Back in May我提到我们的空调破裂了和I had to spend a couple of hours researching the issue on the internet and ten minutes installing the messed up part. I estimated the savings at $200-300.
It turns out I was being too generous with my estimate for an AC repairman’s charges. Steve, the guy behind the now-shuttered EscapeVelocity2020 blog, wrote about paying almost $400 to fix his air conditioner. I realized Steve had the exact same issue as I did and the AC tech charged him $398 for the repair instead of the $25 I spent with my DIY repair.
哇，胡扯，$ 398！??！
史蒂夫（Steve）打电话给AC修理工的原因在他的情况下是有意义的。史蒂夫仍在全职工作，因此非常忙。他的工作收入也很高，因此并不是说花费375美元会打破他的一年预算。
他像我们一样有一个家庭，因此，这不仅仅是决定您可以解决这个问题的问题。您必须决定是否值得使您的妻子和孩子在炎热的天气中遭受痛苦。史蒂夫（Steve）可能在下班后的晚上在晚上花几天时间（购买零件（下午5点之前），工业供应公司关闭了），然后安装它们，手指交叉，希望它可以正常工作。但这根本不值得to him。
我不对史蒂夫有点抱怨。我几乎打电话给我的交流小伙子，但我想我会先开球。仅需两个小时的故障排除和观看YouTube视频即可。我没有工作，有很多空闲时间我的每周时间表。
My air conditioner failed on a Saturday, so I had to wait till Monday to walk up to Grainger Industrial Supply to pick up这个美丽的全新45/5 microfarad，370伏电容器。It was $25 but available immediately at Grainger, whereas the same part at amazon was only $10-15 but wouldn’t have arrived for a week or so. I made a conscious decision to pay an extra $10 for quicker comfort because I didn’t want the family to suffer through 90+ degree heat while waiting a few days longer. Like Steve, I made a choice to use money to make life easier.
我花了十分钟实际上安装了新的电容器和繁荣 - 再次冷交流电。我知道我节省了约375美元的价格，我感到有些聪明。我每小时收取150美元的“付费”来修复自己的空调。
节俭的雪球
但是节省并没有以375美元的价格停止。一旦我成为诊断电容器故障的专家，我就帮助了朋友和邻居对AC进行了解决（当时我在墨西哥2000英里时，不少！）。她有一个星期的等待时间让任何交流维修公司参观她的房子，还有三个小孩和一个外面的丈夫，她等不及了。最终，一个朋友的朋友固定了她的单位。
Then a few weeks ago my mom called. She had the same issues as I did, so I assumed it was a blown capacitor. My dad pulled the part number from his unit’s capacitor and I bought one from the industrial supply store near me and installed it. Another incredibly easy ten minute fix.
I saved my mom $350. She gave me $50 to cover her slightly more expensive $33 capacitor plus some extra to cover gas to her house and to the parts store.
我了解到，学习修复某些东西的时间通常会随着时间的流逝而赚钱，让我帮助其他人诊断和/或修复他们的问题。一旦我获得了解决问题的技能，我就可以一遍又一遍地使用这些技能。
How to diagnose and fix a busted air conditioner compressor capacitor
如果您的AC死亡，这是确定您是否有爆炸电容器的简便方法。如果您感觉到通风孔吹空气，但温暖或室温（而不是冷），请检查外部压缩机。如果压缩机的风扇不运行，则意味着压缩机存在问题。去抓住螺丝刀或地面上的一根棍子，然后在压缩机上“贴”风扇。听起来像是开始的启动 - 使用棍棒开始风扇旋转。如果风扇继续旋转，几乎可以肯定的是，您已经在压缩机上吹了电容器（有时称为“运行电容器”或“启动电容器”）。
Capacitors go bad over time. It could be five years or ten years and then they die of old age. Fortunately they are easy to replace:
- pull the shut off breaker or throw the shut off switch to OFF (so you don’t blow your fingers off)
- 拧开〜3螺钉
- 从交流压缩机中卸下金属屏蔽
- 将电容器固定在适当的位置1螺钉
- 至少等待几分钟让电容器排出
- 通过将绝缘螺丝刀压在一对端子上（戴安全眼镜！）来确保排放。
- 拆下3个连接器
- 更换电容器
- screw in 1 screw to hold capacitor in place
- 插入3个连接器
- replace metal shielding and rescrew 3 screws holding the metal shielding in place
- replace shutoff breaker or turn shutoff switch to ON
Watch this video since that guy does a way better job explaining it than I can.
