One For All Air Conditioning

If you watch TV in the last 20 years you’ve probably heard of Angie’s List.

This is supposedly a local service that recommends high quality contractors and service professionals in your area based on users’ verified experiences.

However, I think that I should probably start a competing service that’s called Andy’s list. My list would only include all of the people that you shouldn’t hire for the job, because that’s generally who I wind up doing business with. I don’t know how to explain it, but I have a penchant for hiring the worst service professionals you can imagine. Most recently, this was the case when I attempted to retrofit my old Victorian home with brand new central heating and cooling. When I called out the nearest heating and cooling repair shop, I made sure that I checked all of their online reviews. All of their prior customers and that they had good experiences with the air quality control technicians and the advanced indoor air handling equipment that they specialized in. I thought that 200 5-star reviews was good enough evidence for me that the HVAC repair shop could handle my difficult heating and cooling repair job. Boy, was I wrong. The HVAC professional who showed up at my house seems like he had no idea what he was doing. As they were installing the ductwork throughout my historic walls, I heard a lot of terrifying banging and scratching. After days of supposedly installing my central heating and cooling system along with a smart thermostat, my home seems like it had less indoor air quality control than ever. After they went overtime and over budget with the entire HVAC project, I had to call another heating and cooling company to fix everything that they had botched. Wouldn’t you know, the next HVAC dealership didn’t do any better.

heating technology

Recently I’ve been doing a lot of inner work.

Since I can’t go anywhere during the pandemic and I’m tired of worrying about my household responsibilities, I’ve dived even farther into my own mental landscape.

In short, I’ve been learning a lot about meditation and manifestation. I have to say, I never thought that I would be capable of meditating for longer than a few seconds at a time. My brain has such intrusive thoughts that it seemed like a long shot to keep it quiet for even one moment at a time. These days, however, I worked my way up to meditating for as long as 10 minutes at a time. I have to say, I feel like I’m more mentally strong… But I might be getting more physically ill now that I have gotten so present. Before, I was more than happy to put on blinders and ignore certain things. When meditating, however, suddenly, I’m aware of exactly how disgusting my central heating and cooling system is. You see, part of my meditation practice is sitting in complete silence and noticing my breath. This would be easier if my central cooling system wasn’t chugging away in the background. The sounds coming from my AC units are fairly concerning when you don’t have other noises polluting the hums and bangs of the cooling system. Furthermore, I’m suddenly extremely conscious of the disgusting smell circulating through my air vents. I used to think that I did a good job changing my air filters for the central HVAC system, but now I’m doubting the cleanliness of my ductwork. Every time I sit down to meditate, I have to fight back intrusive thoughts about calling the professional HVAC dealership to immediately have my air conditioning system overhauled and my ductwork scrubbed.
zone controlled hvac

In isolation, however, they weren’t permitted the luxury of cool, dry air.

Recently I was listening to a really incredible story by a man who was one of the Memphis Three. If you’re not familiar with this tale, it’s the extremely sad account of how three impoverished boys in Tennessee were wrongfully convicted of murdering several children. They were incarcerated for nearly 20 years without real evidence to back up their indictments before being released. The entire thing is extremely heartbreaking, until you realize how strong it made some of these wrongful prisoners. These tortured men were subjected to years of isolation as they sat in prison. What was most terrifying to me was the thought of being locked in a tiny cell with absolutely no human contact or even an AC system. Apparently, being an isolation means that you are also at the mercy of untreated indoor air. They put these poor souls in such terrible living conditions that there wasn’t so much as an air vent to supply its circulation or high-quality treated air. The rest of the prison population could at least count on an air conditioning system keeping them relatively cool and calm all day. In isolation, however, they weren’t permitted the luxury of cool, dry air. They didn’t even have the form of an air conditioning system to keep them company. There was no sense of time or space without the sun or any repetitive cycling of a central cooling system. The man said that these twenty years felt like a lifetime. I think I would feel the same if my AC unit broke down for a single day in my own household.

 

cooling

Sometimes it’s really amazing how simple the solution is to your biggest questions.

For most of my life, I’ve wondered how some people seem to have good luck and other people are plagued with terrible fortunes.

