More About the AC…

I know folks are getting increasingly anxious about whether or not we’ll have AC this weekend. Here’s the situation as I understand it: There was a serious clog found in a drain line when they tried to activate the cooling tower this morning. When I was outside earlier there were two drain company trucks and two AC company trucks out front and workmen visible on the roof, so management is clearly doing all they can to get the system running.

I believe the delay in putting out news is twofold: management doesn’t have a clear answer yet about whether the AC will be running, and they are devoting all their time to speeding up the process as much as possible and getting accurate information to share before sending anything out.

Temperatures are supposed to be reasonable through this evening and into mid-morning tomorrow but beyond that it’s going to be a very uncomfortable weekend if the crews are unsuccessful getting the cooling tower running today. I would recommend making contingency plans for yourself and your pets to keep cool should we be without AC this weekend while keeping your fingers crossed for good news later today.

8 thoughts on “More About the AC…”

  1. This isn’t a matter of being uncomfortable. Potentially not having AC this weekend will pose a massive health risk to our elderly tenants. We all make sure to check in on each other, especially our higher risk neighbors. I’ve seen a lot of heat stroke in the ED and it can be deadly. Hopefully we don’t have any tragedies this weekend. This isn’t just ridiculous, it’s scary.

  2. Significant cooling can be achieved by opening the common area windows on the upper floors. Can “Building Management” please be advised about the potential necessity? Purchase of additional screens would be an important accommodation if they remain opposed to wide open windows. (Which they shouldn’t but I digress).

    It was Thursday afternoon before I got my bedroom temperature below 80 degrees. I’m living with fans running and door wide open 18+ hours per day to try to maintain livable conditions. If we don’t have AC on Saturday I am out of the places to go.

  3. Another thing that can be done to help manage the temperatures is to run the emergency exhaust fans at the top of the atrium for short periods of time to exhaust the hot air from the core of the building.

    There was a fire alarm a couple of years ago that triggered those fans. After 15-20 minutes of running, the atrium was significantly cooler.

    I realize these are emergency equipment and we don’t want to run them frequently, but if the HVAC does not get fixed, running them in the morning and evening to clear the heat may be a way to help manage this weekend.

  4. Even if the chiller is fixed, it’s my experience that it can’t handle temps in the upper 90s. So I think trying to make plans for that is a good idea.

  5. It’s May 20th, not March 20th. It’s not that crazy that warm temps are here. The fact “building management” could be caught off guard like this is disgraceful. There are several other posts on different threads stating this happens every year. I don’t pay the HOA fee every month just to keep my fingers crossed that basic amenities are working.

    1. Honest question: are tenants entitled to a partial refund of HOA fees in a situation like this? A lot of us have taken on significant personal expense (AC units, hotels) to stay safe.

      1. Because our monthly fees go to run and maintain our jointly-owned building, a refund of fees now would simply increase the likelihood of later shortfalls and subsequent fee hikes. A renter might be able to negotiate something with the owner they rent from, but that’s between them and their landlord.

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