My A/C system has really been struggling lately as it seems to run day and night. I have been doing things like fixing some weatherstripping, shutting off the computers more (I have ten running in my house day and night) and nothing seems to be enough to get the place cooled. Brian and I investigated the attic and found several of the large air ducts were deteriorated to the point of having almost no insulation around them. The uninsulated ducts were sweating like mad, losing valuable coolness and making stains on the ceiling from the condensation drops.

I bought some ducts and we set out to replace the really bad ones. As you know, the summer time in Texas is NOT the time to be in the attic as regularly you hear of A/C repairmen dieing while working in attics this time of year. We put on some light clothes (thanks Dave for the CoolMax shirt you gave me a year or so ago,) loaded up with water (I took my Camelbak) and headed up there.

Here we are all geared up and ready to face the heat… dig those cool do-rags.

Instantly, it was about 120 degrees and we tried to work fast so we didn’t pass out.

Here I am taking a swig from the Camelbak… already covered in sweat

Here is Brian hard at work on the junction box…

And me removing the old duct from the vent…

With the job finished four and a half hours later, we got the hell out of there and it was then that we realized what a toll the effort had on us. We were both wobbly-legged and a little light headed. I checked my weight before and after knowing that I would sweat a lot and found out I lost seven (7) pounds! Not the diet I would recommend.

After long showers, we both kicked back to relax a bit and fell asleep. Brian slept from 4 in the afternoon to 8 am the next morning. I got up at 7:30 to run the sports sim leagues and then crashed out as well.

We still have a lot of work to do because we noticed several other things that could use some attention while we were up there. We plan on replacing a couple more of the ducts, but figure we better get our hydration back for a couple days before we chance it.