Air Conditioning needed in Sandpoint, Idaho??? (rent, loft, house)

[plannersteve]

I'm going to be building a house in Sandpoint in the near future. I'd like to use in floor heating. This means if I need AC it will be a separate system, probably a mini split heat pump with a couple of heads in strategic places.
I've been watching the weather in Sandpoint pretty closely the last year and it seems that it is seldom hot enough to justify AC.
I'm considering installing a whole house fan as an alternative to AC. It looks like most nights are reasonably cool so I'm thinking I can cool the house down good at night by using the whole house fan to suck in cool air, then shut in for the day.
Of the folks I know in Sandpoint, about half have AC and half don't.
Anyone have an opinion on this they'd like to share? Any experience with whole house fans used the way I intend?
Thanks, Steve

[Clark Fork Fantast]

We had a discussion about air conditioning in Sandpoint recently. You can find a lot of valuable information here, including different points of view:
//www.city-data.com/forum/idaho...ern-idaho.html

[Cnynrat]

We've only lived here for 3 weeks, but have spent a lot of time here in the past years. There are days when it would be nice to have AC, especially if you are going to be inside during the heat of the day. Whether there are enough of those days to justify having AC is a matter of personal judgement. It is usually cool enough at night that AC wouldn't be needed then, but not always.

As far as your whole house fan question, we lived for 22 years in a home without AC that had a whole house fan. That home was in SoCal where almost all homes have AC. For all but about 10 days a year the whole house fan was very effective at keeping the house cool at night. Note that it doesn't do anything for you during the heat of the day, so if you are stuck inside then you will be hot.

The house we bought in Sagle doesn't have AC, and it can't be added easily since it's a log home with hydronic heating (there is no forced air distribution system). Time will tell whether we will wish for AC, but coming from our last home it's hard for us to imagine that we'll be that unhappy without AC. On warm afternoons we expect to enjoy a cold beverage in the shade on the porch.

Dave

[aiden_is]

Misty brought up this topic in a lighthearted manner last year.

I have a lot of computers and servers that need cooler air, so I have to have a least one room that is below 80 degrees during the day. This was my response, and it's still our preferred method...

Originally Posted by aiden_is

It was a culture shock when moving from Texas that our rent house had no central air, because it's just a fact of life down there. Last summer we learned how to open the windows at night to cool everything off and get a head start on the next day. That worked pretty well last year. But clearly this year is a different animal!

We have 3 of these:
Amazon.com: Whynter ARC-131GD Dual Hose Portable Air Conditioner, 13000 BTU: Home & Kitchen
... and 6 of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Vornado-293-He...dp/B0013LNKIY/

House is a 3,000 sq ft 5 bedroom two-story. There is one AC unit downstairs in the living room, and two AC units upstairs in the kids' loft and our master bedroom (because physics keeps the hot air upstairs). Combining their cooling with the heavy duty floor fans for circulation is keeping us about 76 on 90 degree days, and 78 on the 95 degree days. Keeping things portable gives us the ability to put them away for most of the year. Oh, and dual hose portables are much more efficient than the single hose.

[hatin11r]

Put in the A/C, period.

1) Better to have it and not need it than vice versa

2) You WILL need it because the climate is wacky all over these days

3) Better resale due to many folks are used to A/C

4) Cheaper during build than later on

5) Woulda...Shoulda...Coulda is a bad place to be

[Para]

Originally Posted by hatin11r

Put in the A/C, period.

1) Better to have it and not need it than vice versa

2) You WILL need it because the climate is wacky all over these days

3) Better resale due to many folks are used to A/C

4) Cheaper during build than later on

5) Woulda...Shoulda...Coulda is a bad place to be

I agree completely. When I was a paratrooper doing infantry stuff I figured I was paid to be miserable, no one pays me to be miserable anymore so I have a couple of window units (renting a house for now while we see if we'll be able to stay long term or not). If I do buy, I'll be looking for central A/C for the few days to a couple of weeks it could be nice to have.

[mistyriver]

I would get it if I were you. We get some smoking hot days and a lot of those come with bad air quality too.

In our cabin we have a little dance we do to deal with no ac. Windows open all night to let in the blessedly cool air and in morning we run around shutting the windows and shades to keep the cool in. By evening we watch a s the inside temp and outside temp come togetherness and then run around opening everything back up to start again.

We built our place as an off grid cabin and have no central heating (jotul gas stoves in every room) but if we did, we'd put in AC.

[coginthewheel]

Is the weather in NID work for swamp cooling?

[mistyriver]

Originally Posted by coginthewheel

Is the weather in NID work for swamp cooling?

Probably. It's warm and arid in summer so I don't see why not. Personally, I hate swamp coolers. The cooled air feels damp to me.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by mistyriver

Probably. It's warm and arid in summer so I don't see why not. Personally, I hate swamp coolers. The cooled air feels damp to me.

I used one when living in the Treasure Valley. I bought a small de-humidifier to dry the air out when it became too humid, and it worked well; i moved it from the living room to the bedroom with ease, and it worked best when my place was zoned by closed doors.

Both together didn't add much at all to the electric bill either. Nothing like the cost of running an air conditioner.

Sometimes, I found the humidity inside to be very pleasant when the summer air was super-dry, so there were times when we didn't use the de-humidifier at all. Cracking a window just before bed was enough to keep things from becoming clammy indoors, especially if a couple of windows on opposite sides of house were cracked open a bit.

Even though Treasure Valley summer nights are warmer than here, (or there, where you are), they"re still Idaho nights. By around 2 am, most evenings cool down enough that the swamp cooler wasn't needed through the entire night.