I'm off to fix an air conditioner system for a local non profit organization. I did that professionally (among other things) for 40 years and I liked doing it. The problem is I haven't touched one in 11 years so I hope I haven't forgotten anything, I hate to look foolish. because of arthritis and multiple strokes i'm disabled and therefore retired but i still have 40 years of knowledge in my head. I hope the HVAC part is still there.

I'd bet it all comes back to you once you start. The hands remember what the head may have forgotten.

Good luck!

Is there some way you can test and quiz yourself before you take on the project? Just a thought.

Like O said, maybe it will just open the floodgates once you get started.

Good luck!! I am sure you will remember how you did it for 40 years.

Liana

Wow thats a lot for one person to go through!

best of luck!

My heat pump quit cooling and heating at the end of winter. I had it charged last summer for the first time in years but it might have leaked out again. It seems to be running but it can't heat or cool (except with emergency heat). I can't pinpoint what's wrong.

Any suggestions on troubleshooting?

You were right, it all came back to me in a few seconds. Now I know that i'm still a useful citizen to society.

Yes but the alternative is to sit in a chair, have everyone wait on me and basically become a cabbage. So I stay active, keep challenging my brain and getting exercise. Twice doctors have said I wouldn't survive for the next 24 hours and yet here i am. One stroke was so bad I had to teach myself to walk and talk again. The 'experts' said I was too far gone to bother working with so I developed my own therapy. I can't feel my right side and get tired faster than normal but other than that I wouldn't stand out in a crowd. I teach, do child care and building maintenance at one place, and I just took on the task of fixing up a summer camp for inner city kids. Between them I keep busy.

yes, i do that a lot. Every time I walk into a building I make models in my head of how the electrical, AC ducting, plumbing etc are laid out. Sometimes at night I go through systems and devices in my head when i should be sleeping.

having emergency heat means you have power to it. It requires refrigerant for both heating and cooling modes so it might be low or empty. you can turn it on cool, turn the stat down so it's running and go outside and make some observations:
Is the unit running?
Is the compressor running? There will be the fan on top running but you should be able to hear the compressor running also. In hot weather it should be running pretty hard and be pretty obvious.
look at the copper lines running into the house. The big one should be cool, cool enough to sweat and have water beads on it, the little line should feel warm. If both of those cases are true then you know the compressor is running and at least something is happening. If neither of those cases are true then either the compressor isn't running or the system is low or out of charge.
If the fan is running it should have warm air coming out of it. If it isn't running then there is a control or overload tripped because it should run all the time when the unit is running.
you might check the blower in the house. Like outside, the big copper line should be cool. if it's frosted or ice blobs are all over it the system is working but undercharged. If it's running then you should feel air coming out of the vents. If it's running and no air is coming out then either the filter is clogged or the coil is iced up.
Heat pumps are notorious for being a pain to work with. Most guys won't work on them or hate to. I fall into group 2. I hate them because they're way more complicated than they need to be and are very sensitive to work with if you have to work with the reversing valve, which can easily be ruined by applying to much heat when being replaced. If you're proficient with electrical test devices you can check the amp draw and compare it to what the name plate says it should be. If it's too high the compressor might be tight or locked up. If that's the case a hard start kit might help it. otherwise the compressor will have to be replaced. If the amp draw is too low then something, usually the compressor isn't running or is running unloaded, which means the charge is low.
Off the top of my head that's all I can think of suggesting without putting gauges on the system and watching what's happening in it. And that requires not only skill but EPA certification to do. If you check all of that and find anything that doesn't fit what I said, feel free to let me know and we might be able to brain storm it. Specs and wiring diagrams are pretty easy to find online and maybe I can help sort it out that way. Fingers are tired now.

Well that was interesting. All of that just came back to me as I typed it.

Wow I can't believe I just read 5 paragraphs of how to fix a heater/air conditioner thingy on a GIMP Forum

Gms I have a feeling now, I am gonna need that sometime in my life
Thanks for the detailed info!

