House in Progress Diary

A unique solution to cooling off: Part 1

Four weeks ago, Coco and Dave the Cat were complaining that there wasn't enough space for us to ALL huddle in front of the window A/C unit. I guess Aaron and I WERE taking up a lot of space.

So we researched and talked and researched and talked, and then we called:

This Guy

Tony, from Unique Indoor Comfort in Elmhurst

Why Unique? Well for a couple of reasons:

-They have extensive experience installing the high-velocity system we preferred

-They demonstrated impressive knowledge about the system and how it could fit into this house

-This house isn't framed to provide any soffit space and even less knee-wall space. We are short on closets that can be sacrificed. We preferred the airhandler at the top of the house along with the cold air return. (Physics of hot and cold air.) Unique easily overcame all of those things.

-Their installations were high-quality, low-profile and (best of all) they were concerned about quiet...(shhhh)

-They had a history of experience with older houses and historic homes in Chicago and produced MANY references of houses in Chicago who had a variety of time living with installations similar to the one we were considering.

After the specifications and paperwork were turned in and approved, we were good to go!

Impressively, some of the people who designed the Unico System work for Unique. Their experience with the system's requirements and design was extremely helpful. We were able to comfortably fit the air handler in our attic space, and it was chained to the rafters to cut down on vibration.

It was installed to work around our existing electrical work and attic access...one cold air return at the top of the house cut down on the amount of openings in the walls...

Balloon framing assisted with running the ductwork to the first floor ceilings.

The thorniest problem by far was running ductwork from the attic air handler to the front of the first floor.

There was no easy way to do this because of the placement of a header for a large double-opening on the first floor.

Also, on the second floor, the vertical bays extending from the attic to the floor are "broken up" by our unusually wide set of prairie-style windows.

(Remember this period of time? Boy...I sure do!)

More on this story in a future installment...

Posted by jeanne on August 5, 2004 at 11:50 PM (1)