We’ve spent the last two weekends working on the air conditioning system mentioned in the previous post.  Some of those days on the roof were actually pretty nice but some where terribly hot.

Last summer when I was looking at old newspapers, I found an article from July 7th, 1901 where 451 people died due to heat in Baltimore IN ONE WEEK!  Air conditioning seems like a luxury, but after reading this it seems like a necessity.

Baltimore Morning Herald – 7 July 1901

As for getting ourselves some much needed air conditioning, we have mounted our compressor on the roof with some 6″ lag screws.  It looks sort of strange standing like a monolith from up the street, but can’t be seen from the opposite sidewalk.  Its set back from the face of the house by 7 feet.  We plan to mount it to the deck next spring which will be set 8′ back as dictated by Baltimore City Code.

After the unit was in place, we ran our line sets and electrical through downspouts to each indoor unit.  To finish up we need to tie in our 240 volt power wire on both ends.  One to a double breaker and the other to a cutoff switch by the unit (code).  Once we have power we’ll vacuum down the system and release the charge that came in the machine.  If all is well, we’ll spray foam the holes in the walls and we’ll be done.

Baltimore Morning Herald – 3 July 1901