{"id":487,"date":"2023-07-24T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/?p=487"},"modified":"2026-02-24T14:39:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T19:39:31","slug":"what-to-do-when-your-ac-wont-shut-off-2-fixes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/air-conditioning-service\/what-to-do-when-your-ac-wont-shut-off-2-fixes\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Do When Your AC Won\u2019t Shut Off (2 Fixes)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Your thermostat controls your air conditioner by telling it to turn on or turn off. So what happens when your air conditioner doesn’t turn off, even when your thermostat says the temperature you set earlier has been met?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, first thing\u2019s first: you\u2019re going to need AC repair services<\/a>. There\u2019s no doubt about that. But in the meantime, while you wait for them to show up, you should power down your AC to prevent further damage and not rack up your power bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

You Can Disconnect the Central AC Power From a Switch<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Your air conditioner has a switch, and it\u2019s actually outdoors. It should be attached to your house and within a few feet of the AC cabinet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will have a flip-up weatherproof cover to protect it from the rain. Pull it open, flip the cap up, and turn off the switch. When you flick it, you should hear the fans in the air conditioner power down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just to be doubly sure, go inside and put your hand over the vent. Make sure there\u2019s no air coming through, then call an HVAC technician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If That Doesn\u2019t Work, Kill the Power From Your Circuit Breaker<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So what if that outdoor switch doesn\u2019t <\/em>work? While there\u2019s a very small chance of that happening, the switch itself might be busted. If that\u2019s the case, you have one more option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside your house, you should have a metal box that\u2019s flush with the wall. This might be in a laundry room, basement, or wherever your electrician decided to stick it during construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find it and open the latch. The door will swing open, and you\u2019ll see a bunch of horizontal switches. They should have labels next to them (sometimes they\u2019re blank, which would be unfortunate).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some switches will have metal brackets connecting them and won\u2019t come apart. That\u2019s okay and normal. Find the one that\u2019s labeled for your air conditioner, and flick it off. Just like before, put your hand up to the vents to check that the airflow stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t Ever Disconnect Wires to Power Down Your AC<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Your air conditioner runs on 240 volts of electricity. That\u2019s roughly 6x more than enough voltage to be lethal. Never tamper with the wiring in your air conditioner to power it down<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you hire an HVAC technician to fix your AC, even if it won\u2019t power down, they know what to do. They\u2019re trained and certified to fix the wiring in your air conditioner and understand all the necessary safety protocols to keep themselves safe. Plus, they\u2019re insured if anything happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last but not least, tampering with the wiring in your air conditioner could ruin the warranty. Many AC manufacturer warranties state that only certified technicians may perform work on the equipment, otherwise, it voids the warranty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t Turn it Back On Until It\u2019s Repaired<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You shut down the power to your AC and stopped it from running\u2013the next step is not to turn it back on by the breaker when the house gets hot. It\u2019s supposed to run on the signals your thermostat provides, which is why you need to call for repairs as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact Potter Heating Cooling & Plumbing today<\/strong><\/a> to schedule your AC repair as soon as possible.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If your AC isn’t powering down on its own, it’s a problem. Here’s two solutions to shut it off before your HVAC technician shows up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[70],"tags":[39,13],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":969,"href":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487\/revisions\/969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}