I rent a house, the Air conditioner seems to break all the time. I live in Arizona so it's not fun for it to happen. When the AC cycles, and begins to come on, the lights dim and then go back to normal. He said the lites dim b/c the AC motor requires so much energy that it kind of drains the overall electricity. That seems logical. But he also says that the reason it doesn't work anymore is because of the cat hair. He says that because I didn't change the filters each month (although the actual filter I buy says change every 3 months) that the cat hair has burned out the motor for the AC. The heat worked fine this winter, I have central air/heat here.I just don't think cat hair can blow a motor for central air in a house. Especially when the lights dim when the AC comes on, ALWAYS!...But I also don't know much about HVAC, I hope one of you does.
It gets so hot here that I have 4 large size fans which I alternate with PLUS the AC. I'm thinking you're running your AC too much PLUS using the wrong kind of filter as the 3-month filters seem to cause problems as they block out the air flow (even though that's not their intention) and so you have to run your AC longer. And then there's always the problem that since the AC works so hard that it will someday freeze up on you and you won't have AC at all for a while. So I suggest you get yourself some fans and alternate them, and use the one-month filters and change them monthly. None of us can do what we've done in the past, we're all trying to cope with climate change, so do what works best for you. Get some insulated draperies and also use insulating material around doors and windows, don't use the oven but use the microwave instead, use lighting as little as possible indoors and don't run your pc often as all of those things heat up your apartment. My pc melted my scanner lid.
it might be possible the HVAC engineer is having trouble diagnosting the actual trouble and he may be stalling and working to find the actual cause - he can't tell you directly that he doesnt know what's happening - because you may not hire him again. so the tricks. if the lights are dimming - it means AC is drawing too much current at start - For example, 3KW AC should draw appx 27 amps(@ 110 volt). Cat hair in the filter shouldnot make the motor to overdraw current. if that was the problem - half of the American and Australian A.Cs should have the same problem. Sometimes motors/compressors/starting capacitor develop snag - perhaps you should try consulting someone else.
