previous blogs have stressed the importance of air conditioning when you live, work or spend time in the California desert where temperatures reach the 110’s and even 120+ degrees.

having said that, there is a bad side of air conditioning that very few people talk about. namely, air conditioning requires machinery, electrical connections and power — any one of which or all can fail.   air conditioning units can break down, and that can create havoc, given the temperatures we are dealing with.

yours truly has been challenged this week big time.

my motorcoach, which is my home in the desert, has three roof top air conditioning units. one is broken and needs to be replaced.  that is the one in the bedroom!

the second air con unit is in the kitchen and that is not working because every time that it turns on within a few minutes it trips the breaker and shuts down. why does this happen?   I am told that the compressor in the air con unit is having to work so hard, given the temperature, that it is heating up and needing to draw more amperage than normal.  this in turn is causing the breaker to trip.

the third air con unit, which is in the front living room area is working fine.

the problem of course is that a space of 450 square feet which is supposed to be cooled by three air conditioning units is not adequately cooled by only one unit.

this is true regardless of where you set the temperature for the one air conditioning unit that does work. for example, my one air con unit that works is set for 65 degrees,  but the lowest that the inside temperature can get to is 88 degrees — 20 or so degrees lower than the outside temperature.

bottom line is that we have a problem when the air conditioning units are not working properly.

I use the word “we” in the hopes that one or more of you who are reading this blog will feel some compassion, and have some mechanical expertise and experience, and will come to my aid in some way.

this would be wonderful for couple of reasons. one, to put it bluntly, I am not mechanically inclined.  and that is a huge understatement.   I have zero — maybe even below zero, like minus — capability in addressing a mechanical, electrical problem.

secondly, even I will admit that sleeping through the night in this heat without adequate air conditioning in the bedroom is difficult. and this is coming from a man who does not like air conditioning, and hardly ever uses it in “normal” warm temperatures.  I won’t go into detail, but let’s just say that I am sweating in my sleep.