Too hot in home office (Phoenix: buying, contractor, best)

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by kdog

Please spare me your uninformed posturing and condescending tone. This is a thread about an office being too hot. My office had that problem, and it has a fan directly over my head. I ran the fan, and it just blew the hot air back down on me. It does NOTHING to reduce the temperature in the office. Besides being uncomfortably hot, it's also TOO HOT FOR COMPUTERS. The computers don't give a flying fig about a fan running. They have their own fan, and it's ineffective if the ambient temperature in the room is too high. The issue is NOT ENOUGH AIR CONDITIONING. Get it? I put in an extra duct, and now my office is great. A fan alone does NOTHING to help the problem. But I am THROUGH arguing the point with people who are simply here to argue and obviously have no direct experience with, or anything to offer on the topic of OFFICE TOO HOT.

I didn't hear that in his tone.

You are right. Fans do NOTHING to reduce the temperature in the office but they factually do reduce the temperature of the body. It's part of the reason why windchill reduces the body temp (you sweat all the time). Maybe you don't believe you sweat all the time?? Then simply lick your skin; if it is salty then you are sweating.

I'm with you, you also need air conditioning to be comfortable (using a fan is inadequate). But my earlier post was simply to inform you that your body sweats even though it's not beading down your forehead and back. Therefore a fan factually cools your BODY.

[kdog]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

But my earlier post was simply to inform you that your body sweats even though it's not beading down your forehead and back. Therefore a fan factually cools your BODY.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but that's only true to a point. At a certain temperature, blowing hot air on you is actually worse than still air. Don't believe me? Ask yourself why a convection oven cooks faster than a still oven.

From Wikipedia:

Food warms faster in a convection oven, because the moving air strips away the thin layer of air which otherwise would surround and insulate the food. This is the same physical phenomenon which causes wind chill.

As a practical example, us long distance motorcyclists know that the way to survive in extremely hot riding weather is to keep the wind off of you. You are actually cooler wearing a jacket in 100F+ temps than in a T-shirt. (Ref: Riding In Hot Weather « Articles « Old Guy’ Motorcycle Adventures & Misadventures )

I do agree that you may feel comfortable in a mildly warm room in a house with a fan on for exactly the reasons you state. But computer rooms can get really hot. I make my living with computers, and so have at least two computers with monitors running at all times. More if my wife is working at home as well. I would say my office ran hot enough so that the comfort level having the fan running barely had any effect, other than to blow papers around. I'm not saying it was hotter, but it was still annoying to blow hot air on me. And of course, again, this doesn't keep your computers for overheating -- which mine were before I added the new AC duct. However, we agree that AC is the way to fix a hot office, so I won't belabor the point.

[EnicAZ]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

I didn't hear that in his tone.

You are right. Fans do NOTHING to reduce the temperature in the office but they factually do reduce the temperature of the body. It's part of the reason why windchill reduces the body temp (you sweat all the time). Maybe you don't believe you sweat all the time?? Then simply lick your skin; if it is salty then you are sweating.

I'm with you, you also need air conditioning to be comfortable (using a fan is inadequate). But my earlier post was simply to inform you that your body sweats even though it's not beading down your forehead and back. Therefore a fan factually cools your BODY.

This is a really good explanation of why people still use fans. I can see why people use them but I don't think the electrical use is warranted.

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by kdog

As a practical example, us long distance motorcyclists know that the way to survive in extremely hot riding weather is to keep the wind off of you. You are actually cooler wearing a jacket in 100F+ temps than in a T-shirt. (Ref: Riding In Hot Weather « Articles « Old Guy’ Motorcycle Adventures & Misadventures )

.

Good read kdog. I learned something today!

[observer53]

Originally Posted by EnicAZ

This is a really good explanation of why people still use fans. I can see why people use them but I don't think the electrical use is warranted.

Ridiculous. If the air in the room is not already overly hot, fans DO make a person FEEL cooler. Electrical use is MINIMAL, even more so if fans are not left running when no one is in the room for a length of time, as they don't actually cool the air. They cost pennies a month to run.

[PhoenixAirConcerns]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

I didn't hear that in his tone.

You are right. Fans do NOTHING to reduce the temperature in the office but they factually do reduce the temperature of the body. It's part of the reason why windchill reduces the body temp (you sweat all the time). Maybe you don't believe you sweat all the time?? Then simply lick your skin; if it is salty then you are sweating.

I'm with you, you also need air conditioning to be comfortable (using a fan is inadequate). But my earlier post was simply to inform you that your body sweats even though it's not beading down your forehead and back. Therefore a fan factually cools your BODY.

Good points. Additionally I would add the fan system needs to be designed to try to reach those parts of the room where the person will likely be. Without it, it lowers the purpose and efficiency of the system. Energy conservation is essential in the desert with those high A/C bills.

[oldtrader]

We have fans, and they stir up the air, so the room is equally the same temperature not with hot spots and cold spots. However they do not cool the room.

When you have a problem room like a computer room, it makes a lot of sense to put in a one room air conditioner, to keep that room cooler if you are the only one home. No use cooling the entire house to a lower level, to keep one heat generating room cool. It also costs a lot less money to cool that one room a few degrees, than it does to cool the rest of the house more than needed.

By cooling that one room a few degrees lower, will also keep you more alert and more efficient and productive.

At least this what I and others have found to work the best.

[EnicAZ]

Originally Posted by observer53

Ridiculous. If the air in the room is not already overly hot, fans DO make a person FEEL cooler. Electrical use is MINIMAL, even more so if fans are not left running when no one is in the room for a length of time, as they don't actually cool the air. They cost pennies a month to run.

I agree they do feel cooler. I'm sorry if my post didn't relay it. However, I think the positioning of the air flow is an essential fact people often overlook.

[observer53]

Originally Posted by EnicAZ

I agree they do feel cooler. I'm sorry if my post didn't relay it. However, I think the positioning of the air flow is an essential fact people often overlook.

Feeling cooler is what matters, unless, like the OP, you have computers to worry about too. And, you are correct about air flow -a ceiling fan has to be turning in the correct direction, and there's all types of floor or table fans to choose from, depending on what kind of air flow you want, and whether you don't want papers blowing, etc.

[PhoenixAirConcerns]

A side note to the original poster, you will want to adress this as soon as possible, the summer is already here and you don't want to wait. Demand is higher for contractors when everyone is in a panic when feeling the heat.