What to do about AC not working?

Hi Daisy,

The blinkling lights are telling you that something is wrong with the outside unit. However before you call a repair person, here are some ideas to try. Wishing you the best.

https://activerain.com/blogsview/1711700/is-your-home-ac-on-the-blink--things-to-check-before-calling-for-service-

It sounds like they froze up. The house we were renting did that when it was really hot and humid out for a long time. I just shut it off and let the heat outside thaw them out and it started working again. The management company would not send anyone to even look at it unless it wouldn't go back to working. Thanks to them I lost a fridge due to how hot it got in the house, and the fridge was mine and they wouldn't replace it.

Sounds like the coil is frozen. Thermostat is calling for AC (the on and off blinking) so the inside unit won't turn on. Usually it means a Freon leak or low on Freon. Time to call HVAC service.

If I'm understanding you, neither the inside fan nor the ourside HVAC unit are running at all (I'm assuming this is a central type of system.) If your lines outside the house have frozen over it usually indicates low levels of refrigerant in the system, so you'd need a HVAC guy to come measure it and check for leaks. If that's not the case, I'm assuming that you've taken the step of checking for a tripped breaker at your service panel. If the breaker hasn't tripped and the inside fan will blow but the outside unit won't, AND if you're comfortable with opening the outside service panel on your outside unit, you can take a look at the unit's condenser. It might have gone bad, which will take the outside unit down, but will NOT affect your inside fan. A bad condenser will usually appear swollen. But whatever you do, DON'T touch the condenser if you don't know what you're doing--it can store enough electricity to be lethal, and if you don't discharge it properly...well, you know.

I'm NOT an electrician, but I've had my unit do down in the past and followed this advice from my HVAC installer, all the way to changing the condenser to get it up and running over a July 4 holiday period.

Time for a service call from your AC man.

Quoting from Quora : "In the world of electronics, capacitor and condenser are the same." And also this: "Capacitor and condenser are two words used in engineering. When considering the electrical circuit elements, both capacitor and condenser are used to describe the same device." We're talking about the same device.

Even if she has low refrigerant she should still be getting hot air blown through the vents if she has power. My impression, which might be wrong, was that she was getting NO air through the vents. My thermostat display will blink when the power is out because it (the display) is powered by a pair of LiIon batteries. Hers might do the same.

But she did say the pipes "seem" to be iced up, and I think everyone agrees that refrigerant would resolve that issue. It's the lack of any airflow that puzzled me.