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I won't dispute that breezes are a help. Of course it depends on whether you are in a climate that even typically gets breezes in summertime (Massachusetts does but most of the Southeast U.S. does not), and also breezes are only effective up to a certain point. Just ask any desert dweller about the hairdryer-like breezes they get there.
Fans can also create breezes. Once the heat gets hairdryer-like (rare here) the only option is close all windows, pull down shades and then open again come nighttime. Ok for a few days.
Might be an interesting experiment to what is my limit for indoor temperature. The highest I've experience (in my own home at least) was 88°F and it was getting too much. Comfort deteriotes quickly at these temperatures and humidity becomes a big factor. I supposed the hottest inside temperature I've experienced is from being inside a car, which was probably over 100°F and parts of the interior felt too hot to touch as well as inducing instant sweat. A little bit over mid 80s outside I sometimes enjoy if dry since there's more air moving.
I noticed the summer highs of my dream climate (//www.city-data.com/forum/weath...vs-rozenn.html) match about the highest (daytime, nighttime obviously lower) temperatures I can tolerate indoors. And my winter highs are slightly lower than the coldest indoor temperature I could tolerate. Only the highs; the rest of the day can be a bit colder, since activity is a bit more comfortable in cooler temperatures. But not much colder than indoor temperatures; the difference for activity is maybe 10-15°F. Your limits sound like they are 45°F to 72°F or so. So going by my pattern (ideal weather should be similar to preferred room temperature), your ideal highs would be in the 38°F to 72°F range give or take some degrees.
I'm not trying to imply your temperature preferences are wrong, but I'm curious why one would want temperatures so far off from their indoor comfort levels. Is it just the appeal of seeing snow? Obviously true for a lot of posters, both heat and cold loving.
Adjusting to the environment is good for you because unless you spend your whole life in a climate-controlled bubble it will make it easier for YOU to make the transition from indoors to outdoors. So forget energy conservation (if for some odd reason, that concept offends you), adjust for your own self-interest. That means cooler indoor temperatures when it's cold out and warmer indoor temperatures when it's hot out.
In winter I like keep my indoor temp at about 65 F (18c)
In summer my central air "struggles" to keep my indoor
temp around 75 F, at night I like it even cooler but it's
hard to get it below about 73 F (hard on the wallet too)
No control over outdoor temps but luckily I like anything from
below freezing 20 F (-7c) to low 80's F (28 c) , above 86 F (30 c)
or really cold temps, I'm not a happy camper
Also at any outdoor temperature wind can spoil my comfort level,
a strong wind can be really unpleasant, also I'm not a fan of high humidity
So, i have a particular situation regarding indoor temps. I just moved to a new appartment on november. Thats almost 5 months. Almost entirely summer. Now, this appartment is wonderful (very bright, with a huge balcony and an amazing view of the city) but its like the hottest appartment ever. See, it haves huge windowns on both sides, so the sun shines directly in the balcony and in the front part of my appartment (kitche, living room) in the morning and in the bedroom aaall afternoon (aproximatly from 2 pm to 7 pm in summer). And in the middle it shines in the roof. My appartment is the last appartment in the building, a 12 floor appartment and building. So the sun shines directly in my roof at noon, and directly in my two windows in the rest of the day. You wouldnt believe how HOT my bedroom is in january. I honestly thinks it easily exceed 100f several times. You know the heat tends to go up, thats why in buildings the lower floors are the coolest. Im in the LAST floor, i also dont have any protection for the balcony ( or a canopy of some sort) and the sun shines directly in my windows. I only have blackout type curtains. You wont believe how HOT are my curtains and the glass of the windows when you touch them. you put the hand in them and its like a stove. Anyways, its terrible. And, of course, i dont have A/C. This appartment without A/C is like the desert. Its really haves all the disadvantages one appartment can have in the summer. Do you guys understand why i complaint so much in the summer? We ve had most nights between 25-30 celsius, A LOT around 30, and my appartment inside was WAAAY hotter than the balcony. Im guessing 40c. I had to sleep with 40c most summer nights. Thats why i had like 4 or 5 COLD showers per night and slept with ICE CUBRS in my body. I know, it sounds crazy, but believe me, this appartmento, OMG, im gonna buy the A/C before this summer, cause one thing is tolerate BA summer that is already hot and bad on its own, but tolerating the heating inside this appartment??? thats too much!! i think even heat lovers will hate this!! Anyways, i survived the 5 months of summer, and i only bought the fan in the begginig of january. Anyways, if it wasnt for the fan (at least i had BREEZE directed at me, even if it was hot breeze) i wouldnt have been able to sleep at all. NO KIDDING.
