Cooling Season
In spite of the unseasonal cool weather we have had that I refer to as June-uary, Summer is coming! I want to give you a few “common sense” cooling tips that can save you money and keep you more comfortable during our warm months.
1. Trap cool air.
-Open all windows (if you can do this safely) in the very early morning when it is cool outside. If there is no breeze a couple of strategically placed box fans can help to flush out the warm air and bring in the cool air.
-Close the windows by 9 am. This is critical as the outside air warms up, you want to keep it out.
-Do not reopen windows until the outside temp is lower than the inside temp. If you need air movement, use fans.
-Keep doors closed as much as possible.
2. Keep out direct sunlight.
-Use blinds or curtains to block out ultraviolet rays. The sunlight will heat up the room through radiant heat. This heat stores in objects and then releases and can make the house uncomfortable. It is best to not let the sun in, in the first place.
3. Minimize use of oven:
-This can be difficult but the oven can add a lot of undesired heat to the house.
4. The stack effect:
-The stack effect only works in houses that are at least 2 stories tall. This term simply refers to your house as a chimney. Open windows on the top floor will draw the cool air up from the open windows on the lower floor. This is a passive cooling technique. The draw is not real strong but it is there and works especially well with a little help from box fans.
Many other passive cooling techniques such as awnings, shade trees and other window coverings are a great way to stay cooler.
Heat Recovery Ventilators (HRV), are another excellent way to save energy and keep cool, but retrofitting these can be quite costly.
Air Conditioners are very effective in keeping your home cool but are costly to run. If you choose the AC my advice is to use as many of the passive techniques as you can to minimize the use of the AC. Enjoy the Summer!
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 at 3:18 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
