When your HVAC system gives up the ghost

This week’s been a bittersweet experience. Bitter because our struggling 14-year-old HVAC system was about to give up the ghost. The annual costs of maintenance and repair were increasing. So it was time for a new unit. Financial burdens like that are not pleasant, but are sometimes necessary.

Putting the bitter behind.

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It’s sweet because we learned that the air intake had an undersized hole, which restricted airflow. That explains why the system always sounded like it was struggling to reach the set temperature. According to their testing equipment. The intake was adequate for a smaller unit, but not a 5-ton unit. So they enlarged the size of the hole in the floor, as well as the hole in the hallway for the filter housing, from a 24”x30” filter to a 30”x30”. I guess it was like removing plaque in an artery.

Although the weather has been pleasantly mellow and we haven’t needed to run the AC or heat yet, when they test-ran the unit, I was impressed by how quiet it was.

They also installed an Air Scrubber, which is a device integrated into the HVAC system to help reduce contaminants and improve the quality of our indoor air.

This new system includes a recirculating feature. This feature automatically filters and circulates the air, keeping it purified even when the heating or cooling functions are off. As part of our ongoing maintenance contract, the same company will check the ultraviolet (U.V.) light and honeycomb filter when servicing the HVAC system seasonally.

And if we wanted to be control freaks, we could download an app to our phones and control our smart thermostat from afar. I’ll pass on that one.

As I saw the excellent HVAC technicians haul off our old unit, I thought of this verse. Being thankful while keeping things in perspective.

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:”

– Matthew 6:19-20