Anyways, march 21, autumn started, and the last couple of days we ve had a cold spell, with VERY cold nights (specially for BA in march!!! we are actually having june temperatures -winter-) and my appartment is still HOT. Today morning, 8 am, temp outside was 8 CELSIUS!! ( i mean, i went from 27 celsius mornings to 8 CELSIUS MORNINGS!! i mean, there is a HUGE difference), and i woke up (i dont have a stove or anything, i dont have any type of heating, of course) and my appartment was super cozy, probably around 20 celsius. I thought day was so much hotter outside. I was surprised when i felt the super cold air. My appartment was super heated without using ANY type of heating but the morning sun.
Tonight temp outside was 11 celsius, i was with shorts and a t-shirt cause inside my house was so hot and i had the two living room and balcony windowns completely OPEN!!! with the southern wind entering!! and i was still comofrtable!! Thats how hot my appartment is!!! I dont think i will need ANY HEATING at all in the winter, cause this appartment is always very hot cause the sun is shinning over it all day!!
Anyways, wow, did i wrote a lot-
Besides my current kinda crappy situation (hot appartment) my preferences are always stay cool. Last year before moving here i spent the entire winter in a much cooler appartment, a 3rd floor appartment with no sun direct light, and i slept with my windowns open even in 1 celsius nights in the winter!!!! i even had huge fights with my boyfriend about it. And last winter in buenos aires was cold, colder than average. Anyways, if it was for me, i wouldnt use heating at all and will sleep with windowns open even if temp outside is less than 5 celsius, but my boyfriend wanted stove so we got one and he turn it on, i turned it off....and so on. The neverending story.
Anyways, my point is, i love my appartment at around 10-15 celsius in the winter, and ideally, that would be my ideal temp in the summer, but since thats impossible, i would just love the inside temp to not go above 25 celsius. I hope i can acomplish that with the A/c next summer.
For now, i will just continue to sleep with my windonws open in winter nights to see if i can cool this damn place down, lol.
Fans can also create breezes. Once the heat gets hairdryer-like (rare here) the only option is close all windows, pull down shades and then open again come nighttime. Ok for a few days.
Well, fans alone don't do much for me, especially if there isn't any cool air that's sunk to the bottom of the room for a breeze to pick up and circulate. At a certain point, which is very close to my maximum temperature tolerance anyway, fans just blow around hot air which naturally does nothing to improve my comfort.
Also, a lot of these cooling tips depend on cool nights, which are really only found in high-altitude areas of the Mountain West. If it's hot all night long, even 70F, let along the 80+ that's common in deserts, there will never be any relief bar air conditioning.
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I'm not trying to imply your temperature preferences are wrong, but I'm curious why one would want temperatures so far off from their indoor comfort levels. Is it just the appeal of seeing snow? Obviously true for a lot of posters, both heat and cold loving.
I simply like different conditions for my outside environment than my inside environment. I love the requisite amount of cold in my dream climate, plenty of snow, and the overall outdoor environment. This also applies to my ideal, pleasantly-warm summers with highs averaging around 65F or so. I also love a particular indoor environment. Those temperatures don't naturally produce that indoor environment, but so what? There's a nifty device called central heating that takes care of any discrepancy.
