I have two AC units, a big one for downstairs and a smaller one for the 2nd story. I turned off the breaker to the second one, but occasionally it turns on, the big metal thing upstairs, not the fan outside. There was no way to turn it off even with the breaker off, i found a thing thats like a plug with two prongs which indicated to pull out to turn off. Can anyone please explain why if the breaker is off it was still making noise and unfortunately using power...I live in Florida and the electric bills due to the heat are outrageous. Thank you
Trying to figure out exactly what you're saying Marie. Help me/us out.
Do you have two separate thermostats?
When you say you have two AC units do you mean that you have two zones? i.e. two compressor units ("the fan outside") and two air handlers (those would be the fan forcing air through whatever duct work you have and over the cooling coils)?
Or, on the second floor do you have, an "outside cooling fan" (compressor) and a smaller, wall mounted unit (approximately 1' x3' x
9") mounted to the wall that vents out the bottom? (this is typically a split system)
It sounds like the breaker that you threw is only controlling the compressor's power and not the air handler. There must be another breaker or switch controlling power to that air handler. It could be sharing power off another circuit that is not obvious to you as, typically, the air handler doesn't have much of a current draw.
Find the hidden switch for that air handler in the overhead or using the control on your thermostat you should be able to turn off the air handler. Typically, they have an off/fan/automatic position. Off should do just fine. If in "Fan" it will run continuously and "Auto" only when the thermostat calls for heating/cooling.
The unit outside is the condenser. The big meal thing upstairs is the air handler with the evaporator coil. They may work off of different circuit breakers.
Is there a separate thermostat for it? If so, you should be able to just turn that to the "off" position and the unit should not come on at all. Take a look at the unit upstairs and there may be a switch mounted on it so you can turn it off when changing filters.
If the thermostat is looking to cool the upstairs it can turn on the fan assuming the compressor is running and the coil will be cooled to extract heat.
That sounds right. There should be two breakers, one for the compressor unit outside, one for the air handler/furnace part that's inside. The thing with two prongs she found to pull out was likely a disconnect for the air handler/furnace.
It could be
I'm pretty sure NEC says you need it on it's own circuit. Also, the fact that it apparently has a disconnect probably indicates that it also is 240V with resistance heating.
But the final part here is that both should shut off simply by using the thermostat.
the other thing the OP should be told is that the outside compressor (what the OP called fan) is the part that uses most of the electricity.
If you turned that off with the breaker, but the other inside unit still ru ns, that is the inside blower, you will still get the air moving around ins ide like vent mode but it won't be cooled. If the outside compressor is o ff, you will be using much less electricity. The inside blower uses much le ss electricity compared to the outside compressor.
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