heat wave no air

anybody else with no air conditioner at home besides me? all i have is a measly fan!

Yup. We have just had the hottest July in decades (30+ celcius) here in Denmark, and no aircon. Just a puny fan that I move around with me. :shakehead

The room where I work has no A/C. We borrowed someone's fan from home that you fill with water to get cold air from. I think it's a "Convair Personal Air Cooler 600," although the thing is probably between ten and twenty years old, so it might not exist anymore. I also have a CamelBak, which keeps water cold for a long time.

Drink lots of water.

Sell your flashlights and lasers and buy an AC unit... I live in Florida and it is illegal to sell or rent a house without AC here... Sounds like a good law, :huh2:

Seems like the AC in the building I work in is stuck on... It's 65F in here. Not to brag, but I HAVE to wear a sweater in here. We have gotten lucky in Florida. It will be 95F tomorrow, but that's is normal. TS Chris is on the way though. :duck:

I put up with no A/C at all for the first 16 years of my life. When we moved in 1978 the house had A/C in the living room, master bedroom, and my sister's room. I still had to sleep with no A/C until my sister moved out in 1989. I've had it ever since. A few years ago I even finally found a unit that fit in the small opening in my basement workroom downstairs. I'll be damned if I'm ever without A/C again, especially since summers are much hotter than they were when I was young.

As it is today with the outdoor temps registering as high as 108°F my bedroom didn't get cooler than about 80°F despite the A/C running all day. I hate to think how hot the house would have been with no A/C. I'd guess in excess of 130 since it tends to hold 20° to 30°F above the outside temperature (great in winter, lousy from May through October).

BTW, air conditioners have gotten so low in price that there's really no reason not to have at least one. The electric for a small unit is no big deal, either. For the six month cooling season last year my 5800 BTU bedroom A/C used about 2000 kW-hr with the thermostat usually set around 68° to 70°F 24/7. Even at high NYC rates that's only $400 worth of electric over 6 months, or around $2 a day. In many parts of the US it would be half that. I justify the cost by considering that it is probably less than the cost of hot water for two or three extra showers a day plus washing several changes of clothes. Not to mention the avoidence of many costly health problems which for someone without insurance is no small thing. Besides all that, my productivity without A/C would be zero. I couldn't run my PC in a hot room, and I couldn't think straight with sweat dripping.

I just bought an AC for my girlfriend's room. It's one of those portable jobbies that you run a hose up to the window. It's a 9000 BTU unit, and although it blows lots of really cold air, her room doesn't get any cooler. At night, the temperature drops a couple of degrees witht he AC on, but if you're not sitting right in front of the unit, you're hatin' it and definitely sweaty. Luckily, we've got the thing pointed towards the bed, whichs is where we usually are, so it works. I guess the insulation in her room is awful. Her room is probably about 5 - 10 degrees hotter than the rest of the house. A couple of weeks ago, when I got there at 6:45pm, it was 93 stinkin' degrees in her room. If I didn't buy that AC unit, I don't think I'd want to go to her house (apartment).

I was thinking about starting a new help me thread about the insulation problem in her room, but maybe I can get a good answer here. So, we've determined that her room (and the bathroom next to her room, and the kitchen on the other side of the bathroom) is so much hotter because that (those) is (are) the only one(s) that don't have another level above them. The sun hits not only the side of her room, but also the roof.

Ok, so, my question is, is there anything I can put on top of the roof that will keep it cooler? Little rocks? Any kind of shiny reflective layer made for this purpose? The think I was thinking (as suggested by a friend) was to put some foam insulation (either 1/2" or 1 1/2") right on her ceiling. What do you guys think?

Trashman said:

Ok, so, my question is, is there anything I can put on top of the roof that will keep it cooler? Little rocks? Any kind of shiny reflective layer made for this purpose? The think I was thinking (as suggested by a friend) was to put some foam insulation (either 1/2" or 1 1/2") right on her ceiling. What do you guys think?

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You're right that the problem is the roof. When I used to live in an apartment building the apartments on the 6th (top) floor got much hotter than those underneath on account of being under a black roof with little insulation. Insulation would definitely help, and the thicker the better, including on the walls if possible. On the roof you might try just painting it white. Putting a layer of pebbles might be too much weight, and it wouldn't have much insulative value anyway. If it's a flat roof a foot or so of styrofoam packing peanuts would help, but it's probably against code.

If the landlord will allow it, research a "Green Roof" where they plant a layer of plants or grass on the roof. It should be helpful to all the tenets in the building.

Heat rises and if her bedroom is at the highest point it will be the hottest. Growing up my room was on the third floor of our house, it was the only room on the third floor. It was actually a converted/finished attic bedroom. It had one large window AC unit and was probably 500sf, huge. During the day I would leave the AC off because it wouldn't help. I would estimate 120-130 up there. At around 6PM I would open the window and run a big box fan stuck in a window blowing the air out. At 7PM I would turn off the fan and start the window AC unit. At about 8 the room would be down to 80 and by 9PM it would be down below 75. Just an idea you might want to try meaning, get the hot air out before trying to cool with AC.

She's on the ground floor. 2/3 of her apartment has a second level of it. Consequently, the other two bedrooms are much cooler and the AC in the living room actually cools the living room down. Her unit is in the front of the complex and juts out a bit, making 1/3 of the unit a single story. It's this 1/3 that gets hot. Even the kitchen, though fully connected to the living room, remains about 5 degrees warmer than it. I think the heat is radiating downward. We've tried removing the heat with fans, first, but it doesn't work at all.

