By Joel Wensley
Did you know that in the United States, a home central air conditioning unit is stolen once every 47 minutes? OK. I just made that up, but I certainly wouldn’t be surprised with copper prices being at an all-time high.
I get calls on a weekly basis from homeowners who have fallen victim to air conditioner theft and up until a short time ago, there was very little you could do to prevent it.
A few years back, a good friend of mine invented what’s called the AC Watchdog. This is an alarm system for your air conditioning unit, and although it doesn’t guarantee that your system won’t get stolen, it will send out an ear piercing alarm that will wake the entire neighborhood should anyone even try and tamper with your unit.
This is the brains of the system and it’s hooked into both the power source and the refrigerant lines of the air conditioning unit. If the power lines get cut or even shut off, or if the refrigerant lines lose their pressure from being cut, it sends a signal to the alarm and it simply will not stop until the homeowner resets the alarm from inside the house.
This system is so versatile that if you have a home alarm system, AC Watchdog can be wired into the system so the alarm company will send the police if the unit is tampered with. Now that’s one smart alarm.
My friend, and the inventor of the AC watchdog, Joseph Wojtowicz, recently passed away, but I would like to thank him for his contribution to the entire heating and cooling industry and to families throughout the United States by helping to keep your home healthy and safe.
(Joel Wensley is a licensed mechanical contractor in the state of Michigan, a contributor on Fox 2 News on WJBK-TV Channel 2, and president of Mechanical Heating & Cooling in Dearborn Heights.)