About 3 am Wednesday I noticed that the fan that circulates the air for our furnace and AC (blower fan?) had died. The AC itself hadn't, and frost was accumulating where the coils lie inside the assembly above the furnace. Turned everything off.
The furnace and (blower) fan are from 1985 (Carrier). We bought the house in June 2008.
Repair guy came and said the capacitor had blown. He said he could replace that for cheap, or he could replace the entire motor. We had told him that we were tired of all these minor repairs, and given the age of the unit it was time to replace the thing anyway. Apparently replacing the motor would be fairly expensive (~$600).
We decided not to replace the motor.
He warned us that in his experience, if the capacitor goes on a very old motor, the motor often (but not always) dies soon thereafter. He was simply and honestly presenting the tradeoff to us.
So I came home about 5 pm this afternoon and the motor was making a noise, kind of like a slightly noisy clothes dryer. Obviously not good. An hour later, the motor was dead. ("Dead" equals humming and not turning.)
Of course, we could turn around and spend the $600 as soon as they can get out here again (he said they stock the part), but we're really going to replace ASAP. (They can't get out here for an estimate until the 19th. In the meantime we'll ask a couple other firms for estimates.)
So...what's the best way to limp along until we get the new system, which looks like it could be a couple weeks? We live in a suburb of Washington DC and it's been hot as hell recently. (Probably why the thing decided to burn out now---it's been working overtime.) I'd just live mostly in the basement and deal with it, but we have 1 year old twins, and having them sleep in the basement is a logistical PITA. Is a reasonable thing to get a couple cheap window units, or is there some better way of dealing with the situation?
TIA,
S