In addition to the uncovered drainpipe mentioned previously, there were two small gotchas.
Originally the Ventwerx guy thought they’d be able to install both inverters/fan units where the compressors for the old air conditioner sat below the windows of the guest room and guest bath. As they cleared away river rocks and were readying to set down the fan units, they realized the bases needed to sit about two inches higher than the current level. Their initial panic was assuaged as it was a very simple matter for Agent Smith to hop in the skidsteer, head to the remaining pile of asphalt spoils from the driveway project a couple years earlier, scoop up a couple loads and bring them over to the install spot. The guys then tapped the stuff down, and made a nice little pad for one of the units.
Only one of the units actually ended up getting installed at that location, as the second gotcha was that the initial estimates were off and due to distance concerns, it was better to install the second unit closer to my office. Not a terrible thing, and this time I hopped in the skidsteer to gather up spoils and make a nice pad for that unit.
After deciding to replace the old furnaces with mini-splits, we had some smaller decisions to make. Would we include the great room in the scope of work? There were already two returns for the old furnace in the east and north walls of the room and 7 floor vents, and evidently the original intent when the house was built was to heat the space. But this space measures 26′ x 26′ x 24′–16224 cubic feet of open air. It has 8′ and 9′ windows along the bottom of two exterior walls (facing south and west) and three 10′ windows that start 10′ from the floor on the south facing. And if that isn’t enough, there’s a spare window on the east wall and the foyer is technically part of the space, since there are no doors between the two (unlike the great room and kitchen). See the floorplan below to make a bit of sense out all of what you just read.
And for fun, a bizarre panorama of the space taken when I was laying on the floor staring up at the ceiling.
So we have a giant space smack in the middle of the house. We could have put an inverter on the roof (there is power up there already) and run ductwork down to a couple or three wall units, and used up a LOT of kilowatts to make the space cozy. But heat rises, and with all that glass, the space actually stays a pretty constant cool-but-not-cold temperature in the winter. “Why don’t you just burn a fire in the fireplace?” some readers are probably wondering. Well, keep in mind that the fireplace is three-sided and there is space for three or four people to stand (or crouch) comfortably in the bottom. The chimney stack is roughly thirty feet tall, so we’d have to burn real wood and a LOT of it if we wanted fire. The possibility of filling the entire space with ash and smoke is not high on our list of things we’d like to witness.
Last is a shot of the top of the chimney column. Thankfully there’s a screen around the opening, and we haven’t had to worry about birds or small critters tumbling down and dying in the fireplace.
Anyway, in the end we decided not to heat the great room. Two years on and no regrets.
Now the second decision we had to make was much easier. We’d been considering options to heat the studio building since the great flood. Originally we thought we’d put in a pellet stove, but we weren’t keen on cutting holes in the walls or ceiling. After pricing for adding a third inverter and a couple of wall units, it made great sense to just get it done. Since the studio sits on a solid concrete pad, we were able to just plop the inverter in place. We had one wall unit installed in the main room and another in the upstairs area. We’re quite pleased with the setup, as in the winter months we can watch movies, play video games or workout without having to freeze or huddle under multiple afghans and blankets.
Now there’s just one more bit of this tale to relate…