A/C Blues

[kybearfuzz]

Before the rant, big happy birthday wishes to book_of_daniel! Enjoy your 29th again! :)

So after having trouble with the leaking A/C unit the other night, I called for a guy to come in and check out the unit. He was referred to me by a coworker who says he did good work for her.

Well, he just left. Here's the possibilities with my 33 year old A/C unit.

• Replace the evaporator coil for $800.
  
• Get a whole new unit for $4,700.

With the age of my current system, the $800 patch job will likely only be a temporary fix if something new breaks. The new unit will cost a hell of a lot more, but comes with a 10-year warranty and will cut my electric bill down. And I likely will have to get a new unit if the old system breaks some other way.

So I'm strongly leaning toward the new system. While I'm not terribly happy, this isn't going to crush me. I save quite a bit. My sibs all drive expensive vehicles and buy unneeded things for their kids, I try to be practical. The reason I put money in my savings is so when these sorts of crushing costs hit, I'm not devastated. Wow... I'm boring.

When did I get so old?

Comments

[book-of-daniel.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the birthday wishes. :-)

$4700 seems pretty pricey. I'd lean toward a new system too but give yourself a day or two to shop around and get different quotes.

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

You're welcome handsome!

And the $4700 is to replace the entire heating and A/C system. Because my system is so old, to replace one piece in the pair (I have an exterior heat pump) would be problematic because of the different coolants used (I verified this with a friend who researched this when she had hers replaced last year).

[book-of-daniel.livejournal.com]

Gotcha. That's a MUCH better price if it's for both the furnace and the a/c. I know my furnace is about 27 years old and I think my A/C is about 20 years old. I had a few estimates of around 5k to 6k to replace them both although I haven't pulled the trigger on it yet. It's one of those expenses that's always floating around in the back of my mind though as looming closer and closer....