" is a saying very familiar to the Wife and I.  It is an old house that has been added on too multiple times, but my Wife grew up around the corner and my one and only Grand-daughter lives next door, we are not going anywhere.   Thanks for all the input in this thread, been a lot good suggestions and information and we didn't talk about motorcycles for a change.......