Right now, here in northern Texas, in the small town where I live:
Our geothermal air-conditioning system is working full blast, and doing a pretty good job considering the sweltering conditions, but the interior of the house is still about 8 degrees higher than it's supposed to be. The house has absorbed so much heat today that I guess it'll stay that way until the small hours of tomorrow morning. Tonight I'll be sleeping nekkid on top of the sheets, for sure!
Peter
It's 58° here, not to rub it in. But somethin' you should know about Southern-speak: "naked" means "you ain't got no clothes on".
ReplyDelete"Nekkid" means you ain't go no clothes on and you're up to somethin'.
Where are you in Texas. Here in se Texas rain cooled and in the 80's. Nice break from the blast furnace your in
ReplyDeleteI live in Dallas, the heat wave of 1980 was A very hot summer and it has not been beat yet.
ReplyDeletePeter,
ReplyDeleteYou would probably find installing radiant heat barriers to be worthwhile. There are a variety of options, but usually can't be done quickly.
Short of that, some PVC pipe and a few sprinkler heads can make an effective roof sprinkler system, cooling roof and attic dramatically, and reducing the heat load on your AC considerably.
http://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/bitstream/handle/1969.1/6839/ESL-HH-85-09-31.pdf?sequence=3
A word of warning, if you have very hard water just a few hours of roof sprinkler use can leave the roof with white encrustation that is not really attractive.
Glen
Flew from Alaska on Wednesday. Left when it was 34 degrees. Arrived in Seattle to 84 degrees. Headed to LA tomorrow at 90 degrees then to a shooting course in the high Desert where it's currently 108 degrees...and back to 40-ish degrees in Alaska on Sunday.
ReplyDeleteWhat Glen said about the roof sprinkler system...
ReplyDeleteAlso, you can add a "cover roof" on top of your existing roof, to keep the sun from touching your actual roof. You get about a 6-inch air gap with these, and they make a huge difference in inside temperature.
- Charlie
It was so hot . . . Miss July took off her staples!
ReplyDelete. . . I saw two trees chasing a dog!
. . . the chickens are laying hard-boiled eggs!
LittleRed1
Not complaining, you understand, but THAT was a mental picture I could have done without!
ReplyDeleteHope there's no skeeters in your house! lol
ReplyDeleteTHATS NOTHING COMPARED TO QUEEN CREEK, AZ
ReplyDeleteA surprising amount of homes up in Chicagoland don't have air conditioning as it's not normally above the 80's with thet lake providing a cooling/wind element. I did strongly suggest to the husband that if he was going to lure me up to the land of crooked politics and bad gun laws with his offer of marriage, there had better be bacon, beer, and central air. He came through with the central air (and heat in a 100 year old house) and beer and MC and Mr. B. keep the Amish bacon coming from Indiana.
ReplyDeleteI remember the summer of '80. People were dropping like flies from the heat. Be it Texas or Kansas.
ReplyDeleteBy the way Peter, welcome to the Great Plains. Freeze come winter or die of heat stroke come summer. Spring is tornado season and fall can't make up it's mind, whether or not to snow or give summer a run for it's money all in the same day.
May I recommend you get some serious curtains on your windows. Ask Miss D what kind of curtains they use in Alaska to hold the cold out and the heat in. You want the same curtains for the summertime.
The other thing to add to your windows to cut the thermal gain, if you don't have it, is Low-E film on the west and south sides of your house. This will drop the temps in those rooms any where from 10 to 15 degrees. Then in the fall add Low-E film to the east and north sides to cut the heat lose. The brand we used was Gila. The other advantage is it makes it extremely hard to break the window.
Thanks for the mental image. I'll just go and wash my brain now.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why you guys are complaining about the mental image. Personally, I think it's a vision of grace and fragile beauty . . .
ReplyDelete;-)
Deep South Texas here - we're not quite as hot as that, about a 'hunnert 'n four', but coupled with high humidity - blech !
ReplyDeleteHow is your tree cover on that side of building ? Sounds like some shade is badly needed. As for 'right here - right now', a spray bottle of chilled water and box fan can make things right chilly, at least temporarily.
Keep on keeping on.
I moved down to east Texas from Fort Worth when I retired a couple of years ago; not quite as hot but more humid. My current house has an oak tree that shades it in the afternoon and which greatly reduces the solar load on the house. It's really the amount of sunlight the house receives as much as the air temperature that determines the load on the a/c. I'm sure that you have also taken steps to make sure the attic is properly ventilated and that there is adequate insulation between the ceiling and the attic. I once considered watering the roof to cool it off, but if you calculate the cost of water and the increased rate of deterioration of the roof, it just isn't worth it. In any investment like that you have to balance the cost of the investment vs the savings in electrical costs, but I suspect you know that already. At least you can be consoled by the fact that the last time there was an F5 tornado (261+ mph winds) in your area was 52 years ago.
ReplyDeleteWas chatting with a mutual friend of ours about her "vacation" to visit her relatives in Portugal.
ReplyDeleteHer parents are not poor by any means, but they have a ten amp service to the entire house.
No AC of any sort and for some reason their culture believes that having fans blow directly on you is unhealthy.
Has not been a restful visit.
Oh, she also tells me that the government run power can and does ration electricity and will cut homes off entirely for hours at a time all in the name of conservation to counter the threat of global warming. Seems that their media has never made mention of all the bogus studies and gerrymandered data that have cast so much doubt on that subject here and most everywhere else. Other than our own POTUS and other politicians who see great opportunity in milking a made up crisis of course.
http://www.doomgold.com/misc/thermometer.jpg
ReplyDeleteSummer 2009, Lancaster CA. Peaked at 122F that day. Not so much worse than the 115F normal max.
Moved back to Montana, to cool off? maybe not...
http://montanakids.com/facts_and_figures/climate/Temperature_Extremes.htm
If zoning/HMA rules allow, consider adding a latticework sun barrier to the sides of the house that need it. Essentially a close fence to shade the house walls. Ones I've seen were permanent, but I suspect it would be easy to make the panels and posts removable for seasons that don't require them. The lattice construction is to allow the air to move, I think. I'm thinking I'd motorize it in some manner.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I would be looking at moving everything underground, or raise the ground over the house, for optimum temperature control in that environment.