Thursday, May 28, 2009

I Can Almost Feel The Cool Breeze

I spent my week off after Atlanta kicking butt on the Central AC installation. For the first floor system I'm installing a Goodman which I got a good deal on in January. After running my house through the duct sizing program, I laid out a plan and put together from stock pieces supplied by a dealer in NJ. I caught a free delivery deal with that too, so I've been doing good. With the help of my buddy John, we hung the unit from the ceiling using all-thread and brackets and started to install the duct work. I initially planned on coming out the side for the return, till I found the return was on the bottom - hence why I had to suspend the unit. The supply trunk runs down and catches three supplies takeoffs - one to the kitchen stair riser, and three floor units in the foyer, parlor, and dining room. I used insulated flex to connect the takeoffs to the register boots. The return runs parallel to the supply and catches three of the returns I installed in the walls 2 years ago when I gutted the first floor. The 4th in the kitchen I ended up not having to use since I had enough with just the three.





Two days and the duct and wiring was done and passed the blower test. I sealed most of the seams on the supply header, but still have a few to get too. Wednesday I helped John do a 200 amp service for one of his customers, then Thursday was back to the AC - running the line set and wiring the outside condenser.



At this point I was really getting frustrated with my working facilities - or lack there of! Tools are everywhere, the basement is jammed up, the garage is jammed up, and I will loose the kitchen soon as a work area.... so this week I stopped the other projects and started to build a shop in the basement. So the past few nights has been spent dividing the basement in half. One side will be my radio collection room. The other half will be a nice shop, and one corner will be a storage area for seasonal stuff and camping gear, plus the freezer.





I won't get this 100% now, but will be done enough to get a shop going and get all my tools downstairs, especially my larger wood working tools. These epecially have not been weathering to well in the garage and i have to keep removing surface rust on the bare metal, and coating with oil only works to a point. It won't be no Norm shop, but it will be 100 times better than what I've been dealing with. In the meantime, I had to start downsizing my radio collection a bit - at least of projects I doubt I'll get to, and other vintage items that I don't have room for in the house.





Tomorrow my dad will braze the refrigerant lines for me and then this weekend I hope to get the condensate pump installed and vacuum test the refrigerant lines, then open up the condenser to the system and top off with a little more R22. Then I'll be finally living the cooool life!

3 comments:

Tracy said...

I am deeply impressed. I thought I had a handful with my house restoration, but you've definitely taken the bull by the horns with yours. Kudos to all your hard, personal work. I'll be very much interested to follow your progress.

Omar said...

Looking good -- I had the ductwork in my basement replaced and insulated last year. I've been pretty happy so far although I wish there was a little more headroom. There's only about 7 ft floor to joist and the ducting hangs about a foot lower in certain locations since it has to run under beams and what not. My wish was to get these running as close to the joist as possible, maybe running between them in the recess. That would be my only complaint.

Can't tell on yours, but looks like you have a bit more room so maybe not so much of a concern. I had dreams of a mancave, but all the ductwork and the location of the furnace make it a bit of a squeeze, not to mention the height of the ceiling. If I was nuts I'd dig out the basement by a foot.. Although I have enough projects to deal with without having to worry about a basement.

Keep up the good work.

Mike said...

Thanks!

Yea, my joists are about 7 feet, the ducts come down close to 6. I'm only 5'6" so not a problem for me. The main center support beam is low, which part of the reason why I ran the ducts where I did. This way each side of the basement from the center is full height. Then each branch running towards the outside walls tucks up into the joists.