We have an older smaller house (1450 sq feet) 4 people plus dog and cat. We installed brand new central air and heat (gas furnance 12 years ago). The air conditioner has been repaired last summer as well with pronouncement we should replace (which we ignored) and twice in last month, last fix did not work. The latest person (who was recommended) said he could repair for 1400, but he could not guarantee how long it would last (could be 6 months, could be 20) or he could install new unit for 5K.
We live in NC and while I don't mind it being warm during the day, I don't sleep well in a warm house so we need to do something. Right now all we have is some fans. We do have a window unit (used before we had central air installed) still stored in the attic.
I know before I started reading this forum, I would have chosen replace, and taken it out of emergency fund. Now that I've been reading this forum it seems 5K is an obscene amount of money, especially before checking out other possibilities.
I was thinking, we could put the window unit in a centralish room, use fans to distribute air (already have), install a ceiling fan in master bedroom (100, 150), and a small window unit in kid's room ($120). That would cost less than $500 even if we found out the air conditioning unit we have in attic no longer works, and a) we could figure out whether we can live without central air, and b) give us time to save to replace unit. The only downside is that I don't sleep well in a warm room (I've been sleeping in the living room since this happened since there is a ceiling fan there) but also don't sleep well with a window unit in same room. But I'm hoping with a ceiling fan (and acclimizing) it might work.
Any feedback, anyone else done this?