We finally ordered new air conditioners at the firehouse to replace the ancient 1970′s monsters that we had.   The head of our kitchen committee offered to help take the old ones out a few days ahead of the anticipated arrival of the new ones.

The next day I walked into the firehouse and this is what I found:

A few years ago, when I moved into my apartment, I decided to purchase a new air conditioner, since my old one was on its last legs.  I remembered a story that my friend Brad told me; that he bought an air conditioner and lugged it up four flights of stairs, only to find out that it wouldn’t fit in his window.  With that in mind, I carefully measured the window to make sure I’d find an A/C that would fit perfectly.

I stopped by Home Depot and found a 24,000btu monster on sale for only $10 more than the 12,000btu unit that would probably suit my modest apartment fine.  I quickly looked at the measurements, saw it would fit, and purchased the huge air conditioner anticipating a cool apartment for the summer.

After getting home, I began the installation project by lugging the monster air conditioner up to my 2nd floor apartment with no help.  I then cracked open the 30 page installation guide and went to work in the heat of my sauna of an apartment.

After finally getting the thing installed in the window properly after a long sweaty struggle, I was definitely ready for some 24,000btu cooling.  I grabbed the plug and reached over to the outlet when I realized that something was wrong… very wrong…  I looked closely at the plug and quickly realized my monumental mistake.  The 24,000btu air conditioner required a 220 volt outlet.  Installing a 220 volt outlet in my living room wasn’t an option, so I had to take the entire thing out and return it.  In the end, I ended up with the 12,000btu unit which cools my apartment just fine.