You can tell if the capacitor is blown by looking at the top of it. It should be flat and level. If it’s rounded then you have a blown capacitor.
DIY对我们的预算意味着什么
We plan to spend我们的早期退休预算每年$ 32,400。Included in that budget are categories for home maintenance and car maintenance. We save thousands of dollars every year by exerting a little bit of DIY effort when something breaks. This translates to lower levels of spending throughout our retirement which means we don’t need a huge portfolio to support our spending.
Using a 3% withdrawal rate, for every $1,000 we save by DIY’ing, we need $33,333 less in our retirement stash ($1,000 / 0.03 = $33,333). We aren’t simply saving a hundred or two here and there (or $375 in the case of the busted capacitor). By bringing our spending on home and auto maintenance way down, we reduce the required portfolio balance to support our early retirement by tens of thousands of dollars.
你的风格是什么？DIY还是致电修理工？一旦您不再全职工作，那会改变吗？
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这是个好问题。我不是任何杂工，它勾勒出预算夫人。我和一个父亲一起长大，父亲对别人修复了一切，所以从来没有一对一的经历。几个月前，我们有管道泄漏，幸运的是，预算亲戚是承包商，他的一个人过来是为了免费修复它。因此，幸运的是，水管工很昂贵！在YouTube的帮助下，我在房子周围修复了一些事情，预算太太欣喜若狂。我敢肯定，当我待在家里丈夫时，我将不得不学习！
Not much of a tool box but might start off with a couple sticks on the ground. :p
YouTube使一切变得更容易。
我在一个非常炎热的地区有租房。了解运行电容器可以使您免于饥饿的交流公司，该公司告诉您整个单元已被击中，需要更换。另一个骗局是制冷剂泄漏。始终询问泄漏在哪里和多大。如果技术说S/他找不到它，建议他们用制冷剂为该装置充电。我有一家公司告诉我，我必须在2009年3月更换一个单位。我告诉他为周末的单位充电。六年半后，该部门仍在工作。
这些缓慢的泄漏可能很难找到，并且可能很昂贵（例如，如果是在线圈中），因此定期充电可能更经济。特别是如果持续6.5年！
We did this with our 15 year old honda accord’s AC system. It stopped working so I bought a $40 AC manifold pressure gauge set and $12 worth of refrigerant and recharged the system. 2 summers later and it’s still cold as ice in the car. I have a theory that an unscrupulous auto repair shop were we had the state vehicle inspection completed actually discharged our system in the hopes that we would come back to them to “fix” it (ie adding $12 worth of refrigerant and charging us many $100’s!). If it’s a very slow leak, I’ll keep adding $12 worth of refrigerant every few years since a major repair or replacement on the AC system is hundreds or possibly $1000.
对于我们的私人房屋，我们都一直是DIY（除了屋顶除外，我们不是受虐狂的）。但是，在我们的租金上，我们有一个混合的袋子。当AC出去时，我的丈夫检查了一下，但最终我们打电话给一个修理工，他可以更快，更便宜。这只有179美元，尽管我们最终还提供了100美元的租金抵免额，因为AC每天超过100美元，而AC已出售3天。
I’d be calling the AC repairman too if we couldn’t get it running for 3 days! Fortunately ours failed early in the season when it was “only” 90 degrees on the day I fixed it (maybe 85 max on the one whole day it was broken before the parts store opened).