Do you guys think the roof stores heat? After it starts cooling down outside, her room continues to be hot. During the day, it feels hotter inside than out, though it's actually hotter outside, but in the evening, it is definitely a lot cooler outside than it is in her room. With the windows open, you can feel a cool breeze, but it seems like that breeze doesn't make any effect whatsoever and only feels cool up to about a foot of entering her room.

I'll check out the green roof, but I don't think her manager will go for it.

A single room AC unit now days doesn't even cost $100. I can't think of a better investment in a good nights sleep than buying even the smallest one just for a bedroom.

sucking out the hot air with a fan before starting the AC is a good idea as long as the humidity is low outside. AC doesn't really start to cool until the humidity has been reduced to a certain point, because all the cold is used up condensing the water out. So do not open your windows if it's very humid outside. Hot dry air is cooled faster by AC than only warm humid air.

Saying that all the cold is used up is a silly way to put that, I know But it's true that it takes more energy to condense the water than just to cool the air.

There really isn't much you can do about insulation in a rental place. If you have access to the attic space and can add another layer of fiberglass batts up there then that will definitely help. I've done half the attic here last winter, and will do the other half this coming winter. It's too hot up there now. Something you can do though is rig some solar screens. I've built a bunch of cheap wood frames and stapled solar screen to them. Even the wallmart here carries rolls of solar screen. You somehow attach this to the outside of your windows and it greatly reduces the suns heat coming in while still letting you see out. And it's a lot easier and cheaper than window film stuff.

for my sons room which is basically a dormer in the attic and there isn't much I can do for it insulation wise, I'm going to hang solar screen down the entire south wall. There are 2 windows in that wall which already have window film on them, but I'm going to basically take a whole length of solar screen and put a piece of 1x strapping on the top and the bottom and screw the top into the overhang of the roof. It will have a couple of feet away from the actual short wall and screen the windows as well as the wall itself. And I can then take it off in the winter time. I may actually get around to doing that this weekend.

The solar screens that I built for the family room big windows help reduce the AC load in there a LOT and I can take them off in the winter to let in more sun.

PS, I learned about the existence of solar screening from other similar conversations here on CPF

allthatwhichis said:

Sell your flashlights and lasers and buy an AC unit... I live in Florida and it is illegal to sell or rent a house without AC here... Sounds like a good law, :huh2:

Seems like the AC in the building I work in is stuck on... It's 65F in here. Not to brag, but I HAVE to wear a sweater in here. We have gotten lucky in Florida. It will be 95F tomorrow, but that's is normal. TS Chris is on the way though. :duck:

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i'll suck it up before i have to sell my lasers and flashlights!
ny should have the same law as fla.
i'll be going to the yankee game tonight, hot and slimey,
atleast the subways will be ac. chien ming wang pitches tonight 13-4(hopefully).

its pretty muggy in ks too, not so bad though.... dont get me mixed up as a royals fan.... TIGERS ALL THE WAY!

-David

TigerhawkT3 said:

The room where I work has no A/C. We borrowed someone's fan from home that you fill with water to get cold air from. I think it's a "Convair Personal Air Cooler 600," although the thing is probably between ten and twenty years old, so it might not exist anymore. I also have a CamelBak, which keeps water cold for a long time.

Drink lots of water.

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evaporator cooling fans? they call it a water cooler or swamp cooler

im thinking of buying this: http://store.advancedmart.com/susfevairco.html
it should run okay [draws only 60 watts] on my inverter if the power down here in Florida does fail, its 98 degrees outside....and i thought yesterdays 93 was bad:laughing:

senecaripple said:

i'll be going to the yankee game tonight, hot and slimey,
atleast the subways will be ac. chien ming wang pitches tonight 13-4(hopefully).

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Go Jays....

If you're not in a high humidity area, a spray bottle with water sprayed or misted to the head and face will provide a very effective evaporative cooling effect with a fan to keep your mind sharp and alert. If it works for you, you'll want to keep the bottle close by as you'll be using it about every 5 minutes or so. It won't work in humid climates though and you should probably find a place that has A/C and go there if it gets to be too much. This heat wave is nothing to fool around with, we had about 140 deaths attributed to heat related issues when that heat wave went through California.

senecaripple said:

anybody else with no air conditioner at home besides me? all i have is a measly fan!

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Over Here in California the Temp Cooled down from the upper 90's to Low-Mid 80's. Great Temperature.

It's about 95-100 here in MA right now. I don't like AC so I don't use it. Rather, I like being _in_ and air conditioned house or car, but the transition is too hard for me when I go outside. Screws up one's natural balance to be in the cold all the time. It's also too humid here for a swamp cooler. They're a good deal out in Arizona, etc.

I am, however a big believer in fans. Right now I have a big '50s Hunter in the kitchen, a '60s Ambassdor in one bedroom, an '80s Sanyo in another, a '90s Vornado heater/fan in one bathroom, a small '60s GE in a downstairs room, and a huge '50s GE upstairs pointing out a window. Close up the house in the morning, ventilate at night when the temperature and humidity goes down. My old house had one of those 3' diameter whole-house vent fans in the ceiling. Wish I could put one in here.

Currently restoring a '20s Emerson and a '50s Vornado pedestal. Plus have a '10s-'20s Polar cub on standby.

Oh, and a dehumidifier in the basement.

you're in florida? forget it, a swamp cooler will do nothing at all. And even on sale that unit you linked to costs as much as a 120v 5kbtu unit from wallmart.

I don't have A/C and this is the first time in 3 years I kinda wish I had central air, but I have better things to do with what money I get from Uncle Sam rather than give it to the local power company.