Good that you still have that gift and knowledge to help out GMS. Our's had to be completely replaced (done so yesterday; reason I've not been posting much since I didn't want my PC to choke at 92°F in my bedroom; lol). Dad and I suffered for 2 days, but we do have an attic fan for night time and now we have a brand new unit ($4700; ouch. Had to be completely replaced because of the new freon standards (yes, the old unit was over 20 years old and it replaced the original). In Alabama, having no AC is just about a death sentence. Heart's still out for those in Tuscaloosa. It nearly was 100°F again today but it didn't get past 76°F in my bedroom thank God. Maybe the Electric bill won't be so high now that we have a more modern system.


To Tux; I won't have a heat pump in my home. Maybe alright for those living in the North, but not here in Alabama.

As of 2000 the first home central AC system ever installed (over 100 years) was still in the home and working. I always wanted to see it but it's location is kept secret. Sorry, i put that in the quote part last night.

My wife and i decided not to run our air (central) this year due to high costs last year.
The heat index was so high the stinker kept running 220 and my electric bill was right around 300.00 every month.
Just can not afford that.It's cheaper to run my 5 or more fans on 110 then run that extra money sucker in my opinion anyways.

Glad to see you had it all come back to you GMS i figured it would.It's funny how those things you used to do run through your head afterwords.Seems like i am always asking myself if things i see made of steel were welded with this kind of wire or that kind of welding rod, and even if robots welded them.
I do not weld anymore and do not plan to but i still have my old speed-shield hanging in the closet.

Just in case.

I do not know what i would do with myself if i just sat around either.I have to keep moving.
What was that Einstein said

"Life is like a bicycle .. to keep your balance you must keep moving"

wise words.

That's cool info GMS. I know they use to use Amonia before CFCs and maybe that unit used Amonia. Not sure how smelly it probably gets since leaks are inevitible and not sure how often the Amonia of such systems have to be replaced. Still, I wonder if an Amonia system with modern technology be a better alternative to CFCs? More then likely not. I'm really not convinced with the CFC connection and our ozone either. Mount Pinatubo spilled out out more Chlorine gas during it's last eruption then the full history of mankind and yet, our ozone is still protecting us.

And Rod just ninja'd me. Like our new smiley.

Also, I guess you can always visit convenient stores, malls and libraries to keep cool Rod. I remember when I lived in Texas and was renting a townhouse. My first power bill was $300 plus and I decided I too would only use my AC for 1 hour a day. I would not let it get above 90°F though. Then, at night, I would open all the Windows and fan circulate the air and then close the windows and turn the AC on for 1 hour and then just used the fan on me before I the sack. My AC bill dropped to around $85/month.

Yikes!! $4700. That's the kinda thing I'm worried about. My heat pump is also ~20 years old. Actually though, the Bryant heat pump I have has been very efficient over those years and did and excellent job of keeping my home cool in the summer and toasty in the winter. Even though I too live in the deep, I only had a couple of months during year where my electricity bill approached $200.00.

During this heat wave, I'm using a window unit and fans to keep things cool. My house is surrounded by large trees so it only gets really hot in the afternoon, which helps.

Thanks so much for all the informative info!!

Here are my observations. The fan and compressor are both running, as well as the inside air exchanger. The pipes coming in seem to be the same temp, neither hot nor cold, with both being ambient room temp.


I think you've zeroed in on it there. My suspicion is that the system is low or out completely. I had a tech put 10lbs in at the beginning of last summer (cost $300) and it ran fine. When winter arrived, I cranked it back up to discover I had nothing but emergency heat.

Last summer when it was low (1lb), the compressor would cut out after a few minutes (I believe there is some kind of auto-cutoff when it's too low) but this year, the compressor keeps running but it's just not cooling. Maybe it's not low enough for the compressor to cut off?

I guess the answer is to have someone put a pressure gauge on it and see if it's out. I suspect there is a slow leak somewhere. How hard do you think it would be to find and fix a slow leak?

Thanks again for all the great info.

I can certainly associate with you! For me it's only been 6 years, but it is a great feeling when ever we are able to do something we weren't sure we could still do. I'm just getting back, myself.

They still use Ammonia, they cal it R717. it's a different branch and i don't know much about it.