I decided I would spend a productive July 4th – you know, do a few things around the house, fix a nice meal, socialize with friends, watch some fireworks, and generally have a good day.
Should have known my day wouldn’t go as planned.
I started out getting breakfast at Cracker Barrel, and tempting fate from the beginning. Last July 4, I did the same thing, and found an abandoned black lab puppy after indulging in a yummy breakfast.
Long story short, I found a home for my CB puppy, but think about him and what might have been. I’m sure the Big Black Dog is happy to forget my momentary lapse in judgment. I made it through breakfast without finding a puppy or other animal, so I thought I was doing really good.
At Home Depot, I picked up a few things for weekend projects. Nothing major, just some air filters (overdue on that), air registers (noticed the one in the kitchen was looking really pathetic, so I thought I’d update it and a couple of others), and a new programmable thermostat for the home air hat trick. An unplanned purchase, but I was in that aisle and thought I might as well get around to changing out the old one and maybe save a little money via energy savings in the process.
That, Dear Reader, is where I went wrong. Should have stuck with repainting the bathroom. I’ve done that now twice, and never run into an issue. But no, I had to branch out and challenge myself.
I got home, got my shiny new thermostat out of the heinous plastic packaging, and proceeded to do my project. I found my breaker (yay! wasn’t sure before) and turned off the heat and air unit. I got the old one off – bad mercury, got to find out how to dispose of it – and started getting the new one up.
That’s when I realized that I didn’t have the small screwdrivers I needed because the ones I remember I had were in my old toolbox, which was stolen in the break-in. So off to Home Depot I go again, picking up the necessary things to finish my project.
Back home, I get the new one up, everything hooked up to the right thing. I went through the initial setup and had the fan running and cold air coming out of vents.
Success!
I call my parents to gloat, and even get a lecture on my language when I tell them that I “f#^king rock” because I did it all. my. self. So there. Ha!
Hubris? Iz got it.
I start programming the thing for various times and days – Do I want it on 75F or 78F on Monday evenings? So many decisions! – but notice that it’s not running any more. I troubleshoot as much as I can, talking to my dad on the phone through most of it as well.
That’s when I realize it might be good to call the technical support number – you know, just in case.
The tech guy – very nice, thank goodness he was working this holiday – told me immediately what went wrong. Seems even though I make sure to mark the way the wires were hooked up on the old one, I should have switched B to C on the new one. This was something not noted in the installation instructions, because I checked after talking to him. Hooking it on the new one at B caused a fuse to blow on my heat and air unit.
He talked me through things, making sure everything else is okay, which it is. So I did the right thing, but didn’t know that the right thing also involved knowing to change something that wasn’t in the instructions, and thus blowing a fuse.
Better this “$0.50 fuse” than a big blow out somewhere else, right? Problem is finding this cheap fuse, says Mr. Nice Tech Support.
And that’s when things got not so good.
I’m not a heat and air technician, and I do not play one on tv. After consulting my dad, I start unscrewing anything unscrew-able on my unit, trying to find a fuse that I probably won’t recognize. That’s what my iphone is for – taking pictures as I go, sending them to my dad, and then talking about if I’ve found it yet.
Oh, and having to trim the stupid bush thing that someone planted right next to the unit, in a very pointless spot. And by trimming, I mean ruthlessly cutting it away without regard for anything other than access to the side of my house. When this affair is over, that overgrown greenery is gone.
Anyway, after an hour of messing around with that, I concede defeat, and decide to call in the professionals. That was at 12:45p. It’s now 3:45p, and the tech has called to say he has another job first and he’ll be at my place sometime later.
So I wait. No air conditioning on July 4th, evening plans canceled because I don’t know when this will be fixed. UPDATE: Fixed as of 7:30p. Yay!
It’s 88F outside, but my new thermostat says it’s a comfortable 80F inside. I got the windows open to get what little breeze there is. At least the humidity is low, so it’s really not bad. Of all the decisions I made, doing it on a day when the weather was bearable – pure chance, but hey, take what I can get – was the only right one.
I have no idea what this “learning lesson” as my mom is calling it is going to cost me. UPDATE: $378. Turns out there’s not a fuse to find, so it went ahead and blew the transformer. So I had to replace the transformer and have a fuse installed. But hey, I got cold air now. Yay!
I know now how not to install a programmable thermostat!
Now taking appointments to do yours!
