Why systems struggle
Ask anyone who services heating and cooling where the problems live and the answer is the same: rarely in the equipment, almost always in the loop around it.
- 1 Thermostat. The season’s odometer: a hundred cooling days pass through it.
- 2 Return and filter. The lungs, and the first thing a retrofit house sized too small.
- 3 Air handler and furnace. Up in the attic, asleep nine months, asked for everything in December.
- 4 Coil and condensate drain. Liters of river-valley moisture a day, leaving through one narrow line above your ceiling.
- 5 Attic ducts. The coldest air in the house, commuting through the hottest room on the property.
- 6 Outdoor unit. Full sun, full load. August culls capacitors here by the thousand.
The six
Two foundations, two duct problems
A city built on two kinds of foundation, so the ductwork runs overhead in one neighborhood and underfoot in the next, with completely different failures. River humidity that makes drying the house half of every cooling job, and hands its water to one narrow drain above your ceiling. A spring that coats every outdoor coil in pollen. And equipment old enough that the refrigerant inside it can decide the repair. Almost none of it starts inside the equipment.