tidbits: more appliance fun

Ever since our water heater was replaced a week ago on Friday, we have noticed water on the floor. Not a lot of water, but enough to cause concern. We also noticed that the air conditioner was running non-stop and that the house wasn't cooling. Hmmm...could the two be related? I will skip straight to the answer for you so that you can choose to keep reading details or stop with the summary. The answer is yes, yes, yes!

The Centerpoint Energy Home Service Plus person, Mike, stopped by this morning to check things out. We had an appointment on Wednesday for them to come out. However, we moved the appointment up because Kyle had the grand vision that pipes would burst throughout the house on the 4th of July and water would be spewing everywhere and we wouldn't be able to get a repair person out on the holiday. Here are the series of events that lead up to this point:

water on floor
service person comes to the house and determines it to be a leak in the water heater
subcontractors arrive and replace water heater
wait, I should include a bullet point before all of these - A/C not exactly "cooling" the house; instead, it is just maintaining the following equation: air temperature outside minus 2 degrees
water is STILL on the floor, but not a lot - Kyle and Marcy justify it in their minds that it is just residual water coming out from underneath the furnace (yes, we can justify away anything!)
A/C is running, running, and running
more water on the floor
Electronic air cleaner starts to make weird noises
Clean the filters (not the ionizer plates because we fear them) in the air cleaner
Hmmmm....noise still present - avoid the issue and turn off the electronic air cleaner
Freak out and decide to give the A/C a "rest" and turn it off for the rest of the day
Water is EVERYWHERE
Ugh....sigh
Discuss with Kyle
Call the Service Plus people (they are our best friends now)
Sleep fairly peacefully since we have now aclimated to the temp in our house being close to the temp outside
Wake up and decide to check the floor near the water heater
A small amount of water, but enough to still cause concern
Turn A/C back on to "prove" the connection between the water and the A/C
Leave for work
Return 3 hours later
House is still the same temp as the outside
Ugh...sigh...
Wait for Mike to arrive
Mike arrives and coils are frozen
Turn on the HEAT to 82 degrees to thaw out coils
Drain the water from the melting ice (WOW - lots of water!)
Chat with Mike while he works
Learn lots of cool tips (I should document them before I forget them!!)
Mike add 3 pounds of freon and the max for our A/C is 5.5 pounds!
Air is house is MUCH nicer
No water on the floor
I am typing away at my computer in a nice, cool, non-humid environment. LOVELY.
Freon boost should postpone the purchase of an A/C unit for a year or two or more! LOVELY!
Ponder the thought that we may have never needed a new water heater
Justify it away....justify...