Thanks again, Wow, you have an enviable record with the utility bill reduction. I am not sure what your complaint about net-metering in LA is about. Could it be that if I produce more power than I use, I only get wholesale price and then only after I die? I have not looked into how it is done in other parts of the country. Maybe it is done better elsewhere. So far, I have not been pressured to buy more photovoltaic than I need. I am dealing with the big dogs in the region and a smaller NOLA-based company. The latter seems to be flexible while the former has a sales staff that seems to have "packages". The problem is that I have to decide what I need and that will not be easy. I understand that fixing the house first would be a better idea in a perfect world. There are some things that make that difficult. First, I dont know how long the generous Fed and state programs are going to last. Second. My AC is FUBAR. There are two, 2-ton, compressors, one rather old, feeding a split evaporator. One circuit in the evaporator is leaking. I have an estimate from the previous family that says it will cost $2K to replace. I guess it is a custom evaporator. We also have an unusual tax situation that makes it better to spread the costs out over a few years, though we could do a loan. One thing that I forgot to mention is that when the AC ducts were installed, the central hallway ceiling was dropped and, later, the ceiling in a closet and part of a bath were dropped all to accommodate ducts. Unfortunately, the areas appear to have been boxed off open to the attic. That is right, the attic "floor" is actually boxed "down". Part of this is under the furnace and air handler. I am having a difficult time figuring out what is going on because I can not see all of it. Sealing the supply ducts/boots to the attic floor will be a piece of cake compared to that mess. That is why I was relieved to know that sealing the attic was a great idea. Then I had to think about the flat roofs. Speaking of which, if I close off the flat roof from the gable, and leave the flat roof vented for now, I will need to add vents to let continue the air flow that enters through the soffit vents, right? Believe me, I am counting on variable speed equipment to adjust to my changes in the house in the next few years. For us, oversized, but adjustable will be a big boon. We are both gone all day so having a fast-cooling system that can throttle and control humidity will be nice whether ducted or mini-split. I have not looked at daikin. I have seen the Sanyo, Mitsubishi and LG "multi-minis" though. I will check them out. I have been to the HVAC-talk site, but not for a while. I learned a lot about AC and air quality there. I am a tech-minded guy, but I had a lot to learn about AC and humid climates since I moved here from drier places. I think I have read most of the stuff about hot-humid climates at the building science site, but I should check it again. Will you check the www.fsec.org link. I dont get a rational response. As a historical note. This home was probably one of the early adopters of central AC. There was originally a water-cooled condenser and the house still has three-phase power. There are some interesting-looking motor controls left in the attic. It is hard to say when the AC was first installed wrt the flat-roof additions. I suspect the first one was there because it is fed from the duct in the dropped-ceiling hallway. The later flat-roofed room in the back, with a lower ceiling, has AC supply that runs under the house rather than through the attic. Again, thanks from the bottom of my heart. You are very helpful.

Thanks guys. Let me see if I can provide a clearer picture of what I'm working with. The house is over 100 years old--a brick row house in the center of a block. Most walls and all the ceilings on the third floor are plaster, with lots of lumps and bumps and a few small cracks, but mostly solid. There are no ceiling moldings. To call what is above this floor an attic is a an exaggeration. It is a space that ranges from about 3 foot tall at the front of the house to about half that at the back of the house (roughly 40-feet on that floor...first and second floors have a bigger footprint and do not need insulating between living space and roof.) There is a central air (newish high-velocity, narrow tube) system that snakes around the "attic". The blower is installed at the one access point there had been. This system serves ONLY the third floor and has two outlets in each of three small bedrooms and one in the tiny bathroom. The system serving the first and second floors is in a second floor closet. The insulation guys tell me that they can blow insulation in but will need to cut at least one new mansized hole in the ceiling to get in--possibly two, one toward either end. There are no recessed lights on the floor, and only three overhead lights at all. All other lights are wall brackets, wired from the floor up, rather than from the ceiling down. Of the three overheads..one was put in new by me, so isn't K&T. One the previous owner says was moved by them, so isn't K&T (But may connect in to K&T at the meeting of wall and ceiling. And one is the bathroom overhead, which can easily be checked. My electrician replaced the fixture there, so he should know what's above it. The roof is asphalt and fairly new (say 5 years old?) so, I'm not inclined to want to replace it anytime soon. I've gotten a quote for $950 to cut an access whole and blow in insulation. I'd have to pay someone else separately to fix up the access panel afterwards, probably adding another few hundred. Most neighbors don't even try to do much of anything with ventilation in their "attics", as they are all scared witless of cutting holes in their roofs. But I have found info on the Brooklyn Brownstoner blog about successful attic and whole house fan installations and one neighbor loves the whole house fan he has which sits in a sort of plastic cove on the roof. Unfortunately, he bought it with the house and has no idea who installed it. I don't intend to move in the near future, or even the more distant future. But I would like to make the third floor more habitable in the summer, especially since at some point in the next two years or so, I'd like to turn it into a separate apartment and rent it. Honestly, I seem to be finding such conflicting information and I'm so dubious about how knowledgeable folks you hire to do this stuff are about old and "out of the norm" houses that I really, really, do appreciate any and all help I can get here on this forum. Thanks,

What did you end up doing? I'm learning now. We have an old tar and gravel flat roof. We've had a few leaks patched since we purchased a few years ago...we'll be redoing the whole thing in the next year. Same weather in MN. Super hot and super cold. I hope everything went well!

I am just giving you information so you are armed with knowledge. How this proceeds after this is up to you. Obviously roofing is one of the most important building trades to get right, yet often is done wrong because contractors fail to follow easy-to-obtain manufacturer instructions. Show your roofer this thread and teach them. This roofing job is DIY beginner at best. There were only 4 main parts here to complete: 1.) rolls (proper base prep) 2.) flashing (at walls) 3.) penetrations 4.) edge. They did 3.5 parts out of 4 incorrectly. It appears to be a rural area, so maybe any actual roofers are hard to find, and this one is certainly not certified with GAF. - The product, if GAF, is Liberty SBS (rubber modified) white roll roofing: Lowe's GAF Liberty - It is a self-adhered product, and can be chosen to be installed over plywood. The cement roof sealant should never be used to 'putty' large areas and used as the primary transition for flashing and edge details - it will fail. Edge requires a metal drip edge. The Pipe penetrations should not have bitumen on the rubber boot (pipe detail: GAF Pipe detail). Flashings should extend under siding and Weather Resistant Barrier (housewrap) should extend over it. Here are the installation instructions including picture details: GAF Liberty SBS Installation Instructions - There are roofing granules that can be sprinkled over the lap cement that shows at seams and flashings/penetrations to blend them GAF Roofing Granules _______ GACO roof coatings are applied over old, weathered roofing materials to try and extend the life and appearance. Probably would use GACOFlex S42 Series. GACO Roof Coatings - you paid for a new roof, why do you have to pay to coat it because of their incapabilities - GAF provides a list of compatible coatings that can be used with their specific products which will be warrantied as a complete installation (whether installing a 3rd party coating like GACO will void any GAF warranty should be verified, although nothing about your poor installation can be warrantied). Here is their recommendations: GAF Roof Coatings for SBS Roll Roofing