嘿，罗格，对我的网站上的时机感到抱歉。续约出现了，我只是不想扔更多的钱。解释维修的工作非常好。空调非常简单，您几乎涵盖了最常见的失败。
关于我的维修的最有趣的部分实际上是在经过昂贵的维修后一周，当时A/C再次出门（如您所描述的那样，外部风扇停下来）。事实证明，我们实际上并没有吹出原始电容器，它恰好看起来像是修复的，因为第一个修理工在更换电容器后重置所有内容，并且启动了。我进行了A/C公司的免费回访，抱怨他们放在烧伤电容器中。好吧，事实证明，Lenox A/C单元具有低压开关，容易失败。在我们的情况下，第二个修理工出来了，用简单的电线拼接绕过了这个故障的开关，我们又重新开始了！Not that I would’ve figured that out myself, but it’s awfully disappointing when you call in a professional only to have them screw you outta 398 bucks… Always good to be able to do as much as possible yourself (or at least give it one good try).
Wow, the AC guy didn’t even check to see whether the “blown” capacitor was actually blown? Seems like a rookie mistake to not rule out that some other issue was at play.
The upside of paying the AC guy to come out is that they did fix the problem for free. If you did this yourself, you might be struggling to figure out what was really wrong with the unit once you determined it’s not actually the run capacitor.
Well, I watched the first guy ‘check’ the capacitor and he said it was ‘borderline’, but ultimately proclaimed that it must be the problem… He also said my refrigerant was 2# low, but fortunately I didn’t fork over another $400 for that and bought a 2# fill kit online.
The second guy that came out said the refrigerant charge was right where he likes to see it (and I’d accidentally leaked some out), which leads me to believe that the first guy was just completely incompetent…
So you recharged it and then the refrigerant level was fine? Or you didn’t add the 2 lb and the second guy still said it was fine?
I tried to recharge it, but the pressure had equalized since the outside fan wasn’t turning. So yeah, didn’t put ANY refrigerant in, actually lost some, and the second guy (who knew what he was doing) said that the charge was fine…
哈哈，是的。听起来很典型。
有时，如果没有圆形的顶部，电容器可能会很糟糕。如果您有廉价的电压表，可以确定它是否不好，可以通过一种简单的方法来测试电容器。在YouTube上查找有关如何执行此操作的视频，因为它比尝试输入更容易。我有一个可疑电容器，其上衣大部分是平坦的，在进行了快速测试后，事实证明很糟糕。
That’s a great point, and a step of the troubleshooting process that I left out of this article. I consider it slightly more advanced than the very basic process I outlined here. You have to own a voltmeter, for example. But for those with a voltmeter, or $5 and a harbor freight store nearby, it’s certainly possible to test the terminals of the capacitor to see whether it’s actually dead without relying on the rounded top trick.
Blown capacitors seem to be the number one cause of A/C failure. Some models have two capacitors, one for fan, one for compressor. Whenever one fails, I buy two to keep an extra on hand as they tend to go out in pairs??
我更换的两个电容器是单个电容器，其中有两个电容器。但是购买两个并不是一个坏主意，因为它们定期失败。去商店购买它们比在我的经验中更换它们要花费的时间更多。而且我当地的工业零件房屋在周末没有开放，因此如果电容器在星期五晚上失败，那么直到星期一早上您就无法替换，这可能会导致一个炎热的周末。
几周前就发生了这种情况。$ 188，他在1小时内到达，我们将以这种残酷的TN湿度进入90度以上的一周。因此，认为我们在账单上做得很好，如果第二个单位做的话，我们将辩护。请参阅本文，也许可以自己修复（即我的丈夫）。
The interesting thing he told me about is the coming phase out of the refrigerant /escalating price .If I understood correctly if you need a new system it will be more involved because the new refrigerants aren’t compatible.This is maybe more an issue for us because we have the heat pump/AC system instead of the furnace/AC combo.Anyone also heard about this?
