Unless you like trying to get your duct cleaning company to pay for a blown furnace circuit board, make sure you keep your condensate line clear and check it often after you get your ducts cleaned.
We had our ducts cleaned at the end of April, which they do by cutting holes in the ducts near the plenum chamber and running a vacuum to pull everything from the vents back to those access ports. What they are supposed to do is to put an inflatable pillow behind the access port so dust and debris doesn’t get pulled back into the chamber and settle on the A-coil.
Well, these guys didn’t do that. We had about a month of cool weather following the cleaning where we didn’t need to run the air conditioner, so it just sat there until the first hot day. In the morning, the air was blowing nice and cold, but by afternoon it was just blowing warm air through the ducts. When I got a service technician in, he noticed a thick slurry of dust and debris plugging the condensate line. The water had overflowed and dripped throughout the furnace, shorting out the control board and leaving a nice big black scorch mark.
It was a $600 repair, and the duct cleaning itself was around $650. I’m currently working with the duct cleaning company to get reimbursed for the repair — I don’t think they’re going to see much profit out of this particular job.
![mess[1]](http://www.wigdahl.net/quern/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/mess1-201x300.jpg "mess[1]")
I took a couple of days off last week, and in addition to getting some work done on my IFComp game entry (which you’ll hear about tomorrow) Robin and I did a heck of a lot of work on the house to prepare for the new baby.
Finally! The paint and carpet were done last week, so I wired up all the outlets and the light over the weekend. After confirming there were no electrical fires and everything worked as it should, we started to bring some furniture and shelving in.
![rb[1]](http://www.wigdahl.net/quern/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/rb1-300x168.jpg "rb[1]")
We got a heck of a lot of stuff done yesterday. Lots of cleaning, and the new room is now wired for cable. I took the kids to the pool while Robin worked on our room, and they had a great time.![bricks-hammer[1]](http://www.wigdahl.net/quern/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/bricks-hammer1-300x231.jpg "bricks-hammer[1]")
Not much to report today. It’s the weekend; we have a lot to do around the house, we’re going to take the kids out biking later, and there’s a Rock Band party this evening that I’ll briefly attend.![brazil_ducts[1]](http://www.wigdahl.net/quern/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/brazil_ducts1-300x164.jpg "brazil_ducts[1]")
I’ve now completed the work I can do in the basement without more progress from my framing and drywall contractor. I have all the electrical run, including a double switch setup to the main light and five outlets, wired to the original basement circuit (which was almost unused before this).