New central air is about 80% installed.

[LuckyCharms]

It's a beautiful unit.

Seamless plenum, vs. the seamed plenum that we had before (and that was wrapped).

Still a 2.5 ton unit, but it's a lot bigger than our old outside unit. Old unit was 10 seer, this is 15 seer.

Two installers, and I know one of them. They are suffering down in the basement. We are under a heat warning today. They are sweating their asses off, and we keep feeding them chilled bottles of water.

It's so goddamn humid that neither my wife nor I have had a bite of food today. No appetite.

Looking forward to being cool this evening.

[LuckyCharms]

1. Shit. I meant to post this in the lounge.

I'll move the post if someone wants me to. Sorry.

[Diamond_Dog]

2. Glad to hear it and hope you're feeling better after the other days' "adventure"!

[LuckyCharms]

6. Thank you...Still running a slight fever.

Got packing changed today, and go again tomorrow (Thursday), and Monday.

Terrible. Tears were running down my face.

I wish he had warned me it was going to hurt like that!

[NutmegYankee]

3. I always tell people,. "no one ever regrets installing central air".

Even in New England, it's a wonderful thing to have.

[LuckyCharms]

7. You're right. Best thing we ever did.

[Johnny2X2X]

4. I have no idea how I survived without it

I grew up without A/C. My bedroom growing up was in the basement so it wasn't terrible, but it was miserable in our house during the Summer.

My current home has a really old unit when we bought it, but it worked OK for 6 years until last Spring when the first time I turned it on it went kaput. New unit was pricey, but it works so much better. 91 and humid outside today, nice and cool and dry in my house. I don't even care about the bills, I want it under 70 in my home at all times.

[LuckyCharms]

5. Same here, Johnny.

Grew up without any air conditioning at all.

We owned a home that had apartments on the second and third floors. A very nice teacher lived on the third floor, and when he would go on vacation, he would let me and my buddy stay up there.

Must have been 110 degrees in that apartment in the summer. An "adventure" type of thing for young guys having a sleepover. Not quite sure how the tenant, or me and my buddy, managed it.

[haele]

8. I did also. That's when you made sure your house or apartment hat high ceilings...

And tall or high windows. Kitchens on the opposite side from bedrooms, ceiling fans and long, "shotgun" E-W hallways were also something to look for, if you could get it.

When we were able to buy our 1911 rental house from the landlady next door, my grandpappy came up with his tools over the late spring in 1972; he and parents (who grew up in Los Angeles) put up a new roof in sections - adding gables and awnings out over the windows on the second floor so we could still get the breeze and light in, but the sun wouldn't bake the glass. It also kept the windows and frames from getting damp and freezing in the winter.
There were ways of building before AC that cooled the house to a bearable temperature. One just needed to have an architect/builder who understood the local climate and environment as well how to build.

Haele

[hunter]

10. One of my children owns a house of similar vintage. It has a sleeping porch...

... as did all the homes in the neighborhood.

That's how people survived in the summers before air conditioning.

When central air conditioning became common many of these porches were enclosed.

One of the charming things about my kid's house is you can still sleep out there.

It's also a great place to nap or read a book.

[senseandsensibility]

9. We replaced our unit last summer

It's so much more efficient, and our bills are lower too. Hope yours is as successful as ours was!

[William769]

11. Congrats!

I can't live without central air.

[WarGamer]

12. In a few hours... ENJOY!!

[ShazzieB]

13. When i was a kid in the 50s, i didn't know what central a/c was.

Hardly anybody had it in their homes back then. At least no one I knew did. Some had window units, but we never even had one of those, just fans. They were better than nothing, but it was quite uncomfortable at times.

In the mid 60s, we lived close to a park with a swimming pool. I was a teen then, and my friends and I spent a lot of time there in the summer. Before AC, access to a pool was a lifesaver.

Now I am totally spoiled, living in an apartment with central air and a thermostat we control ourselves. No matter what it's like outside, it's comfortable in here. I am really grateful for it, because my body does not tolerate heat well at all, and it seems to get worse the older I get.