Hello Howard, and thank you for commenting. To give you a better idea of scale, the plant in pic #1 is the tallest at 9inches high and it has a girth of 5inches measured from just above where the caudex divides, and plant #3 has a girth of 6inches taken at a similar point. I give them lots of water during the (so called!) warmer months and have kept watering all year round again as they have yet to go dormant. They usually get fed once a week during spring, summer and autumn and have smaller amounts of plain water in winter. I use whatever feed I have to hand, i.e. tomato, African Violet, general house plant or orchid food, nothing special. They live on a south facing windowcill all year round and I raise them up each spring when I re-pot. I did this last week when I bought these 4 new shallower terracotta pots, not realising how big the plants were I'm now wondering should I have bought bigger pots!! Oh yes, there is one 'lil guy I have named.....'Howard', he features as one of the 4 seedling Ad. obesums...can you spot him? Hope he grows big and strong as he's having a bit of a struggle at the mo! Gill from the UK.

I donâÂÂt have all the answers, maybe I donâÂÂt have any. I was just trying to provoke some useful analysis of the problem. The attic and everything up there should be as cold as possible. You mentioned that the new addition has most of the problems and the older attic has none. Might this be because the newer section is too tight and the older one âÂÂbreathesâÂÂ? You should not have to clear snow off the roof with proper roof vents. See link below for roof vents designed for a cold climate. TheyâÂÂre very common here where snow can be quite deep on the roof, I donâÂÂt know if theyâÂÂre common in your region. They always extend above the snow. SR Here is a link that might be useful: 'Maxie Vent'

A few more questions: Where are you vacuuming out the water--at what point in the duct? Have to excavated the dirt around the outside exhaust to reach the underground elbow to determine whether it is glued in place and not just a friction-fit? If the pipe is glued properly then might want to have a plumber come out and use a video scope to see where the problem(s) is located. I see leaves in your photograph, invasive tree roots will seek water through any pipe joint that was not sealed correctly or any pipe that might have been cracked during installation. Does the end of the exhaust pipe have a critter screen? Check to see whether the exposed white PVC piping is UV rated. This post was edited by fahrenheit_451 on Tue, Mar 26, 13 at 23:18

They don't make anything specifically for this situation. You have to use some imagination. Maybe run and get a sheet of foam rubber to cut and place in the vents,,, whatever works and you can live with. Good ole Yankee Inginuity! The worse case I ever saw was where there was so much water collected in the flex duct the weight of it pulled the duct off some of the fittings, the water soaked the insulation, then started coming through the ceiling, one heck of a mess. If I were to ever do an after thought central air set up like this in a house I lived in I would probably install a small strip heater in the duct in effect making it a combination heat and cool system and just run it in the heat mode occasionally to keep the system dry. It might be a little pricier to run but its cheaper then repairing wet ceilings and replacing soggy insulation. The insurance companies will put the kabash on multiple claims for that real quick. Not to mention ingesting the mold spores the system will produce.