The last thing you want during a nasty heat wave is to wait for days until an HVAC technician or your local AC repairs person shows up to see why your system might have failed. Moreover, not everyone will welcome the standard price of these repairs, which tend to figure in hundreds of dollars.

Instead, you could give your inner electrician a little pep talk, invest approximately $50 in some spare parts, set aside around two hours for a little DIY home maintenance, and spare yourself the hassle. In fact, many experts like the residential heating system technologists affiliated with the Department of Energy encourage homeowners to nurture some basic maintenance and repair skills regarding their HVAC equipment.

As an added benefit, if these simple self-reliant solutions turn out to not be enough to fix your problem, you will have at least covered your general bases. Therefore, when you decide to call in the pros to take a look, they can skip the generic stuff and focus on finding what the elusive issue is. [Read more…]