Sure wish we had the furnace/AC combo. The heat pump is not the most comfortable heating method for sure.
替换电容器并易于故障排除是非常基本的。如果您拥有螺丝刀并知道如何转动它，绝对值得一个小时左右！
We’re very happy with our furnace and I used to make fun of my friend with a heat pump all the time. I’d tell him how I jacked the heat up 7 degrees in 30 minutes whereas it takes him 24 hours to raise the temp a few degrees (in the middle of winter). His issue is not having natural gas in his area, so he’s stuck on electric heat pump. Next time you’re up for a system replacement it might be worth looking at the cost of gas furnace if you have natural gas in your ‘hood.
I had a capacitor issue early this summer as well. I regret not doing it myself, but was under the gun during the week with small kids in the house. Now I know how to handle it, but it still cost me a good $300.
哎哟。是的，我仍在工作时会乘坐同一条船。我必须大部分时间休假才能拿起零件，安装它并确保它正在工作，然后淋浴和开车上班。
Now that the brutal heat is starting to abate here in TN, I can get back to doing/finishing some of the DIY projects around the house. Finishing up installing new vapor barrier in the crawl space (1000s of sqft of it!), which is a bear of a job and pretty filthy at that. After that I will be bringing in tons of more river rock to put around the property, which can be done even during the winter since we really don’t get snow to speak of. Replacing lights in the kitchen, exhaust fans in two bathrooms, stripping and replacing caulk on all the windows, and so on.
Why do I say this? Like yourself I prefer to save the money and do what I can myself since I am early retired. Like Hannah above, about the only thing I won’t try to do is the roof (except for small repairs) since my expertise is lacking in that area. One of the advantages of exiting the workforce is the ability to do much of this work yourself that previously cost thousands$ when time was lacking. Oh well, time to get my 6’4″ frame back into the crawl space, which is aptly named for someone my height.
我不羡慕您的爬网工作。我爬上了以更换污水泵，这没什么好玩的。中间楼层的拆分水平爬网空间非常宽敞（可能是3.5'），但是较低的楼层略高于级别，因此一半的房屋下方的间隙少于2'。这很糟糕，然后爬过4-6英寸的水拖动泵齿轮使情况变得更糟。祝您维修好运！我有希望在接下来的8个月中也可以解决一些事情，而它很酷。
听起来您有新职业的材料！
我给了一些认真的想法。如果提前退休产品组合不满意，则设备/HVAC修理工可能是计划C或D的良好兼职途径。
I just changed one this week too! I do all my own A/C and furnace repairs. It’s not rocket science and saves a TON of money. Capacitors are easy. I have never seen one that wasn’t bulged out when it went out.
In terms of money saved per unit of effort, the capacitor replacement must be the highest return repair one can do. $200-375 saved for 15-20 minutes of effort. I’m not sure I can handle much more involved HVAC stuff (or that I want to!) but replacing the cap is such a simple job.
我的租赁线圈有泄漏，该品牌是运营商。我打电话给几个家伙，他们都告诉我他们无法获得零件，因为运营商已经停止了工作。我正在使用R22。告诉我，我可以更换外门和线圈，我最终花了3500美元，同时更换炉子，将系统切换到R410A。
The capacitor and contactor failure are probably some of the most common ones. I need to learn how to do this and buy some parts on hand as I have 8 HVAC systems between my rentals. Thank you for sharing!
绝对是在HVAC单元上更容易做的事情之一，它可以节省大量资金。祝8个单位好运！
大约9年前，我的房子外面安装了两名空调，去年失败了，另一个是上个月失败的。在这两种情况下，电容器都不好。我观看了一些YouTube视频，并能够找出问题并亲自取代电容器。
如果我打电话给AC修理工，他可能会建议更换其他东西。账单可能很快达到数千人。
Nice. Yeah, you would have spent many hundreds just replacing the 2 capacitors. And you might get jerked around into buying additional unnecessary services and repairs.
