House cooling

CONSIDER A DIFFERENT WAY TO COOL YOUR HOUSE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUTSIDE COOLING TEMPERATURES.

CONSIDER A DIFFERENT WAY TO COOL YOUR HOUSE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUTSIDE COOLING TEMPERATURES.

In past years, in the hot summer months, we would place fans in the windows of many of our rooms to blow cool to cold outside air into the rooms.  This year I decided to try a new technique.  This method only works when your immediate geogrpahical area naturally cools down at night so the morning temperatures are very cool.  My early morning temperatures go down to about 60 degrees F.

First, let me explain the layout of the rooms that I am trying to cool.  The bottom list of rooms each has a window and are just a part of the second floor and separated from the rest of the house with a hallway door.  It is only this list of rooms that I have cooled using just one window fan!

  • South large office.  This room faces south toward the ocean and thus has a natural breeze from the ocean.  This room has two windows.
  • East side Bathroom.  Not often but sometimes there is a natural breeze from the east.  Has a medium size window.
  • North west small bedroom.  Almost never any outside air comes naturally into this room.  It has a large sliding glass window.
  • North east small bedroom has a large sliding glass window.
  • Center hallway connecting each room.

I tried out a new idea to see if it would work.  It did!  I was really surprised.

The solution was to put a window fan into the north east bedroom, my bedroom, and blow the air OUT the window!  The reason is to see if this would draw air into the other rooms by suction and thus exit my bedroom.  IT WORKED!

You would think that this window fan would keep me awake.  I ran it at it’s lowest speed and it was quiet.  If I had turned the fan around to direct the airflow toward me, it would be bad.

Apparent disadvantage, but not, with this method.  Because I put the exhaust fan into my bedroom all the air from the other rooms flowed into my room thus keeping my bedroom warmer for a bit longer.  As the outer rooms received outside cool air that air then cycled into my bedroom.  Thus, my bedroom took a bit longer to cool down, after the other rooms did.  I did not find this a problem when sleeping.

NOTE:  This cooling method takes time to achieve results.  Here is a sample of my recording this on my cell phone:

Today was hot, 80 degrees.
The rest of the house is 80 degrees.
My room is 76.
Wife’s bedroom is 80
Fan set to mid speed to make up for late start (normally set to low).
——————-
Started cooling process late.
Time: 8:30 opened windows
Wind 3.4
Outside temp 66.0
My room 76
Office 74.5
Bathroom 73.9

——————-
Fan now set to low speed.
Time 9:50
Wind 0.8
Outside temp 63.1
My room 73
Office 69.9
Bathroom 72,3
————-

Time 12:46
Wind 0 – 2.0
Outside temp 61.5
My room 71
Office. 67.6
Bathroom 70.0
————-

Time 3;53
Wind. 0.9
Outside temp 61,2
My room. 69
Office. 65.8
Bathroom 68.2
————-

Time 5:12 am. AWAKE
Wind. O –
Outside temp 61.5
My room. 68. (notice that this room is a bit warmer because it is the exhaust room.)
Office. 65.5
Bathroom 67.8
————-

ADVANTAGES:

  • You use less power, one fan instead of 3 or more.
  • You use less power running only one fan.
  • I really felt much safer being in the same room with the fan, in case something would go wrong with the fan.

Note that this suction house cooling, worked with just a few rooms.  I have no idea how this might work for your house.

 

 

Posted:  6-12-2024

Posted by: Score Card

 

Observations For Keeping A House Cool

Observations For Keeping A House Cool

The following list comes from my impressions of what I have tried and think works or not for keeping a house cool.  None of these views are based on exacting research.  This is just my casual observations and thus I can be incredibly wrong or not.  These are some ideas for you to consider.

Local Geography

I live near an ocean coast and thus the water temperature most of the year is much cooler than inland.  Further inland there is a desert and these two geographical bodies sort of come into conflict.  When the sun rises in the East, where the desert is for us, the desert earth warms up causing an updraft because heat raises from barren soil, very little vegetation.  The cooler air over the ocean moves across the land to make up for the rising air deeper inland but heats up the more it travels from ocean inland.  This local air movement is called an ocean breeze.  My house has south facing windows which face this breeze and this is a terrific solution for us to cool our house when the sun goes down.

