Wife and I were out of town last weekend when a thunderstorm came through. No hail or bad winds, just rain and lightning (according to the neighbors. )
The weather was cool Sunday evening, so there was no need for AC or heat.
About 2 AM Monday morning the puppy decided he wanted out. I am standing in the back yard waiting, and I can hear an AC compressor REALLY laboring. WTF, it's about 55 degrees? Turns out it's our downstairs unit. Compressor is running and the lines are iced up, but he air handler blower is not running and the T'stat says the temp is way below the cooling setpoint. I kill the breaker and go to bed, thinking there is a repair bill coming tomorrow.
The next day, everything seems fine. The compressor and the blower cycle normally. When it warmed up to 78, I got the gauges out and checked the pressure and temp...according to charts, I'm within 2 degrees of the perfect charge. The unit sounds normal starting, running, and stopping. Normal airflow out of the duct, with good temp drop.
I am thinking a power surge, or near lightning strike, got the electronics in T'stat or in the AC air handler confused.
I can tell by the 15 min elect readings that the compressor was running for about 30 hours (right when the storm came through). When I finally noticed at 2:00 AM, it was not cycling against the high press cutoff, but was definitely laboring.
Should I be worried that the scroll compressor has been damaged and/or its life shortened by 30 hours of excessive pressure operation?