On May 26, 10:38*am, "HeyBub" wrote:
Jo wrote:
Hello,

The central A/C and heat in my house aren't working properly and I
need to figure out why. All the equipment (or whatever you want to
call it) is about 24 years old.

The problem started about a month ago when the heat was on. I noticed
that hardly any air was blowing out of the vents and the air that was
blowing out was cool, not warm. Also, the lights in different rooms
would dim every 4 minutes or so. I turned off the heat at this point
and notified the owners of the house who happen to be my parents.

I turned on the A/C this morning and the same thing is happening. The
lights in different rooms dim every 4 minutes or so and hardly any air
is blowing out of the vents. The fan is set to "auto" but everything
has been running nonstop since I turned it on over 4 hrs ago, which is
not normal. I think it's running nonstop because the house temperature
hasn't reached the temperature I set the thermostat to. At this rate,
it never will because it's hardly blowing out any air.

My father says he put in a new filter, but this was after the problem
started a month ago. He mentioned that the unit might need more Freon,
but I think he checked that out because he came back saying he doesn't
know what the problem is. He mentioned something about getting someone
to check the pressure (whatever that means), but knowing him this
could take weeks and I'm burning up.

Does anyone have an any idea as to what might be wrong? And since the
lights keep dimming, will that harm any of my electronic equipment,
like my computer?

Whether the furnace or the AC is working properly is irrelevant to your
symptom. You've got a problem with the air handler - the thing that blows
the air around. The motor could be bad, the start capacitor could be bad, if
it has a belt, the belt could be slipping, the evaporator unit could be
clogged with stringy nasties or dozens of dead mice parts, a piece of duct
work could have come loose (so that you're cooling the attic!), or any
number of mechanical issues.

The good news is that whatever's the problem, it will be easy to spot.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

That's a conclusion that I don't think we can draw. Most homeowners
don't pay much attention to the volumn of airflow from the vents
unless they have a problem. So we don't know that his subjective
"hardly any" is a problem or not. Not to say it owuld not be worth
while to check the evaporator and airhandler. Almost no air handlers
have belts anymore btw.

jamesgangnc wrote:

The good news is that whatever's the problem, it will be easy to
spot.- Hide quoted text -


That's a conclusion that I don't think we can draw. Most homeowners
don't pay much attention to the volumn of airflow from the vents
unless they have a problem. So we don't know that his subjective
"hardly any" is a problem or not. Not to say it owuld not be worth
while to check the evaporator and airhandler. Almost no air handlers
have belts anymore btw.

Agreed, but since the problem affects both heating and cooling, it would be
really weird for them both to fail simultaneously.

About the belt, you're right. Remember, though, his system is 24 years old
(mine's older and it doesn't have a belt), so who knows?

On May 27, 6:19*pm, "HeyBub" wrote:
jamesgangnc wrote:

The good news is that whatever's the problem, it will be easy to
spot.- Hide quoted text -

That's a conclusion that I don't think we can draw. *Most homeowners
don't pay much attention to the volumn of airflow from the vents
unless they have a problem. *So we don't know that his subjective
"hardly any" is a problem or not. *Not to say it owuld not be worth
while to check the evaporator and airhandler. *Almost no air handlers
have belts anymore btw.

Agreed, but since the problem affects both heating and cooling, it would be
really weird for them both to fail simultaneously.

About the belt, you're right. Remember, though, his system is 24 years old
(mine's older and it doesn't have a belt), so who knows?

It sounds a lot like he has heat pump. It failed to heat earlier in
the year and now fails to cool. And he is observing the lights
dimming at a frequency that suggests a compressor trying to start,
tripping the thermal cutout, and then repeating that a few minutes
later.