当我长大时，我们家中的大部分都是DIY。我父亲是一名电工，很方便，所以他总是修理破碎的东西（当然，我和我一起）。我现在租用，但是如果我需要的话，我将来会使用这些技能。绝对可以节省大量的钱，并让您满意自己修复了！
这些技能肯定会派上用场！
哈哈，你比我更好！我保证我会投篮，但可能会花太久或达到我屈服并打电话的地步。不过，YouTube可以教我们很多！好工作！
-DP
我非常接近打电话给某人进行维修，但我想我会先拍摄它。我尝试过的好东西！
我喜欢这个话题。没有什么比帮助每天的人在相对简单的维修中节省大量资金了，没有什么比这更重要的了 - 这对您表示敬意。我不会吹嘘自己节省了多少钱进行自己的维修和改建，但是我要说的是，YouTube值得它的黄金重量，我必须保留很多黄金。The one unfortunate thing is that older folks generally don’t have the ability to use the internet and do these kinds of repairs and they probably would benefit more than any other demographic due to fixed income etc. In the near future I suspect kids brought up with the internet will be able to save boatloads of money on all sorts of DIY repairs and projects. It’s funny how history has done a U turn…back in the day a farmer far from the city would have to learn how to fix any and all mechanical issues to survive…now anyone with wifi can master similar needs. I’m looking forward to the Youtube video on how to DIY surgery on my torn ACL from my HS running back days. Talk about savin’ some moola! ; )
令人难以置信的是，您可以在Internet上学到多少（对于DIY任务或一般的内容）。我无法想象Youtube/Internet的DIY更加困难。现在，您只需将您遇到的任何问题弹出到搜索栏中，并且有许多相关文章和链接。未来是现在！！
很酷。我们的DIY风格取决于。
我们的交流破裂了。我的意思是，它在吹空气，但房子仍然很热。
Husband changed the filter, still not cooling the house
叫修理工，他测量了一个从一个通风口中出来的温度，并说“罚款”，并收取了118美元的费用。
Husband did some more work
Found a vent/flu blocked, probably from some roof work last year. So reopened that vent (to kitchen).
Found some leaks/ blowing air in the attic and patched them (who wants to cool the attic?)
仍然太热了。因此，跑步过夜，只有1度。
Called a second repairman (the first guy said “hey, if you still have a problem, call us again and we’ll apply that charge to any work we do”). Which, um, no you suck. (A later Yelp search confirmed that.)
Second guy found coils full of dust and spent 30 mins cleaning (these were very hard to get to). Also found that some of the ducting was mis-sized and blocking flow. (He didn’t have parts but said he’d look into it).
那是158美元，交流电起作用。
因此，由于第一家伙的糟透了，总计超过250美元。
It’s amazing how many incompetent repairmen there are. At least you eventually got yours fixed for a relatively reasonable price and the 2nd guy didn’t try to rip you off for a system replacement or something!
那里有许多无能且不可靠的维修人员，因此在雇用将为您进行交流维修的人方面要彻底要彻底。在做出决定之前先进行一些背景检查。
Great advice, Mike.
我绝对更喜欢在可能的时候进行DIY，但是不得不偶尔打电话给专业人士，因为工作时间表的时间不足。
In the past I’ve run electric and drywalled my 2.5 car garage, finished my basement including framing and electric, did a minor remodel of our full bath, and with the help of a very talented friend I completed a major kitchen renovation. On top of that I’ve diagnosed and fixed the furnace (seized draft inducer motor), fixed our electric dryer (cheap blown fuse replacement), and fixed our clothes washer (broken plastic drive piece).
