A Day of Sweat

So, the day of sweat (as it shall be called forever now) is over, the A/C is repaired, the bill (much bigger than I thought it would be) paid, and peace reigns once again in the household.

What amazed (and saddened and appalled) me was the cost of the refrigerant. We use something called R-22. And it is not cheap. Not by a long shot.

And that is what was needed, 9 pounds of R-22 (I think it is measured in pounds) for my unit. But, first, the leak (which means the freon is now contributing to the depletion of the ozone...) needed to be found and repaired. Which it was. That was the cheapest and easiest part. In fact, I was not charged at all for that service.

A/C is pretty much mandatory here. Though I grew up without it. As I wrote yesterday, my family had no A/C until 1963 when we moved into a mobile home. Somehow, the heat and humidity did not bother me very much. But once you have A/C, you do not want to give it up.

I did not need it in San Diego. Because its climate is pretty much the equivalent of A/C anyway, especially if you live close to the beaches. As I moved inland (to the east), A/C and heat became important. But even then I did not use it much. When the temps are rarely above 80 or below 50, there isn't much need. Here, I rarely need heat but that does happen... mostly because I have become a wimp and cannot tolerate sub-50 degree periods (we do get those from time to time but only in the early morning hours in the winter).

But I will not think about that, that's for another day.