Quote:
Your limits sound like they are 45°F to 72°F or so. So going by my pattern (ideal weather should be similar to preferred room temperature), your ideal highs would be in the 38°F to 72°F range give or take some degrees.
Aside from the fact I have different preferences than that, a different and more curious phenomenon comes to mind. Those temperatures you outlined are pretty close to what comes to my mind when I think of a "moderate climate"; since that was deduced from the indoor temperature limits, perhaps your notion has some validity in that regard .
Quote:
Originally Posted by SophieLL
Besides my current kinda crappy situation (hot appartment) my preferences are always stay cool. Last year before moving here i spent the entire winter in a much cooler appartment, a 3rd floor appartment with no sun direct light, and i slept with my windowns open even in 1 celsius nights in the winter!!!! i even had huge fights with my boyfriend about it. And last winter in buenos aires was cold, colder than average. Anyways, if it was for me, i wouldnt use heating at all and will sleep with windowns open even if temp outside is less than 5 celsius, but my boyfriend wanted stove so we got one and he turn it on, i turned it off....and so on. The neverending story.
Anyways, my point is, i love my appartment at around 10-15 celsius in the winter, and ideally, that would be my ideal temp in the summer, but since thats impossible, i would just love the inside temp to not go above 25 celsius. I hope i can acomplish that with the A/c next summer.
For now, i will just continue to sleep with my windonws open in winter nights to see if i can cool this damn place down, lol.
It sounds like you're in a horrific situation. The architects that designed that apartment must have been idiots, putting a huge window pointing right at the sun. In the hot climate of Buenos Aires that's a nightmarish design. My own house is a heat trap but yours is like a greenhouse. It's a good thing that "cold spell" came and rescued you from that miserable inferno. I'd advise you to move out of that apartment if it's practical, at least in the summer months - it may be a nice apartment but if the temperature in there is 40C () nothing is worth that. I would have already gone elsewhere on an emergency basis, since that level of indoor heat probably would have killed me by now. Perhaps with the air conditioning you're getting there will be some improvement, but be sure to get a good, strong one - many air conditioning systems are deficient and fail to keep up with the heat, especially in greenhouse-like situations.
I wouldn't advise cohabitation with that boyfriend you mentioned; it doesn't seem like it would work out. Temperature wars are not worth fighting and an intense, intractable fight signals that you may be incompatible living partners. Your own welfare would be diminished if you lived with him versus living by yourself. Of course over here in Laurentia I don't know nearly as much about your situation as you do so I will defer to your judgment.
The "windows-open" thing is interesting, as I often do that myself. It's interesting that despite your climatic tastes being among the mildest in this forum, your indoor temperature preferences seem to be among the coldest, and it appears curiously enough that I'm the only one I'm aware of that has an overlap of comfortable temperatures with you (below 15C). During a suitably cool night I keep my bedroom windows open, and the cool breeze is quite pleasant. Usually if it's under 10C or so outside I open them, and I've had them open down to -8C with no problem. I hope the chill continues and a south wind continues to blow into your greenhouse-like abode.
40°C appartment, it's just brutal. I guess you're maybe the most heat-accustomed poster in here.
My appartment is a sort of heat trap too. The building's albedo is quite low (walls are bricks and brown stone, and I'm just under the roof.
Fortunately with the summers we have here it's not a problem outside the odd heatwave. Warmest it gets indoors in the north-facing rooms is about 31°C/88°F. Dunno in the south-facing rooms, probably a bit higher. Usual summer room temp is around 23°C/73°F.
In winter I sleep between 10°C/50°F and 16°C/61°F, depends on the mood. It's more comfortable than 20°C imo and it saves some bucks. Though when not sleeping I prefer it around 18°C/64°F.
