All about A/C

Family in town

This weekend was a bit of a change.  My folks drove down from Pittsburgh and arrived at the house on Thursday night.  I managed to wrap a few things up early and I came up on Friday afternoon.  Oceana joined us after work on Saturday evening.

New A/C unit

Our new mini-split A/C unit arrived to us this week so I’m looking forward to getting it installed.  We’re going to be mounting it on the north side of the house in the corner by the three windows of the bedroom.  This unit has dual indoor units that will heat and cool each room. 

Siding removal

In preparation for the install, we removed more of the allegedly asbestos shingles from the side of the house.  We’ll be completely removing these shingles from the house in the future, but if we didn’t remove them now from this area, the unit would be in the way of the removal in the future as we’re mounting it to the wall with brackets. 

The old siding looks great

My dad and I removed, bagged, and tagged the shingles.  What we found below was great – the original wood siding was in good repair, just in need of a paint job.  Awesome.  We wire brushed the siding and gave it a coat of primer and two coats of paint.  It looks really nice.  I can’t wait to see the rest of the house like that.

Mounting the indoor unit

With the unit mounted, we located the first indoor unit and ran the lineset through the walls and out to the outdoor unit.  The lineset carries the refrigerant between the indoor unit and the outdoor unit.  With the lineset in place, we got the first unit buttoned up. 

Pulling wires

The new unit runs on 220v power so we’ll need to get power from the main panel to the unit.  While pulling the new line and since I’ve got helping hands, I opted to also pull a circuit to the new bathroom and a circuit to the back bedroom.  Unfortunately, I only had enough wire to pull the 220 circuit and the circuit for the bathroom.  Oh well. 

More time in the crawl space

I suited up and got into the crawl space and belly crawled while dragging the wires from the panel to the far side of the house.  Once there, I fed the wires up through holes drilled in the wall cavities.  Once the wires were in place, I secured them to the framing down in the crawl space.

Installing the second unit

On Sunday, we started off the day with the installation of the second indoor A/C unit into the back bedroom.  Just as before, we routed the lineset through the walls to the outdoor unit.  During this time the girls made a Lowe’s run and picked up the wire and a few other odds and ends for us.  Upon their return, I suited up and pulled the final wire through the crawl space to the back bedroom. 

Framing finished up

With the new circuits pulled, it was time to finish up the framing.  I framed out a new ceiling just shy of 8’ tall and framed in the partition wall between the shower and the back to back closets.  Since space was tight, I ran 2x4s sideways to make a thinner wall cavity.  This allowed for a slightly larger shower which is worth it in my opinion.  With the ceiling in place, I installed the vent fan and the recessed can light over the shower.

Last few items before drywall

Monday morning started with wiring up all of the fixtures.  As my dad was wiring up the new A/C unit, I ran the ductwork for the vent fan.  Based on how the soffits are laid out, the available space for the duct work, and the parts I had on hand, I ended up running the vent with solid PVC pipe.  That should work out well. 

New insulation

As my dad ran the wiring throughout the bathroom, I started prepping for finishing up the insulation.  I cut the pieces to size so they were ready to go when the bathroom freed up.  I also cut the plywood for the shower walls and cut the pre-sloped plywood shower subfloor to size.  I made the sloped shower subfloor on my CNC earlier this week.  That machine sure is handy.  After he wrapped up, I got the room insulated and then started on the drywall.  I got the ceiling prepped and hung when Oceana, who just arrived back home, texted then called.

Different house. More fixin’

“The house is 85, I don’t think the A/C is working”.  This text was followed up shortly thereafter by a phone call.  “The well pump is smoking”.  Oh joy.  Time to head home.  I picked up a new well pump at the Ace Hardware in downtown Avon Park.  A few years ago I replaced our original sta-rite pump with another sta-rite pump and have had nothing but trouble with it.  A well pump guy recommended Goulds pumps and the Ace had the size I needed in stock.  Great.

No A/C? No problem

We (my folks came with me) made it back to a warm humid house without running water.  Haha.  At least our place at Lake Byrd has prepped us for life without A/C.  As soon as we got home, I started working on replacing the water pump.  A few hours later, we had water again.  Not only did we have water, but we had higher water pressure than we’ve ever had at this house.  Awesome.

Ace Hardware for the win, again

Tuesday morning I started by looking into what’s wrong with the A/C.  The outside fan wasn’t working.  After watching a few youtube tutorials, I used my electrical meter to confirm that the fan motor was good but the capacitor was bad.  Once again, Ace Hardware came through for the win.  They’re just down the street from us and had one in stock.  I put in the new capacitor and we’re back in business. 

Looking forward

Back at Lake Byrd, I’m looking forward to getting the new mini-split A/C unit fired up. When I come back, I’ll be bringing my vacuum pump and gauges to pull a vacuum on the lines before charging the system. At that point, the unit will be able to be test fired. Soon enough. More adventures to come. Thanks for following along.