但是我最大的恐惧/弱点是管道。我们刚刚更换了热水器（19年后！），自从不久之后我去上班以来，我不得不带水器。他的工作出色，并且在发现我购买的新加热器不适合增加4英寸通风孔（由于本地代码较新的必要）之后，他非常慷慨。他说，只要我能在45分钟内将其换成一个较短的模型，他就可以从旧型号中开始撕裂。我冲回家仓库，快速交流，然后他完成了。希望我不必花800美元即可安装一个$ 500的热水器，但是希望下次我会开火，可以花时间自己做。
附带说明，我为Diyers找到了一个很好的资源。我与他们没有隶属关系，我只是他们在线故障排除信息和慷慨的退货政策的粉丝。然后我了解到他们的仓库对我来说是本地的（底特律地铁），所以我可以下班后停下来，拿起零件，并很快固定任何东西。我什至注意到，如果您愿意与此类可爱的文章配对，他们会提供会员链接。
Nice work on the dryer and washer. I have replaced the exact same two components on both of my systems and it was pretty straight forward with the help of youtube (especially the dryer fuse). Even did the dryer fuse for my in-laws and didn’t take more than 15 minutes (most of that was moving the unit out and screwing/unscrewing).
I’m not a fan of plumbing either and had to call the plumber several times this year (though did a bit of DIY in that area saving a few hundred $$). Our hot water heater is reaching the end of life and I’m planning a $2000+ expenditure to get a pro to install a tankless unit. My current unit is out of code and the plumber said no one would touch the replacement job given the height of the crawlspace. Kind of bummed about that but I figure I’ve saved $100k+ by owning an older house so not too many complaints
我嫉妒你无能为力！I’ve thought about it often but can’t justify the cost given our situation: 1) 1″ gas line into house, would probably require upsizing (and gas line is behind drywall), 2) that power vent would require them to knock a hole through our brick house and exit along our driveway, 3) with only 1.5 baths and 2 people I’m not sure we’d ever hit the payback period. We were at least able to downsize from 50 to 40 gallons so hopefully some savings there.
祝您好运 - 至少您有时间进行计划和引用。确保也检查公用事业折扣。我们的当地公用事业仍然为更高效率的设备提供体面的回扣。如果我能够坚持使用预期的热水器（EF为0.69），我可能已经收到了75美元的返还，但是最后一刻的切换到“短”模型都削弱了该交易。
My plan is to wait and let the current tank hot water heater fail before having the tankless installed. Haven’t thought about upsizing the gas supply line and can’t recall whether it’s 1 or 1.5″ but the install site for the tankless would be within 5-6′ of the gas meter so no biggie.
由于爬行空间的间隙较低，我们之所以被困。我们曾经有一个“低男孩”坦克热水器，但不再制造。Even the old “short” water heaters that are harder to find are too tall (what we have in there currently; not exactly up to code but it works how we have it installed and it’s not a fire/safety hazard per my engineering eye). I doubt we’ll ever get pay back on the $1000+ marginal cost of going tankless (our water heater only uses $10 in hot months, maybe $20-30 in cold months). But the alternative involves building a closet for a tank water heater somewhere in the house or outside the house. I’ll just go with the tankless and hope I can do the annual maintenance/flush myself. And possibly DIY the replacement if/when it dies.
仅通过看照片就让我想知道它是否是电容器。我改变了很多。这个赛季我打电话给我的家伙，并改变了电容器并投入3磅的汽油，但他向我收取了60美元的费用，我认为这是一次抢断。一家拥有电视广告的交流公司会为我发挥作用。我感到非常难过，以至于我最终向他发送了一些奥马哈牛排。我感觉到他给了一个好价格，因为我总是吸引他的顾客。
我实际上是在考虑购买一些电容器并在需要时存储它们。它们就像灯泡。好事是，当他们变得不好（大多数情况下）时，他们都会肿胀，因此您知道需要更换它们。
Residential HVAC seems to be a great business. I recommend it to all those kids I work with who do not want to go for the 4 year college experience. Likewise, I think sometimes about going to school and getting licensed. It will be something kind of cool to do when I retire and feel like working.
对你有好处。