This heat!
 

Guys, this may sound really rhetorical but, be very careful out there in this weather, be it work or play.

Yesterday morning by 8:10, I nearly stroked out. Coming off of a scaffold, my arms turned to jello and things quit making sense. After an hour or so, I finally got my bearings back, somewhat. Shortly after lunch, I got caught again. I wound up spending part of the day getting checked out by medical and feeling TERRIBLE!

This heat will hit you fast and can get you in real trouble! If you think you're drinking plenty of water already, drink a little more. This nearly landed me on a trip to the hospital to get IV's! I never felt it coming on, it just hits...FAST!

Whether work or fun, take plenty of breaks and drink a lot of fluids! Be careful fellas! I know that I will be a lot more cautious now for I've learned what real heat exhaustion feels like.

Tight lines!

Yeah man its bad out there. Once you get heat stroke once it does not take much to get it again. I dont see how in the hell I used to do roofing in this crap.

I got some guys doing some carpentry work at my house this week. They are building me a patio and fence. One of the guys staring vomiting and they had to leave.

He said he thinks he drank too much water but I think it was heat stress.

I was doing a job Friday afternoon at Burger king and it hit me. Got real dizzy, cold sweats.....I got a big water and sat in their freezer for about 20 minutes. ......it helped me finish that job, but went home after.......I hadn't drank anything all day but coffee........stupid eh?

Man I got a sunburn on my scalp from wearing a visor,never happen before. haha

If I get out then the heat and not go inside and cool off, I am good.
But if I take a break and stop sweating, cool off, drink and eat too much,
I ain't going back out there. Learnt that a long time ago.
And NEVER get drunk then go build fence the next morning. Worst thing
ever happened to me. I kept blacking out, but not falling. Just hanging
on the barbed wire.

I have not stepped outside today......and may not until the sun goes down.

I was looking at the weather yesterday and saw 100 and 101 degrees for the high. WOW. Been use to this 81-84 highs....Make sure and get plenty of water, potassium, elctrolytes, etc. & keep your head FULLY covered. Glad u r ok

I got home at midnight last night.
The temp. outside was 86 degrees.

The building i'm working in right now at BRCC fraizer is around 105 -110 by 3 pm.
I told one of my co workers that here we are ,busting gonads every day in this heat. but if we would be in angola they would have us sitting under a tree or in the cell
because the courts have ruled that to make them work in that heat is cruel punisment. Imagine that???

It's so hot, everytime I sit down, my nads shoot out from under my leg.

it was brutal yesterday on the water.
We fished until three and around one I put up my top........it was like turning on the A/C

that top looks silly to most folks but to us it's heaven.

I agree....sure makes a long ride back to the launch nice also. I love my top too...

:eek:

Been trying to work up the courage to hit prien lake all day but think I'll continue sitting on my azz inside!

Anyone going fishing tomorrow.......winds look to be calm.

Raymond....if it were just a little cooler....I might be out there this evening. TV showed 97 F a little while ago.

The job I'm on now we have 177 people and every day we have at least 3 people come to the office to cool off for a little while. I fished P Train Saturday and by noon I was headed back to the launch! IT WAS HOTT!

He prolly smoked a little too much crack rock

august work schedule


work 10 min. take break 20 min. repeat, repeat,repeat, go home.

2 of my neighbors said their a/c's won't keep up.
Checked them out and they were full of freon
and the filters were clean. They just can't keep
up for the past 2 days. They never stop running
until 10 pm.
When I changed mine out, I went up from a 4 ton
to a 5 ton. Made all the difference in the world. I
just had to add 3 more ducts and outlets.

You got that right!

man yer boss is a sucker!!!! my guys are animals, they didnt stop all freakin day but i bet i filled up that 5 gallon water cooler 3 times !

i think he is his boss...LOL

At 4:40 pm in Delcambre today. Miserable!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wife says it's so hot at home the wasp are dying.

yep,I am the animal, I fill up my own water cooler,Im not messican,and Im not illegal.

Today at 2:20, my truck thermo read 104 while my house thermo, 10 feet away, showed 100.

Dude my male rabbit died today and it is n the shade with water!!!! Lake Charles ranked 5th and Port Arthur ranked 4th in the most humid places in U.S. This stuff TUCKS!!!!!

talk about hot, i have been going in attic's to do electric work now thats hot, not sure how hot it was up there and i would guess atleast 130 degrees, from now on i ain't going in the attics past noon.

Cousin's dog died today.....most likely from the heat they said

I hope they have done everything to reduce the heat load inside the house.

Close all the window blinds, turn off all lights and unnecessary electrical stuff, don't do any washing or cooking during the day, if possible. Limit the opening of outside doors.

Question.....does there attic have good ventilation? Maybe they could use a ventilation fan to help cool the attic. They can be set to come on at what ever temp you set it for. This could help them save some money and maybe keep the house a little cooler.

Do they have some celing fans? Our den has a high celing, and I turned the fan up to "medium" speed and it feels a lot cooler without being too much wind.

Put off doing "heavy" house work during the day......sit and read a book.

Now if I could just get my wife to sit down and get something cold to drink when she gets hot..........instead of turn down the thermostat first, we could save a bunch of $$$$$$.

Ray, I lived in an appartment that was like that. A/C ran from the time I came home until ~ 10 PM before it cut off. I talked to the A/C repairman at the appartment and he said all the unit were like that.

As a rule of thumb......a house need 1 ton of A/C for every 500 sq ft. So if your house is 2000 sq ft, a 4 ton A/C should be enough. But this depends on several factors. How well it is insulated, type of windows, how much shade does the house get, how many people are living in the house, etc.

