I am going to have to clal upon the services of such a person and I believe that the profession is rife with crooks, much as the auto mechanic profession is rife with crooks.
I can’t seem to get a good recommend for a trustworthy and reasonably priced sort, so I want to go in armed with as much information as possible.
Knowing that my problem cannot be diagnosed via the web, I’m just looking for some ideas about what might be the issue.
I have a rooftop unit. The heating and the air both come through the same vents, which are evaporative cooling vents that were adapted for the AC and heat. It’s gas heat.
There is a large intake in the hall that requires a filter change and needs one very much right now. The thermostat is in the hall and it has a digital readout, I can set it for manual fan or auto fan + heat/cool.
A couple of months ago when we had what passes for a cold snap in California, the heater stopped working. No matter what I did, I could not get it to come on. I could turn on the fan, but no heat. I could hear the “click” in the thermostat that sounded like it was trying to turn on the heat, but no heat happened. I turned it on, off, up, down, nothing. Then I tried the AC and that DID work, but I quickly turned it off because it was very cold.
I left it set to go on and about 36 hours after it conked out it suddenly kicked in and it has worked perfectly ever since, it was just like a little vacation day or something.
Okay so now we’re having our first “hot snap”. I flipped everything over to AC and it SOUNDS like it’s working, but it’s not. the air is pushing through (although not very well and I think a filter change would help there) and the thermostat “thinks” its kicking on (unliek the heating) but he air getting pushed through is warm.
So, any ideas? Any ideas that would preobably be a pretty simple and cheap fix that might get sold to me as something much more serious and costly?
One thing that’s frustrating as hell is that even dignosing it is a major undertaking because it’s in the ceiling- a guy can’t just pop in and look around. So they charge just to look around.
Anyway, your thoughts and ideas are welcome, just so I’m not completely clueless.