Demolition!

On a day where the temperature peaked at 91 degrees, my GSHP installer ripped out the old heating and air conditioning system. They pumped down the refrigerant. They drained down and ripped out the oil lines. They cemented up the opening in my chimney flue.

They spent a fair bit of time fishing wires for one of the new thermostats. I'm thinking they should just sell wireless thermostats; They cost more than wired ones but it has got to be a net savings in installation labor.

After they left this evening, we painted the interior of foundation walls of the basement that had been blocked by the old system to match the rest of the basement. Most of it will be covered by  new duct work and new equipment but it looks a lot nicer this way and was much easier to paint.

I also patched up the holes where the refrigerant lines were running through the sill. To do that, I wanted to cut some circular pieces of wood to fit in to the holes. I have a hole-saw of the required diameter. A hole saw is basically a cylindrical drill bit that cuts out circles, in my case 1.5 inches in diameter.  Some hole saws have a center drill bit to stabilize the drill while you are cutting the hole. My hole saw does not and that makes starting the hole really tricky. The drill wants to dance around at first.  A few years ago for another project I managed to do it but it was really difficult to get the hole saw going.   Recently, while channel surfing one night,  I saw an episode of This Old House where they made a simple jig for the hole saw to keep it from dancing around. I used a couple of pieces of scrap wood as guides and made a V-shaped groove wide enough for the hole-saw! I was done in just a few minutes.

Next up are the plumber and electrician.  The final phase of out door work begins later this week when they install the tubes in the holes they drilled and thermal grout to keep it in place. After that they trench a path to the house and bore two holes in the foundation for those pipes. With any luck, the system will be up and running by the middle of next week.