The heat of summer is pounding down on your home, and your home air conditioning unit has been working hard to keep you cool. Just when you are confident the unit is going to make it through the season without failure, you suddenly have no air and the unit won't even come on. Unfortunately, AC failure like this is common, but thankfully, there are usually easy solutions for the situation.
Even though your local HVAC service will be happy to take a look for you to see what's going on, often times, these sudden failures have a simple fix that you can handle on your own. So check out these common things you should check before you call the technician to see if you can fix the situation with your central AC on your own.
Make sure you look at the thermostat to see if it needs a battery.
This is such a simple problem, but it still tends to get overlooked by a homeowner when their AC stops working and they are already flustered with the situation. Most thermostats are not wired directly to electricity for power, which means they have a battery inside that actually makes them read the temperature inside of the house.
If the battery goes dead, the thermostat will no longer function and the air will not come on. Look at the screen of your thermostat. If it is a digital display, there will be no words or numbers displayed at all or you may see a slight "low battery" signal if the battery is dying.
Go out and check the fuses in the disconnect block.
The disconnect block is located inside of the disconnect box that is usually just outside of the outdoor condenser unit of your central AC system, and it contains fuses inside that keep the unit functioning. If these fuses go out, it can definitely mean your AC will just stop functioning all at once. Turn off the disconnect switch inside of the disconnect box, pull out the block, and check the fuses on the backside to see if they are visibly blown.
It can be worth it to go ahead and replace these fuses because it is a simple chore that is inexpensive, and you cannot always see that a fuse is blown with simple observation. Most disconnect blocks have one or two fuses inside that simply snap out and back in. Replace them, slide the disconnect block back into place, and then turn the unit back on to see if this fixes the problem.
If you continue to have problems, then you should contact professional HVAC services to help you.
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