Your air conditioner is supposed to kick on when the temperature goes up a little too much, then quickly bring the room back down to your preferred temperature within about twenty minutes or so. But it’s still running, and who knows how long it’s been?
In the end, you’ll need AC repair in Sarasota, FL, but for now we can help you shut it down so you don’t run through your entire monthly energy bill all at once. Before we do, a word of caution: never, under any circumstances, interfere with the internal wiring of your air conditioner.
Anything of this sort should exclusively be carried out by an HVAC technician with the proper training, experience, certification, and safety protocols in place. It’s not worth your life to turn the air conditioner off, so use these two methods here and nothing else.
Try Shutting Down the Outdoor Switch First
Your air conditioner has a switch located outdoors. If you look at where your AC cabinet is, there should be a flip cap that houses a switch attached to your house. This is a switch that controls the flow of electricity to your air conditioner.
Open the flip cap, flick the switch, and listen for the sound of your air conditioner powering down. You should be able to see a fan somewhere near the top of your cabinet, but if not, you will likely be able to hear the noise of the fan blades stop.
If this worked, then great–but you should still double-check indoors by putting your hand over a vent somewhere in your home. If there’s no airflow, you’re good to go. If not, move on to the next option.
Kill Power From the Breaker
You have a metal box in your home, usually mounted on the wall somewhere. It could be the dining room, kitchen, garage–the location varies from house to house.
When you open that metal door, you’ll see horizontal switches and labels on either side of them. These switches control the flow of electricity to different zones of your home. If your electrician did their job properly, there should be clear labels (though it’s not uncommon to see illegible handwriting or blank labels).
Find the one labeled for your air conditioner, and flip the switch. This should eliminate the power to your AC, but if not, your HVAC technician will be able to figure things out once they get there. It could just be mislabeled.
Now That it’s Powered Down…
It’s time to call an HVAC contractor as soon as possible. You can’t just flick your AC on by reversing the methods we’ve shared today; it’s supposed to operate based on the temperature reading by your thermostat.
Contact us today so that we can get a technician out to you as soon as possible and fix the problem at its root cause. We’ll get your AC running the right way before you know it.
Contact Jim McDonald & Sons Heating & Cooling Inc. today to schedule your AC repair as soon as possible.