by Marco Angioni II

Created on: June 23, 2010

During the high heat of summer, your air conditioner can be your saving grace.  The cool relief offered by an air conditioned room is one of the greatest feelings when escaping the heat of summer.  However, due to the heat of summer, air conditioners have to work harder and longer to keep your home cooled to the temperature of your choice.  This harder and longer work can cause your air conditioner to malfunction.

Air conditioners can be very expensive to fix.  However, before you shell out big bucks to a repairperson, you might want to check the fuses on your central air conditioning unit first to see if you can fix the problem yourself.  Fuses are relatively inexpensive.  As such, if the problem is a simple fuse, you can fix your air conditioner without breaking the bank.

Before you attempt to replace a fuse on your central air conditioning unit, make sure that the power to the unit has been turned off, that the circuit breaker powering the unit has been switched off, and that all thermostats in your home have been powered off.  Taking these precautions is necessary to help prevent a serious injury from electric shock or from moving machine parts.

Most central air conditioning systems have a disconnect switch located near the compressor unit that sits outside your house.  The fuses will be found at this location.  Once you have located the fuses, use fuse pullers to remove the fuses from their location. 

It is important to note that there are numerous types of fuses.  As such, instead of guessing, do not purchase a replacement fuse until you have removed the old one.  Take this old fuse to your local hardware store and find its exact replacement.  Purchasing a replacement fuse after you remove the old fuse will save you time and money.

The final step is to use the fuse pullers to replace the old fuse with the new fuse.  Once the new fuse is properly installed, return power to the unit, switch the circuit breaker back into the “on” position, and turn your thermostats back on.  If your air conditioner is working again, you have fixed the problem and can again enjoy the cool relief of your air conditioner.  If, however, the problem has not been fixed, you may need to call a repairperson to fix a potentially bigger problem.

Remember, before you do anything, turn off the power to the central air conditioning units, switch off the circuit breaker powering the central air conditioning system, and turn off all of your thermostats.  These precautions are necessary to prevent injury.  After you have taken these steps, you can continue to change your fuses.

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