HOT! HOT! HOT!

Man, I am hot. It is sweltering right now. Our central air conditioner is broken and I am hot.

It started last night when Erin and I begin to smell a stench of burnt plastic. We checked the dishwasher, but it was not the source. We checked every outlet, every lamp, every electrical appliance in the house and could not find a source of the smell. I climbed up in the attic and checked outside. We got out the ladder and investigated every ceiling fan, still...no source.

After spending several hours searching for the source of the burning smell we decided to ask the fire department to come and investigate. They were very nice and came out and checked around. They too smelled the burnt plastic and checked around. The determined that the smell was coming from our air conditioner.

We called a local company to come out and take a look. He told us that our fan motor in the air-handling unit was toast. He could replace that right now, except...he noticed a lot of corrosion and damage in our air handler. He showed it to me and sure enough, it was bad. He recommended replacing the entire air handler unit. We agreed.

His engineer came out this morning to spec out the job and give us a quote. He noted that our air handling unit (the inside part) was a 2.5 ton system while our condensing unit (the outside part) was a 3.0 ton system. Supposedly, both systems should be identical for the most efficiency. He gave us three quotes, one to just replace the air handling unit, but advised against that because the condensing unit has been being damaged over the past 7 years by overheating because the air handling unit was not cooling down the freon appropriately before returning the freon to the condenser. The condenser can "go" at any time. He gave us a quote to replace both systems and make them 3.0 ton units. Finally, he gave us a quote for replacing both units with 3.5 ton units and duct work to the playroom (the room formerly known as garage).

We are leaning toward last option. There is only $800 separating the price of doing it right (the middle option) and doing it right and getting the playroom done too. The biggest problem is that they can't do the work until Monday. So we are out of air until then. It will take one and half days to complete.

So, we sit in the Alabama heat on the precept of July without air conditioning. Did I mention that is hot?