I Want To See If There Is A Way To Disable An Air Conditioning Unit At My House?
I have an irresponsible roommate who leaves the air conditioning in our house running when no one is home AND leaves the windows open. She has done this twice and talking to her about it seems to do no good- I am fed up. My other roommate and I don't even want the air on since it is a large expense. We live in a coastal city and there is really no need to use it. We split the electric bill 3 ways so she is inconsiderately costing us money! Does anyone know if I can easily make it so the air stops working or "breaks", but in a way that I can easily repair when it's time to move?
Answer:
If you have central air conditioning, there should be one dedicated circuit breaker on your electrical panel for it. You could try throwing that switch to "off" and then claiming there must be something wrong with the A/C. Is your roommate intelligent enough to figure that out? If so, the other alternative is to find the capacitor in your A/C unit, which will look like a large cylinder. That capacitor is needed for the initial electrical "kick" to turn the A/C on, so if you were to disconnect one of the wires to the capacitor, the A/C will never kick on properly. Then all you need to do when you move out is reconnect the wire you removed. Go outside near the unit. There should be a box on the wall. Inside the box is a disconnect. Pull the handle. The whole thing should come out. Take the whole thing and hide it. There's no easy way to do it that is user friendly and easy to fix. I would suggest giving her an ultimatum: 1. Stop doing it. 2. Move out. 3. Pay 1/2 of the electric bill and you two can split the other 1/2.