[tijlover]

Yes, I'm still alive, 3 years in Phoenix, 22 years in Las Vegas and no A/C in my cars. But, I work the night shift, leave the house for work at 9:40pm, and get off at 6am, and it's still cool enough and I sleep off the heat of the day. 103 yesterday and I slept right through it with no A/C.

Now! You add humidity to the equation and?

[oeccscclhjhn]

It's not only the windows or doors facing west, it's the walls themselves that heat and can make your AC struggle. I know this for a fact with our master bedroom, when we got direct sun after noon, before the patio almost completely blocked them.

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[justthe2ofus]

Originally Posted by oeccscclhjhn

It's not only the windows or doors facing west, it's the walls themselves that heat and can make your AC struggle. I know this for a fact with our master bedroom, when we got direct sun after noon, before the patio almost completely blocked them.

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Depending on one's insulation, walls can be problematic.

We rent a house built in 1973. And there are two major issues:

1. The laundry is in the west-facing garage. I hope the moron who designed that is rotting in his grave, for he was too stupid to get that once you park a recently running car in there, it's too freakin hot to do laundry when it's over 100+ degrees. I curse him frequently.

2. The kitchen wall that has the cabinets is south facing, but gets enough sun during the day that it causes them to be too warm to hold food product. The L/R wall (same exterior wall) is just as hot. So chalk that up to 1973 insulation.

The bad news is that we had to buy a metal rack to house all non-fridgerated food product that we placed on a non-exterior wall.

All the non-food kitchen stuff (plates, glassware, etc) is now living in those cabinets. Plate warmer anyone?

[Tek_Freek]

Originally Posted by justthe2ofus

Depending on one's insulation, walls can be problematic.

We rent a house built in 1973. And there are two major issues:

1. The laundry is in the west-facing garage. I hope the moron who designed that is rotting in his grave, for he was too stupid to get that once you park a recently running car in there, it's too freakin hot to do laundry when it's over 100+ degrees. I curse him frequently.

2. The kitchen wall that has the cabinets is south facing, but gets enough sun during the day that it causes them to be too warm to hold food product. The L/R wall (same exterior wall) is just as hot. So chalk that up to 1973 insulation.

The bad news is that we had to buy a metal rack to house all non-fridgerated food product that we placed on a non-exterior wall.

All the non-food kitchen stuff (plates, glassware, etc) is now living in those cabinets. Plate warmer anyone?

Our first house (central Iowa) was built in 1960 and at that time the 3 1/2" dead air space between studs was considered good enough insulation. Even in Iowa that was BS. Summer and winter. We had Rapco foam installed, but it was hit and miss for filling the spaces.There were two Anderson Window Walls facing west with no shade trees, one facing south. Window Walls were 8 feet tall and 4 feet wide. Ours were in the corner of the living room and gave a beautiful view.

I spent one summer stripping all the exterior 4x8 plywood sheathing off, making sure the space between studs was filled with fiberglass insulation where the foam missed, and adding 1" Thermax insulation board over that. All seams were caulked on the stud side and taped on the outside. We moved one of the west-facing Window Walls to the south side where there were large shade trees to protect it.

I added a roof vent with a thermostat for summer. That project is a holy crap story.

When it was finished the change in electric usage was amazing. that project took 5 years to pay back. Much faster than we expected, and the house was so much more comfortable all year. I have no doubt that the payback would have been at least twice as long of we had paid someone to do the work.

[Elusive Enchantment]

Do any of you have shutters in your house? We have always used plantation shutters in all of our homes. Helps tremendously with privacy and from the heat in the summer. We are visiting our new house and flying out this coming week, we will be having shutters put in.

Does anyone know what kind of paper Amazon uses when they send you packages? It's a thick brown paper. We won't be moving into our house officially for another month and want to at least put up some paper on the windows we aren't having shuttered so carpet won't fade, etc. Just don't happen to know the official name of the material.

[cre8lite]

this is what i have in my house & i love them!

https://sunburstshutters.com/

[Tek_Freek]

Originally Posted by Elusive Enchantment

Do any of you have shutters in your house? We have always used plantation shutters in all of our homes. Helps tremendously with privacy and from the heat in the summer. We are visiting our new house and flying out this coming week, we will be having shutters put in.

Does anyone know what kind of paper Amazon uses when they send you packages? It's a thick brown paper. We won't be moving into our house officially for another month and want to at least put up some paper on the windows we aren't having shuttered so carpet won't fade, etc. Just don't happen to know the official name of the material.

We used these for a couple of years, lol. That long because of a ton of remodeling created a lot of dust. They held up well to being taken down and put back up a few times. They come in gray as well. I checked and Home Depot carries white in their stores.

We got so many compliments on ours that we put in permanent black shades.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Redi-Shade-...-72-in/3371876

[WVREDLEG]

Originally Posted by Elusive Enchantment

Do any of you have shutters in your house?

Yes, I ordered and installed myself. Very pleased with the product and the ease of installation. My 3 largest windows 62"x62" were $500 each. I did not go with a local installer/company because I wanted to order a few at a time to spread the cost. Several of my neighbors used local contractors to order and install and are pleased.

[JonathanLB]

Originally Posted by tijlover

Yes, I'm still alive, 3 years in Phoenix, 22 years in Las Vegas and no A/C in my cars. But, I work the night shift, leave the house for work at 9:40pm, and get off at 6am, and it's still cool enough and I sleep off the heat of the day. 103 yesterday and I slept right through it with no A/C.

Now! You add humidity to the equation and?

Wow you’re like Superman. I can’t sleep if it’s 70 degrees even, has to be 65-67 otherwise I’ll just lay there no matter how tired I am. Fortunately I know that and told my HVAC guy when I moved in price is no object but this system will have to be able to be 65-70 degrees absolutely regardless of outdoor temperature. It wasn’t cheap but it’s super energy efficient so monthly bills are great despite upfront costs. I’ve went where my AC was broken and it was so miserable even when it’s 75 out (inside gets hotter) I just slept at my dads and abandoned my home for months besides during the days lol.

[mitchmiller9]

If you want to save on A/C, get a good fan (Vornado).

With the dry heat, your sweat evaporates so quickly you won't notice it and the evaporation will keep you feeling fine so long as your sitting in a good draft. Last year, 108 degrees was the point where I switched on my A/C. Otherwise, I just used my Vornado... and drank lots of ice water. I also sleep on a camping mat instead of a mattress, which is far cooler. I'm planning on buying a tatami bed.

I don't work, so my body adapts to the heat as the summer progresses... impossible to do if you have to sit in A/C all day at work.

I use a battery tender to maintain the life of my car battery. This is the fifth summer for me in the desert. I bought my battery six years ago when I lived in LA. It's a seven year battery and seems to be working just fine (Toyota True Start). I rarely drive and then only short distances (< 5 miles), so I recharge it every couple weeks when it gets hot since the heat causes it to discharge rapidly.