Problem is, in summer, even with the windows wide open, the room will always be some 5°C warmer than the outdoors. With a our fairly cool 15°C average low, that means 20°C in the morning and 25°C in the evening. During heatwaves, morning room temps won't fall below 25°C.
During a typical heatwave, while days are most frequently dry (dew points between 10°C and 15°C, with the odd 20°C day), nights are more often moderately humid (dewpoints around 20°C). The problem is that indoors trap the daytime heat but also fairly quickly reach outdoors humidity levels, so it's actually more comfortable during the day than at night. Whith a 20°C dew point and a 25°C outside temp, the indoors temp will be around 30°C, which gives a 32C heat index and a 37C the Canadian humidex. Sure it's bearable, but far from being optimal sleeping conditions to me.
Wow, I'm surprised that some of you actually keep your house at temperatures like 60 F in winter. When I had no power and heat during Snowtober, my room temperature was around 60 F and I was freezing! I guess I'm not very cold tolerant.
I usually keep my house around 70 F in winter, and 78 F in summer (which is still pretty warm though). My room tends to get very warm in summer, usually up to 85 F if I don't turn on the AC. Last year, I came home from school on a 96 F day in June, and nobody turned on the AC. The upstairs of my house was a steaming hot 88 F! The upstairs tends to be quite warmer than the downstairs in my house, and I believe it's because my attic gets extremely hot (over 100 F) in summer, and some of it transfers to the level below. I'll have to put some kind of fan in there so we can avoid burning in summer.
My room itself is pretty warm in the morning because it faces East, so the sun heats it up quickly. However, it cools down (not by much, but decently enough) by late afternoon, which is when the other side of my house starts getting hot. I hate it when I get up and it's already hot in my room
I only have different indoor temperature preferences per season because I want to save money. If I didn't mind spending all my money on heating/cooling bills, I would have my place at 68-70F year-round. As it is now, the heat only turns on once it gets down to 55 inside. This summer, I will probably turn on the A/C if it's close to 80 inside and the ceiling fan isn't helping.
Does anyone find it funny how a person can want the house to be too cold in the summer and then in winter complain it's not warm enough even when the thermometer shows the indoor temp is actually higher than the house is kept in the summer?
This drives me crazy. In the summer my spouse wants it chily enough I have had to go outside to get warm or wear a sweater in the house but he runs around in the winter complaining it's cold when it is more comfortable to me because it is warmer in here than in the summer.
I'd rather be on the warm side and I love summer with it's heat and humidity and oh man is it getting close to spring yet?! It's sitting at about 18 outside right now, brrr.
65 - 68 degrees all year around, once the thermostat is set it stays there no matter what. Obviously in the spring and fall I have windows open though to let fresh air in the house but summer and winter when windows are closed thermostat is set and stays that way.
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)
. See, it haves huge windowns on both sides, so the sun shines directly in the balcony and in the front part of my appartment (kitche, living room) in the morning and in the bedroom aaall afternoon (aproximatly from 2 pm to 7 pm in summer
). And in the middle it shines in the roof. My appartment is the last appartment in the building, a 12 floor appartment and building. So the sun shines directly in my roof at noon, and directly in my two windows in the rest of the day. You wouldnt believe how HOT my bedroom is in january. I honestly thinks it easily exceed 100f several times. You know the heat tends to go up, thats why in buildings the lower floors are the coolest. Im in the LAST floor, i also dont have any protection for the balcony ( or a canopy of some sort
. Anyways, if it wasnt for the fan (at least i had BREEZE directed at me, even if it was hot breeze) i wouldnt have been able to sleep at all. NO KIDDING.
.
) nothing is worth that. I would have already gone elsewhere on an emergency basis, since that level of indoor heat probably would have killed me by now. Perhaps with the air conditioning you're getting there will be some improvement, but be sure to get a good, strong one - many air conditioning systems are deficient and fail to keep up with the heat, especially in greenhouse-like situations.
