[Greenbuilding] New HVAC unit

[Bobbi Chukran]

Hi all!

After a huge ordeal, we finally got through the closing yesterday  
morning, but didn't get keys until it was already 90-degrees  
outside.  We soldiered on, went in and opened up all 25 of the  
windows and all of the many doors.  It was pretty neat...at one  
point, I'd opened enough windows that I heard a huge WHOOSH and a  
door slammed at the opposite end of the house.  Rudy yelled "We got  
ghosts!"  LOL. Now I know why they had a brick in every room.

During the day, we watched the outside thermometer under the shade of  
the pecan tree.  At about 4 p.m. it was 102 outside, and 94 inside.   
I'd like to recreate that simple experiment after we get some  
insulation in there.

All of your comments, suggestions, recommendations are helping us BIG  
time.  Rudy's making a list of detailed questions to ask the AC guy.   
We aren't sure if he was spec-ing the unit on the basis of no  
insulation, or if he does the same size no matter what.  He's very  
experienced there with old houses, so we need to find out exactly  
what he based his calculations on.

Either way, we did plan to start with caulking and foaming, after our  
initial cleaning frenzy.  At this point, we're trying to decide how  
to use the space.  The floor plan is very wonky, of course, but I  
don't want to change it too much unless we have to.

As for blowing insulation, I saw a video on the This Old House site  
which explained it very clearly.  They blew from the bottom up, then  
from the top down.

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/0,,20047052,00.html

bobbi c.


On Jun 2, 2011, at 7:14 AM, Bob Waldrop wrote:

> I second the motion to get a strong blower for the walls.  We  
> initially started our walls with the "free" blower we got from home  
> despot because we bought so much insulation from them.  But it was  
> simply not strong enough. We found one at a rental store that  
> worked very well -- after wasting nearly a whole day of frustration.