Open House ā August 15
This article marks three years of the Woodchucks answering your questions about repairs around your home. The Sun City Woodchucks would like to meet the people who read the column and show you what goes on in our shop. Members will be demonstrating some of the equipment we use to do woodworking and will be availĀ¬able to answer your questions. We will be holding an open house at the woodshop on Sun City Boulevard on August 15 from 10 to 2 for all Sun City residents. We look forward to seeing you there.
Q. Our clothes washer stopped working yesterday. It will not go into a spin cycle. But I do hear a hum.
Do you know if one of our residents does this kind of a repair? If not, can you recommend someone outside the community? I expect you might be hesitant to give a name on e-mail, but if you could give me a couple, I could go from there. Iām leery of just picking a name from the Yellow Pages.
A. Appliances need someone who does that type of work all the time, gets factory bulletins, and has a truck full of parts. A handyman would not be a good choice. Either call a factory service technician or check Angieās List for an appliance repair company.
Q. In our Fox model, there is a gang of switches located on the short wall to the left of the entrance going into the dining room. The switch on the right is a three-way switch that controls the dining room ceiling light. The center switch is a three-way switch that controls the kitchen ceiling light. We have never been able to find out what the left switch controls. It does not control any of the wall switches. It does not control an outlet over the kitchen cabinets for an accent light. There isnāt even an outlet up there. This has been bugging me for years; what is it?
A. I was able to find two Woodchucks who live in Fox model houses. Both of them say that in their houses there are only two switches in the location you describe. That would lead me to believe you have an upgrade. It is very likely that the switch is for a ceiling fan. It either controls a J-box in the ceiling where you could mount a ceiling fan or it controls a wire in a box with a light mounted to it so that you can mount a fan with a light in place of the current ceiling light and have one switch control the fan and one switch control the light.
Q. My husband and I disagree over when to have the air conditioner on! If the temp outside is 70 and the dew point is 55 and humidity 56 ā would it be a good idea to have it on? Also, if a basement is damp from a water problem, would it help to run the air for moisture even though the outside temp is 70?
A. The air conditioner will not help much with any of the problems you mention. Most people set their thermostat at 78Ā° for cooling. This means that the air conditioner will not kick on until the temperature inĀ¬side the house rises above 78Ā°. Iām not sure what you mean by āhave the air conditioner on.ā We set the thermostat to cool with the temperature set to 78Ā° about the end of May or beginning of June. We leave it set that way until sometime in September unless we open the windows or leave for several days or more. We do the same thing with the heat in the winter. When it gets cold outside, we set the thermostat to warm with the temperature set to 68Ā°. We donāt turn it on and off.
If you have high humidity in the basement, you should run a stand-alone dehumidifier. The air conditioner will not help much with this problem. In my house, I close all the vents in each room in the basement in the summer because the temperatures are fine with no additional cooling.
ā¢ If you have suggestions for future tips or have questions about maintenance around your home, submit them to ask. the.woodchucks@gmail.com
