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We use a whole house fan here in NH during the summer. We also shield our southeast facing sliders from the morning sun with roll down blinds on the outside. This keeps the condo fairly comfortable.
> ... Coal prices ... skyrocketing because of increased .... costs.
Don't forget demand. It's not popular to recognize that as a factor, but ...
> ... electricity rates double in the next year or so. ....
Don't forget coming electric cars. That's going to add to the load.
Of course, wind and solar are already somewhat competitive with fossil, so your doubling prediction might be a tad pessimistic.
Devin Bent slyly remarked:
> ... my system was built with the capacity to switch to an outside return.
> So in all fairness, your remark is correct with regard to most systems.
Well aren't you special?
Actually, you are.
I've never lived in a place with an outside return. I've always had to "make" one with a box fan in the window.
Why builders don't offer this as standard fare on all buildings is a mystery to me. It should be a federal requirement for any new construction or retrofit.
There is no climate in the US where the home/apartment dweller couldn't benefit from this feature. It was such a blessing to me - seeing such in NM.
feline lover yukon wrote:
> Even the indoor cat stays comfy during the day.
You have an indoor cat and presumably and outdoor cat? Is the indoor cat "indoor" by choice? Aren't you worried about disease? Coyotes?
GregW related:
> ... shield ... with roll down blinds on the outside. ....
That's another thing that really makes sense. Keeping the sun from entering the window is probably an order of magnitute more effective than just drawing indoor blinds or curtains.
I would think in cold climates, it would help a bit with insulation.
My neighbor in Chandler replaced their original builder heat pump with a newer model. Some of the "features" of the more efficient new model just seem like common sense:
(1) variable-speed fan
(2) two-speed compressor
(3) fan pumps air after the compressor is off so that any cooling 'work' done is transferred to the air in the house rather into the attic.
They don't have an outside return that I'm aware of, however.
Mortimer wrote:
"I've never lived in a place with an outside return. I've always had to "make" one with a box fan in the window.
Why builders don't offer this as standard fare on all buildings is a mystery to me. It should be a federal requirement for any new construction or retrofit.
There is no climate in the US where the home/apartment dweller couldn't benefit from this feature. It was such a blessing to me - seeing such in NM."
I don't get it either. A car air conditioner has the option of pulling outside air in without or w/o using the compressor and IMO the typical window air conditioner does also. But home systems don't seem to.
The advantage of living here at 6,000 is that for about two weeks a year, I turn on the compessors or fans for a part of the day. The rest of time the wind changes the air when I need it.
I would look into swamp coolers, but if I only use the AC two weeks a year, then it is hard to justify the expense of conversion.
Coal prices (coal supplies most of the energy for power generation in the Rocky Mountain and southwestern states) are going to be skyrocketing because of increased mining and transportation costs.
You have an indoor cat and presumably and outdoor cat? Is the indoor cat "indoor" by choice? Aren't you worried about disease? Coyotes?
OK, Mortimer, what I should have said is that "even with the swamp cooler OFF during the heat of the day, it's stayed cool enough in the house that I don't have to worry about the cat getting heat stroke".
But I'm sure the cooler will be turned on during the day later in the summer
Question, is it normal for the room with the open window to cool off slower than the other rooms?
> ... normal for the room ... open window to cool off slower than the other rooms?
Quite normal. Read further if you are bored and want to know why.
The air is the coolest the moment it leaves the wet pad. As it snakes its way through the house to the open window, it picks up energy and warms up along the way.
Think of it this way, if the swamp cooler air comes out of the cooler at, say 65 degrees and passes over furniture and brushes by walls that are sitting at 80 degrees, (or 66 degrees) then the cooler air will leave the furniture and walls cooler as the air picks up heat.
The temperature difference between the cooler vent and the last inch of the house before it exhausts out the open window will decline over time as the furniture and walls give up more and more of their heat.
Therefore, you want the open window to be located as far away as possible from the swamp cooler vent. In my house, it is sent through ductwork, so it doesn't matter which window gets opened.
You also get this effect in a house with refrigerated air. The vents farthest away from the source blow air into the house at the warmest temperature, but for refrigerated air, it might mean that it's 55 degrees as the warmest vent and 52 degrees at the coolest.
Another example would be when you turn on the garden hose that has been lying in the sun. The water can actually scald you at first, but as it absorbs heat from the walls of the hose, it gets cooler and cooler. However, if you measured the temperature at the faucet and at the outlet of the hose, you would find there is always going to be some difference.
Hmmn... so if I want a particular room to be the coolest, then I should open an exhaust window in a room furthest from the room to be excessively cooled?
Great explanation, by the way. I was starting to think I was imagining things.
Mortimer, thanks for your answer. Yukon, I'm glad you asked that question!
My swamp cooler is in the middle of my house. Should I open two windows--one on each side of the house? Or should I open a window on one side of the house, let it cool down, and then open the window on the other side of the house?
> Hmmn... so if I want a particular room to be the coolest, then I should
> open an exhaust window in a room furthest from the room to be excessively cooled?
If we are talking about a window unit, I would consider moving it to the room you want coolest.
For your original question, I was imagining a house layout where air was snaking through rooms and corridors all over the house.
If you had a cooler in a SW corner, but you wanted the room in the NW corner to be the coolest, then opening the exhaust window in the SE corner (farthest from the unit) might just shunt the air from SW to SE - bypassing the whole N side - making it relatively warmer.
You can buy a small, quiet fan at Target, Lowes, etc. and put it on the floor next to the room that you want to cool - blowing the cool air that hugs the floor into that room that you want cooler. If this is a room that you will be working in (you aren't being very particular about your layout and need for cooling), then the moving air will also make the room "feel" cooler as well as "be" cooler.
If you want to be really geeky, you can also buy some ductwork and put the fan at the bottom of the door to the room where the cooler is located and run the ductwork from the fan into the room you want really cool.
The cooler, 'moister' air tends to move along the floor until it finds an open window/door to exit the building.
> ... I was starting to think I was imagining things. ....
You might imagine that you accidentally put the debit entries on the right, but about room heating? Never.
You also might imagine that you left the dry cat food out on the counter and the moggies - even now - have their little cat faces buried in dry cat food.
penelopelp further wonders:
> ... cooler is in the middle of my house.
> Should I open two windows--one on each side of the house? Or
> ... window on one side ... then open the window ... other side ...
I'd crack one on each side. Your middle location (I assume through the ceiling?) sounds ideal. Better yet, crack one in each and every room.
Keep in mind that if you have stagnant air then you'll get relatively less cooling. Imagine you have one room on each corner of a building and a central hall where the cooler air blows out of the ceiling:
If you have an open window in one corner, the air is going to flow out of the cooler, into the room with the open window (mostly) and out the window. The three other bypassed rooms will be relatively warmer.
This is where yukon's observation won't hold true, BTW. You have to imagine a flow of air where the smoke from an imaginary cigarette would flow. (Imaginary, because you won't want to actually have a lit cigarette in your house, now would you? Try incense.)
If you have an outlet of, say 12" x 18" from the cooler then you have 1.5 sq ft of 'gazinta' air.
For your 'gazouta' air, four windows cracked open 0.375 sq ft or 3" by 18" in four rooms would have equal areas.
Note that on a breezy day, one window might have air forced into it causing your 'system' to be unbalanced.
I refuse to visit my parents' home in ABQ in June, July and August because they have a swamp cooler and it's one big humid mucky experience that I can't wait to leave and get back to my nice refrigerated air in EPTX - ahhhhhhhhhhh.
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