A contractor was at our house Monday to replace the boiler. I asked them if they could check our air conditioner as well, and they said they would take a look at it later in the day. They removed the old boiler Monday morning and got the new one mounted on the wall. When they took a lunch break, one of them looked at the air conditioner. He replaced a weak capacitor, and that got it going again. In the afternoon, they began installing the water and gas connections to the new boiler.
On Tuesday, the contractors returned to finish the installation. I mentioned that the air conditioner had struggled all night to get the interior temperature down, so they agreed to check the system out later. When they flushed out all of the water lines for the boiler, the water looked like mud. Once they finished all of the connections, they flushed it again and ran some tests. While that was going on, another technician went into the attic to look at our air conditioner and furnace.
They discovered a few interesting things. First, the condenser was made in 1987 and it used R-22 refrigerant. R-22 was banned in the US in 2020, so it can be expensive (only old stock or reclaimed R-22 is legal). In addition, the unit is significantly undersized. Since we plan to be here for a long time, we decided to have the air conditioner and furnace replaced. The new one will be much more efficient, so maybe it will reduce our utility bills. The new equipment will be installed next week.
I expected the house would need a few repairs, but I wasn't expecting this much. I hope that's the last big expense we have this year.
Love always -- Jessica Rose