Temperature Reading Location

I frequently check the outside temperature using thermometers mounted in shady spots, front and back of the house.  The back or north side of the house is enclosed by high cement block walls which stagnates the air a bit from the ocean breeze. The North side of the house also has a pool is almost always 5 degrees hotter than the South side because the water stores the heat for a long time.

I have noticed that the thermometers mounted just outside our north and south windows really are in error.  The pool and stagnate air around it due to the high walls makes for about a 5 degree increase in temperature.

The South side temperature gauge is also a bit wrong because the house and ground near the gauge radiates heat from soil and building.  The whole house acts like a stored heat source for quite some time.  We have a wide driveway on the South side of the house which really stores heat for a long time.  The point I am trying to make is to be aware of your surroundings when placing a temperature gauge and always keep it out of direct sun light.

I have discovered that I must walk more than 20 feet south of the house to gain a more realistic feel for how hot or cold the ambient outside temperature is.   The house and all the cement driveway, sidewalk, stone work planters and any standing water store heat.  The outside temperature is definitely hotter closer to my house.  This became apparent when I checked my cell phone to see if it was cool enough to open the South windows and allow the ocean breeze to flow into the house.  The cell phone weather applications would show for example 76 degrees but the temperature gauge would be close to 80.  When I walked away from my house, the ambient temperature seemed to more closely match the weather application on my cell phone.

Cell Phone and Computer Weather Applications

I am quite annoyed with my cell phone weather applications reporting accurate up to date temperature readings.  I use Yahoo Weather, AccuWeather and The Weather Channel cell phone applications.  Readings can differ between products by as much as 7 degrees.  Readings can lag real time by as much as 15 minutes.  This may depend upon how you set up your cell phone for how quickly it receives updates.  Most applications allow you to force a weather update.  I recommend that you use different methods and try to get a consensus.  I recommend at least two weather applications, look at your outside temperature gauges and you might even walk outside away from your house to “feel” the temperature as a final check.

Air Flow

A very, very, important factor to consider is air flow, direction and intensity.  Almost always our house has a flow from the southern direction and almost no air flow from the North. For this reason, we put fans into the North facing windows to bring the cool outside air into the house in rooms where we get no south to north air flow.  I discovered that rooms with only North facing windows seem to never change inside temperature.   I have to use window fans.  We do not need to put fans in the other half of the house because we have South facing window rooms and if we open the bedroom windows on the South and North side of the hose, the air from the South rooms will flow right through the North bedrooms.  If privacy is an issue and someone closes their bedroom door this whole airflow cycle stops and we resort to window fans.

A real annoying science fact that throws a lot of people off is that a breeze will feel cool but you should never use a breeze to decide when to open windows of a house.  Always depend upon a temperature gauge and not how cool the air feels.  Example: if you are outside and feel a cool breeze and then open the house windows you must realize that that cool air flow typically will not be felt inside the house.  The cooling effect takes place when you receive the breeze upon your body directly.  You may be letting in hot breezy air into a cooler house if you do not follow this advice.  It is way better to look at the outside thermometer first to “see” what the temperature actually is.  Try to use science.  If the thermometer shows a higher temperature outside than inside your house, just park yourself outside the house, in the shade, in a comfortable chair, to enjoy the apparent cooler air flow experience.

A nifty trick is to put a fan in a room to get the internal air to circulate.  We love to use the vertical fans that cycle back and forth.  The room will feel less stuffy and the air flow across your body will provide a cooling effect.

Temperature Difference

Another important factor to consider is temperature difference.  If the outside air is just a few degrees cooler than the inside of our house, I tend to not turn on fans to get that cooler air into the house.  I am way more willing to turn on a fan if the temperature difference is more significant.  By this, I mean that if the inside air temperature match, lets say at 77 degrees and I had the air conditioner on set for 77, I will turn the AC off but not open windows. The reason is outside air close to the coast is typically moist but air inside the house has had the moisture removed by the air conditioning process.  You may reason that there is no reason not to open the windows and shut the AC off at 77 but I think you would be wrong.  Instead, I coast what the AC provided by turning off the AC and keep the windows closed until the outside temperature drops a few degrees more, typically fifteen minutes to a half hour.  Reason?  Moist air will feel hotter.  If I open the windows too soon we feel hotter due to the rise in moisture.

 

Updated:  3-6-19 because AccuWeather link time out thus removed.