does our house need a new A/C and who should I call to have it checked

[Anonymous]

I turned on our AC today. but afer 6 hour, the temperature is not coming down but going up to 83
I can feel the air blow out from the vent, but not as cool as I can remember.
who should I call to check the problem

[Anonymous]

You need to call a Heating and Air Condiitoning guy. Look up someone on Angies List, or HVAC in the Yellow pages. Sometimes you can also look on your Deating/AC unit and find the type of system so you can google/find a rec. for someone that serves it. Ours even had a sticker fromthe last company that made a maintenence call. Good luck finding someone to come out and see it during this heat wave! I bet they will all be pretty busy!

[Anonymous]

How old is your AC? Ours is 20 years old, and when it goes, we are replacing it. I was told they don't really last more than 12-15 years, on average.

[Anonymous]

PP here.

Also, go outside and make sure there is nothing obstructing the flow into the unit. If there are bushes and leaves choking it up, it will not work properly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How old is your AC? Ours is 20 years old, and when it goes, we are replacing it. I was told they don't really last more than 12-15 years, on average.

mine is 18 year old. just had it serviced. the repair person made a good argument for why it would make sense to replace a unit that old now if i am going to be in this house for 5 years +...apparently newer systems are much more energy efficient.

[Anonymous]

I am the one with the 20 year old AC. It is true that the new ones are more energy efficient, and to help mine be more efficient I keep all bushes and plants away from the unit. Inside I put fans in front of the vents, so the air moves around better, cooling the house faster. I never turn it off during the day, as it has to work so much harder to cool off the house later. I no longer use regular lightbulbs, so there is less heat from them to keep cooling. I draw the blinds on the windows the sun comes in, to avoid having the heat from the sun come in. I shut off all the vents in the lower part of our house (split foyer home), it is still cool there, but the unit doesn't work as hard. I was amazed when my neighbor, who has the same size home, with the same lay out, was paying more than twice for electric bill.