Last weekend, I noticed that my air conditioner was running in odd cycles.
I would hear the air conditioner turn on and power the air through the air vents, only to shut off within a few seconds. Some cycles would last much longer and some were shorter. I didn’t know how my air conditioner was supposed to sound, but I thought this sounded abnormal. I called the emergency HVAC line and asked a professional to come examine the air conditioning unit so I could rest knowing that I did what I could. While I was waiting for the HVAC technician to arrive, I timed the intervals in between cycles so I could relay the information. The HVAC technician listened to the short cycling himself, but he was thankful for my timing because it helped him get a better understanding of the severity. When I asked him what he thought it could be, he told me that it was most likely my thermostat. This was something I hadn’t considered, but I was glad it wasn’t anything wrong with my air conditioner. Like he said, the thermostat was miscalibrated, which was causing the air to turn on and off at odd intervals. All he did was turn off the thermostat for thirty minutes and then turned it back on again. Upon doing this, the short cycling stopped. However, he suggested that I have the thermostat replaced if the same thing kept happening. I told him that I would keep an eye on it.