Whole House Fan vs. Air Conditioning (Denver, Thornton: neighborhood, buy, movies)

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by ramanboy33

I just sickens me when people are wasteful in any sense (don't take that as an accusation against you - I don't know you). It's everywhere in this country - we use over 25% of the world's energy. I've known people who set the thermostat to 70 and just leave it like for 4 straight months regardless of whether they're home, asleep, or if it's a similar temperature outside. If you visit older areas Denver like Capitol Hill you'll find very, very apartments have air conditioning (at least many homes without AC have basements). I was just trying to point out that it is very easy to get through Colorado summers with air conditioning - many do.

Really, this thread is about "Whole House Fan vs. Air Conditioning". It is not about the environmental consequences of energy use, etc. Most people here are very judicious with their A/C, at least among the people I know. I do not know anyone who does the above. I have worked as a visiting nurse and I have been in some of these old houses in the summertime. They're hot.

Swamp coolers work well, too.

[ramanboy33]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Really, this thread is about "Whole House Fan vs. Air Conditioning". It is not about the environmental consequences of energy use, etc. Most people here are very judicious with their A/C, at least among the people I know. I do not know anyone who does the above. I have worked as a visiting nurse and I have been in some of these old houses in the summertime. They're hot.

Swamp coolers work well, too.

If this thread is about "Whole House Fan vs. Air Conditioning" why is it you can suggest an alternative (swamp cooler) and I can't (none of them)?

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by ramanboy33

If this thread is about "Whole House Fan vs. Air Conditioning" why is it you can suggest an alternative (swamp cooler) and I can't (none of them)?

If you had simply suggested "none of the above", without the lecture, it would have been fine.

[ramanboy33]

Originally Posted by Katiana

If you had simply suggested "none of the above", without the lecture, it would have been fine.

I can't provide a reason (albeit an impassioned one) for why I think "none of the above" is better?

[Charles]

About the double paned windows, I think they are more useful keeping heat in in winter as the difference between outside and inside is like 50F-60F. In summer, the deltas are maybe 10F-20F. And they don't do much for radiated heat. And it is risky to put darkening window film on them.

[ramanboy33]

I think saving money, reducing pollution, and abating the greenhouse effect should absolutely be considerations when someone makes decisions about his or her energy use, and I'm going to bring them up in any discussion related to energy use.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by ramanboy33

I think saving money, reducing pollution, and abating the greenhouse effect should absolutely be considerations when someone makes decisions about his or her energy use, and I'm going to bring them up in any discussion related to energy use.

Originally Posted by ramanboy33

I can't provide a reason (albeit an impassioned one) for why I think "none of the above" is better?

The above are all valid concerns. However, a lecture about being "sickened" by people you know who leave the thermostat at 70 every day for 4 months, blah, blah, is unnecessary. The purpose of these forums, as I see it, is to help people with answers to their questions, not go on a crusade. There are political and environmental forums on CD for that type of thing.

[ottodog]

If you or anyone in your family have allergies forget it. They pull all the pollen & crap from the outside into the house.

[vegaspilgrim]

Originally Posted by formercalifornian

With all due respect, the heat wave last summer was triple-digit for 21 days straight. We're not talking about a bit of discomfort; we're talking about life-threatening heat.

"Life threatening"? Has this forum been turned into City-Stand-up-comedy-Data? Temperatures in the dry upper 90s and low 100s as long as you're out of the direct sun and hydrated, is not even close to "life threatening." Maybe uncomfortable, not "life threatening" unless if you are extremely ill or elderly to begin with. You don't even know what extreme heat is until you've lived in a place like Phoenix, which frequently gets temperatures in the 110s and can cool down to an overnight low of 90 degrees.

[mrpeatie]

Does anyone have opinions on the swamp coolers. My sister is thinking about one and I am from the southeast where the glory of AC is that it pulls out humidity. That's not the problem in the west so I was wondering the benefit of the swamp cooler vs air conditioning. Does it mist or something to reduce the perception of heat?

BTW- we hit the 100s almost every week from the end of June until through August and sometimes into September. Do that with outrgeous humidity and then tell me 90 is bad. (Hence my father moving from SC to live with said sister.)

Thanks for any explanations- I'm usually the building/construction question in the family but this one was foreign to me.