Good info Gerald. My A/C man also told me last week to put the fan setting to on, that way the air will circulate instead of getting dormant. I used to have to sleep with the a/c on 67 degrees at night with the a/c on auto. Now that the fan runs constantly circulating the air, I now sleep comfy with the thermostat on 72. During the day we set it on 75 and as long as the fan is on, it stays comfy and the compressor doesn't work as hard. I asked him how it would effect my bill with the fan running constantly, and he said that sinc it is a 1/2 HP motor, no more than $10 extra dollars a month. I believe it will save money though because the compressor isn't working as hard. Just have to change filters more often.

How hot is it? I just saw two fire hydrants fighting over the same dog...

worked on a dry dock barge type deal last week in sulphur at global international. At 9:30 the temp of the deck and walls was 145. By 11:00 it was 160. I don't really know what the air temp was in that thing, but i know your soles started to melt around 2:00.

500 square ft. per ton is normal. 400 sq. ft. per ton for higher effenciency.
The wife is retired. The husband works away from home all day.
After Rita, they went to a ridge cap instead of turbines. They have 6 inchs
of pink rolled in insulation. It is an older house, built around the same time
as mine.
They do have the older hard metal ducts. They do lose some effeciency
due to the heat and insulation in the attic. Filters are clean.
I have 3 turbine vents and they have a ridge cap vent system. My attic is
20 deg. cooler than theirs.
I have ceiling fans in 3 bedrooms, living room and kitchen. They have 3 total.
I also have 3 gable vents, they have a hip roof.
They have no kids at home.
The cool air coming out their vents is the same as the temps. coming out of mine.
My a/c is a 10 seer installed in 2003. Theirs is a 14 seer installed last year.
THe a/c puts out, the house is just not insulated like it should be, I guess. It is
putting out 55 to 58 degrees closer to the unit, but it is putting out 69 deg. at
the fartherst register from the unit. Looks like they are loosing some cool air due
to the metal ducts with old insulation in the hot attic.

Another thing to help your A/C unit run more efficiently is to keep the outside unit "fins" clean. Any dirt buildup acts like insulation and does not cool the hot compressed freon as good as it should. This causes the compressor to run longer to do the same cooling.

Caution.....DO NOT USE A STRONG JET OF WATER FROM THE HOSE.

The fins on the cooling coils are very thin and can be damaged [bent over] and this will block air flow and you loose efficiency. Always direct the water "straight on" at the cooling coils.....NEVER AT AN ANGLE. This is what will cause the fins to be bent.

If you have a sprayer.....spray down the unit with soap & water solution and let it soak for a few minutes. Do not use any cleaning chemicals that contain high amounts of "caustic"......this can damage the aluminum fins.

Condensing coils.......These also need to be cleaned once or twice a year using a vacum cleaner. When you next change out your A/C filter, look at the cooling coils to see if they need cleaning. If your A/C filter is in the ceiling, get a ladder and climb up so that your head is up inside the duct. Any dirt buildup on the coil blocks the air flow and your are not getting good cooling from the A/C and it is costing you more money to cool your house. Again.....be carful not to damage the cooling fins.

While checking this coil......make sure the coil is installed properly. Make sure that the coil in mounted up tight to the duct. If there is a gap....even a small gap, this allows some air to flow around the "cooling coil" and you are loosing more cooling and money. See picture. My finger is sticking in a gap I found about a month after a new coil was installed. The coil is to the right side in the picture. I called the repair people to come back and fix the problem. After this was fixed....we could feel a difference in that the air blowing out was colder and the house was cooling faster. This was at the end of May '08.

Are you "cooling your attic" with cold air from the A/C unit? In your attic there is a large "duct box" where all the individual air ducks connect to it. These connections are taped up to seal off air leakage [into your attic]. Over time, this tape can come loose and start leaking out your cold air. Get a roll of gray duct tape and fix any leaks.

The ducts and plenum are sealed tight. The condenser coil was cleaned this past
spring. The filter is clean and the evaporator coil is clean. It is doing all it can.
It isn't the a/c, it is the house. Attic is too hot, non insulated windows, curtains
open... ect.
Newer insulation ratings are a lot better than when the house was built in the mid
'70's.
We had 1 sheet metal man and 2 a/c men checking the system out.

I got inspired after making the above post......I just cleaned my outside unit.

Then while I had the sprayer out.....I sprayed several plants to kill some bugs that I saw on the leaves yesterday.

6" of roll insulation is less than min. recommended amounts now days.

20 deg is a lot of difference. You have several shad trees....I guessing this other house is not shaded very much but the lack of good ventilation could be the major factor. Another thing that could be a problem....is when the ridge vents were installed, did the contractor cut [or install] the roofing plywood with a big enough gap to allow good air flow through the ridge vents?

It sounds like they need to spend some money to get their house more efficient. Obama may even pay for most of it.

A 10 deg difference in duct outlet temp. is a lot. Did the A/C men check to see if this "hotter" duct has the same air velocity coming out? The insulation inside this duck may have come loose, blocking the air flow and not getting cooling to that part of the house. A replacement [round] duct is not that expensive.

Just a guess.....but I bet there electric bill is $ 30+ a month more than your's and the houses/living style is about the same.

The insulation is on the outside of the ducts.
The bills are about the same. They have a 14 SEER system, I have a 10 SEER.
They have trees in the South side of the house, just like me.
House size is about the same.
Their a/c is doing everything it can do. It is putting out as much as it can.
It is an insulation and an attic ventilation issue.
It is just so hot compared to the past years.
Rita took out a few trees for both us and them.

You're right Ray, when they put in my ridge vent we ventilated all the eaves with perforated vinyl, helped alot, and no more rotting wood or painting.