[prabs24]

Hello,
I do not have a good knowledge of electricity or appliances. Before I cal a HVAC technician, I wanted to see if there is something I could do. It is the middle of summer here in Texas and we have no AC! Could really use some help and it is a Sunday as well.

Problem: When I turn the thermostat on to AC , I hear the indoor unit turning on and I could feel some air (not cold but some air) coming through one of the AC vents. I do not feel air through vents in other rooms. The vents are located in the ceiling. Basically I am not getting cold air.

Things I have checked so far:
1. Turned the breaker of the furnace/thermostat from the "ON" position to the "OFF" position and back to the "ON" position.
2. Turned the breaker switch (labeled AC, situated in a panel outside) from "ON" to "OFF" and back to "ON" like above.

Questions:
1. How do I check if my outdoor AC unit is getting any power? I see the outdoor unit has a thick wire going into a panel on the wall. There is no switch or fuse inside the panel.A picture of what is inside the panel is attached.
2. If the AC were working properly, should the motor and the fan in the outside unit turn on automaticaly, when I turn on the thermostat inside.

What should I do? We are really baking inside as the temperature is supposed to hit 97 today. Please help.

Thanks
PR

[Stratmando]

When you set thermostat to cool, it puts 24 volts to outside contactor/relay coil, which energizes and connects house power to compressor and compressor fan.
Verify power from outside disconnect(breaker or pull out)

[prabs24]

Two photos:
1. This is how the panel and the wire to the panel from the outdoor unit goes.
2. This is what I see when I open the panel. It says that there are no fuses. I did not pull the switch you see in the photo as I was not sure if power is going in or not. I do not know how to disconnect power to the full system.

I do not hear any sound in the outdoor unit when the AC is turned on.

Please help

[prabs24]

When you set thermostat to cool, it puts 24 volts to outside contactor/relay coil, which energizes and connects house power to compressor and compressor fan.
Verify power from outside disconnect(breaker or pull out)

Hi Thanks for the response. I am sorry, but what exactly should I do to verify power from outside (breaker or pull out).

I see a pull out in the panel near the outdoor unit. The big panel on the ouside (not near the AC unit), has a bunch of breaker switches labelled AC, dryer, etc. I turned the AC switch from ON to OFF and back to ON.

How else can I verify if there is power?

[Stratmando]

If you grab the Pull out and pull, it will disconnec power to outside unit, Power comes in on 2 copper contacts and goes out on 2 other copper contacts, when you reinsert the pullout power is restored.
You do need to remove and see if 240 volts is present.
Could be a breaker in house for outside unit or if 24 volts is present to contactor coil and it doesn't pull in(energize, it is a bad contactor.

[Stratmando]

If you can safely work with electrical, you can remove the black cover by prying between the bottom of the bos and the cover, it justs pops back in.

[prabs24]

Hello Stratmando,
Thank you very much for your responses. I do not have a multi meter at home (wuill go to home depot and get it today), but I did have this voltage/stud detector that beeps if it finds power.

So, I pulled the black switch and when I take this device closer to the actual supply in and supply out points, the device beeped indiocating that power is indeed coming into the condenser.

Is that a good enough test? Can you please tell me what I should do if that is not a good enough test and if it is a good enough test, what next?

Thank you so much!

[Stratmando]

I would check for 24 volts AV to Contactor coil, if voltage is present and it doesn't energize, the contactor is bad.
That pullout is just a disconnect, no protection.
I would momentarily press down contactor, If fan and compressor kick in, they may be good and you HAVE power, and is likely in the low voltage control wiring, thermostat, contactor.