It’s always seemed as if your fate was predetermined on the day that you were born. The older I get, however, the more I understand that the energy you put into the universe is the energy that you’ll get back. All of the times that good luck seemed out of reach, it’s because I expected bad luck. Recently, this was proven to me again when I was talking to my mom about my recent HVAC failure. I had just purchased my central heating and cooling system less than five years earlier, and almost immediately noticed that the indoor air quality was fluctuating wildly every day. It seemed like I couldn’t maintain an even indoor air temperature no matter what I did and my energy bills were climbing through the roof. I was extremely paranoid that this would happen before I ever purchased the central heating and cooling equipment. I felt as though it was my normal, terrible luck that I would get a lemon of an air conditioning system after doing so much research and consulting with several HVAC repair shops. When I told my mom about all of these disasters, she simply chuckled on the phone. She told me that she’s been using the same heating and cooling system for over 35 years and she’s never had a single professional repair. When I asked how that was possible, she told me that she just never thought about HVAC failure being an option. Because she had never considered that her ancient heating or cooling system could break down… It didn’t. Meanwhile, I manifested a busted AC in less than a year. It was that simple.

link here

That is, until I couldn’t get ahold of my HVAC technician again.

I have had an extremely frustrating couple of weeks and it’s really started to grind my gears, to be honest with you. In the last few weeks I’ve been desperately trying to accomplish some personal appointments that have been on my calendar for the last year or so. I knew I needed to go to the doctor, the dentist, and the car repair shop. I also was aware that my central heating and cooling system needed a professional upgrade before too much time passed. Unfortunately, none of these appointments have been going very smoothly. I was on the phone, desperately fighting to get my car repaired when I had the heating and cooling technician arrive at my house for my HVAC inspection. The heating and cooling technician seemed extremely knowledgeable and helpful when it came to my failing air conditioning system. He quickly walked me through my options when it came to repairing the ancient AC unit for replacing it with a more energy efficient cooling system. I decided to go ahead and order a new central cooling system as long as we were heading quickly towards the hot and humid summer season. Everything seems to be proceeding very smoothly, for once. That is, until I couldn’t get ahold of my HVAC technician again. Suddenly, it seems like the HVAC repair shop dropped off the face of the Earth. No matter how many times I call or text them, I can’t get a response about my pending air conditioning system installation. It’s especially strange to me because they ordered the AC system and I haven’t paid for it yet. You would think that they would be in a hurry to finish up this HVAC installation so they could get paid….

hot water boiler

This is embarrassing to admit, but for the last couple weeks I’ve been trying to make a podcast.

I know that everybody has a podcast these days, and I’m simply joining the pack.

I have to say, I do feel like I have a unique point of view and there are people who can benefit from listening to what I have to share. That being said, so far my most highly-ranked episode is not at all what I expected. In fact, it’s a complete accident that I caught any of this episode on recording. You see, I had just settled down to start recording my podcast a few weeks ago when I noticed that the indoor air temperature was getting extremely hot and stagnant. It seems like there was no high-quality air conditioning pumping through my vents, despite the fact that I knew my thermostat programming should be kicking the AC unit into gear. As I sat back and realized that it was unusually quiet without my central cooling system operating, I quickly opened my phone and Googled the nearest HVAC repair shop. I promptly called the air quality control dealership and requested for a professional repair appointment. The HVAC technician arrived at my house within 20 minutes and he walked me through all of the diagnostics that he was performing on my cooling system. Little did I know, during this entire endeavor I forgot to turn off my recording equipment. I captured the entire HVAC repair on audio and posted it to my podcast, almost as a joke. Well, that has quickly become my most popular episode of all times. Apparently people are a lot more interested in heating and cooling repair than my views on world politics.
air conditioning installation

I have a confession to make.

• Sometimes I feel like I’m losing my goddamn mind and I am not at all in control of the situation.

This happens most often when my anxiety takes over and I begin to lose my sense of security. Oftentimes, when I am feeling anxious to the point of crying, I bury myself in my work to cope. The next thing I know, I’m working from dawn until dusk and feeling like an insane person. It’s difficult when you are attached to a computer all day, because your brain really starts to run wild. That’s why, I’ve decided to start studying some strict boundaries for myself when it comes to my work day. Namely, when I feel the central cooling system kick into gear I know that it’s time to quit for the night. You see, these days I’m the only person who’s working from home and using the central heating and cooling system. My husband returned to his office a few weeks ago, leaving me here with the central HVAC system and an empty house. Rather than operating the large heating and cooling system all day long, I have been turning the thermostat settings up so that the air conditioning unit barely works all day. If the indoor air starts to feel stagnant, I will turn on an overhead fan to increase the circulation. Otherwise, I’m fine working without powerful air conditioning blasting away. As soon as my husband gets home, however, he immediately goes to the thermostat and turns down the indoor air temperature. Whenever ice cold air is streaming from the vents overhead, I know that it must be about 7pm. That’s when I quit my job for the day and finally take a chill pill.

 

air quality