How to Restart Your Air Conditioning After a Power Outage
Thunder and lightning storms can strike fast in the spring and summer. If lightning strikes your power line, it can cut off power in your home or cause a surge strong enough to shut down your appliances. High winds can have the same effect by knocking down power lines and trees. This summer, we can expect a handful of storms to pass through, so it’s best to prepare ahead of time.
While we could probably go a few days without our microwaves and toasters—several hours without air conditioning, light, and refrigeration can turn into daunting, if not dangerous, circumstances. With rising temperatures, heat exhaustion and heat stroke are real dangers to be aware of in the summer months. And when your fridge and freezer are off for too long, all of your food can go to waste. And the most significant danger? Bored kids stuck in the house without access to Wi-Fi.
That’s why it’s essential to know how to restart your A/C after a power outage.
Follow these 5 steps to turn your air conditioning back on after an electric outage or power surge:
- Turn off your air conditioner with the thermostat. Just like your other electronics, turning things off and on again is often the best answer. In this scenario, turning off both you’re A/C with the thermostat will keep your thermostat from connecting with the A/C while you reset your circuit breaker.
- Turn your air conditioner off with the circuit breaker. After you turn off the A/C at the thermostat, you’ll want to go to your circuit breaker. This is usually located in a garage, storage room or basement. Your circuit breaker box should have a switch for the air conditioner. Set it to “off.” If you have trouble locating your circuit breaker box or don’t know which switch to turn off, call your friends at Bradley Mechanical. We can walk you through the process step-by-step.
- Flip the AC back on at the circuit breaker. After you’ve turned off the circuit breaker, you’ll want to switch it back to “on.”
- Wait 30 minutes. Give your air conditioner some time to reset after you turn it on. The internal circuitry can take around 30 minutes to get back up and running, so wait half an hour before moving to the next step.
- Turn the thermostat back on. After waiting 30 minutes, go to the thermostat and set your system back to “on.” Your A/C unit should turn back on successfully.
Contact Us if Your A/C Doesn’t Turn On
If your air conditioning system doesn’t turn back on after following these five steps, it could mean that the system was damaged during the storm or there’s a bigger problem to solve. To avoid wasting time in the sticky heat, call the HVAC professionals at Bradley Mechanical. Our emergency services are available 24/7.
We’ll send out our certified technicians to fix your system quickly. We know how frustrating it can be to live without air conditioning, especially in the summer. That’s why we’ll solve the problem at the source and provide trustworthy recommendations. Our air conditioning repair is thorough the first time, so you won’t have to worry about calling us back out anytime soon.
Should You Invest in a Generator?
If the power goes down and stays down — the only way to get it back is with a power outage generator. A generator could be an excellent investment for your home if you live in an area where you experience frequent power outages.
Whole house generators offer additional benefits, including:
- Reliable and consistent access to electricity for large appliances, including your HVAC system, refrigerator and freezer, washer/dryer units, lighting, televisions, computers and much more.
- Automatically switching power sources to make it so you hardly notice the power went out.
- Added comfort and safety for you and your family. During severe storms, the last thing you want to worry about is basic access to cool air, electricity and food. Give yourself some added peace of mind with a whole house generator.
They are also a great fail-safe for businesses that don’t want to suffer the financial consequences of closing due to an electric outage.
At Bradley Mechanical, we carry a variety of generator systems that can help protect you in the event of a major power outage. We sell, repair, and service generators in Richmond, Chesterfield, Midlothian, and throughout Central Virginia.
Stay Cool this Storm Season.
