Yesterday (I'm breaking with my normal habit of back-dating posts to the day of the work) was a big day for radiant heat. I had never considered the difficulty of laying reflective foil-backed insulation on the ground on a really hot August day. You know how rich people on TV and Klinger from MASH use tri-fold foil boards held under their chin to tan more effectively? Imagine a 1988 square foot one of those.
Blood: check; Sweat: check; Tears: still several months to go. We (dad, Jim, and I) did succeed in getting all the insulation placed, and all seven circuits of Pex tubing laid out. Then we covered them with tarps to prevent direct sunlight, which I hear can degrade the oxygen barrier on the tubing. The foam stapler I rented from Washington (which you can see leaning against the wall in the foreground) worked like a charm. It was light-weight and easy to use, and did a pretty good job securing the tubing to the insulation. The alternative would have been to buy wire mesh and tie the tubing to it using zip ties, which I think would have taken longer, and surely would have been more expensive.
In the late afternoon, after crawling around on the foil while stapling tubing, I began to feel very weak and somewhat light-headed. As the youngest of the group and the owner of the project, I felt bad heading home while Jim and dad stayed to work in the heat on my house, but I really thought it would be best if I didn't pass out and/or die. I laid on the AC vent for about an hour, and Emily got me a popsicle. At one point I tried to sit up against the wall, but got simultaneous cramps in both my stomach and back, and felt that I couldn't move in any direction. I eventually made it back, but felt very weak the rest of the night. Today I continued to feel queasy and week, and thought my no-vomit streak might be in danger (March 2002). After some googling, I'm pretty sure I had heat exhaustion. Streak still alive so far.
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