I’m getting a new enclosure for my HVAC condenser after last week’s hurricane

When I left the cold northern climate for the south, I didn’t consider my proximity to the coast and the threat of severe weather.

Although we had a tornado season in the northern midwest, there were only a handful of instances where I had to go into my basement because a tornado was within a few miles of my house. On the other hand, my new home is under the threat of super charged hurricanes every single year. As climate change worsens the storms get increasingly larger and more powerful, which means there’s a good chance that you’ll be impacted by at least one storm every single year. Last week we had a category 3 storm move through our area while causing damage everywhere in its wake. We were lucky that our neighborhood did not get a direct hit from the hurricane’s eye wall, but we still have trees knocked down and roofing shingles missing from peoples’ homes. One of our pine trees was knocked down and barely missed the side of our house. Instead of smashing into the roof, it came down onto the HVAC condenser. This metal enclosure contains the air conditioner’s compressor and the fan used to cool it. It’s not cheap rebuilding a condenser unit for an air conditioner, but our insurance covered the costs. It’s a lot cheaper than fixing a gash in the side of the house. I still feel incredibly lucky that tree didn’t fall a few inches to the left, otherwise we would have a hole in the garage. The HVAC technician had the condenser repaired and running again after roughly six hours of work.
Heating and air conditioning system