Could you come here? I need to show you something.

Whenever a you hear the words "I need to show you something" uttered by a technician of any kind you know you are in real trouble and the HVAC  tech did not disappoint me Saturday.

Sometime Friday it was apparent that we had lost our air conditioning in the house.  Ok, don't panic right?  I mean chances are it is a fuse or switch or something.  Searches online found that the problem was most likely a bad capacitor.  So we called out the service technician to fix the heat pump.

The tech from K&V Heating and Air arrived promptly as  usual.  I trust these guys and have used them in the past.  About 20 minutes passed as I figured he was installing a new capacitor.  A few moments later there was a faint knock at the door.  Then came the horrifying "I need to show you something."

He walked me out to the unit which was now running but making horrible grinding sounds.  He had indeed installed a new capacitor and what he called a "hard start" unit.  The next words out of his mouth were "You have a bad compressor." Yep the most dreaded thing you can hear from a HVAC tech.  This is the equivalent of hearing that you need a new engine for you car.    After a sigh or two from me I ask him what the cost of replacement will be.  About 1,500 for the compressor was the reply.  Another sigh or two then he went on to tell me that they are discontinuing the type of refrigerant that this unit uses and it would be more cost effective to replace the entire heat pump.  What could that cost you might think?  Oh just a mear 3,500 to 4,000 dollars!  Who doesn't have that stored in their matress?

Bottom line is that we will have to wait until spring time  so we can save up enough.  Until that time it is window units for us.