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Keeping Cool At Home
When temperatures rise outside, home interiors get hotter, too. Stifling-hot rooms are miserable and can mean sleepless nights.
It's Hot! How do you stay Cool?
Lets start out with some inexpensive preventative cooling solutions that help you cool down fast. Fortunately, there are a number of cooling methods that take between a few minutes and an hour to employ. Using any or all of these methods, will help you cool down a room fast to more manageable temperatures.
The first step is always prevention, simply cover the windows during the day. Windows are always a compromise between energy efficiency and the basic desire for natural light. Hot outdoor temperatures are best controlled inside by blocking the heat and direct sunlight. In that sense, a room with no windows or small windows would be ideal. But nobody wants to live in a cave-like room. You can achieve the same effect by installing thermal curtains over the windows. At the very least, close the drapes or the blinds. Window blinds pulled down to cover windows and cool room. - If you need a fast solution, drape thick, soft materials like bedspreads or lightweight down comforters over the windows during the day when the heat is at its peak. The thicker, the better.
Open the windows at night- After the sun has set, temperatures outside usually will dip lower than temperatures inside. If this has happened, remove the covers from the windows and open the windows as far as possible. Letting in the air at night is good, but keeping the air moving is even better. If you have two windows that are in line with each other or even positioned diagonally, make sure that both are open.
Skip Using the Hot Appliances- Most appliances give off some residual heat. For the clothes dryer, consider substituting with an indoor drying rack. As for the oven, a microwave is a definite improvement, but even that generates some heat. Leave the cooking for another day and instead stay cool by exploring the possibility of delicious no-cook dinners. Shut off Incandescent Lights which produce a significant amount of heat, instead use cool CFL or LED lights.
Close Unused Rooms that you aren't using as they seriously impede your cooling efforts. By closing the door of unused bedrooms or by keeping the bathroom door always shut, you effectively trap that heat and keep it out of the way. However, before closing off a room, shut the curtains tight and even cover windows.
The first step is always prevention, simply cover the windows during the day. Windows are always a compromise between energy efficiency and the basic desire for natural light. Hot outdoor temperatures are best controlled inside by blocking the heat and direct sunlight. In that sense, a room with no windows or small windows would be ideal. But nobody wants to live in a cave-like room. You can achieve the same effect by installing thermal curtains over the windows. At the very least, close the drapes or the blinds. Window blinds pulled down to cover windows and cool room. - If you need a fast solution, drape thick, soft materials like bedspreads or lightweight down comforters over the windows during the day when the heat is at its peak. The thicker, the better.
Open the windows at night- After the sun has set, temperatures outside usually will dip lower than temperatures inside. If this has happened, remove the covers from the windows and open the windows as far as possible. Letting in the air at night is good, but keeping the air moving is even better. If you have two windows that are in line with each other or even positioned diagonally, make sure that both are open.
Skip Using the Hot Appliances- Most appliances give off some residual heat. For the clothes dryer, consider substituting with an indoor drying rack. As for the oven, a microwave is a definite improvement, but even that generates some heat. Leave the cooking for another day and instead stay cool by exploring the possibility of delicious no-cook dinners. Shut off Incandescent Lights which produce a significant amount of heat, instead use cool CFL or LED lights.
Close Unused Rooms that you aren't using as they seriously impede your cooling efforts. By closing the door of unused bedrooms or by keeping the bathroom door always shut, you effectively trap that heat and keep it out of the way. However, before closing off a room, shut the curtains tight and even cover windows.
No AC? ; Use Fans to Cool a Room
Circulating fans include ceiling fans, table fans, floor fans, and fans mounted to poles or walls. These fans create a wind chill effect that will make you more comfortable in your home, even if it's also cooled by natural ventilation or air conditioning.
Using a fan is a simple, inexpensive way to cool a room, especially when compared to the high costs and environmental impact of running an AC.
In an article I read from the Connecticut State Office of Consumer Counsel, a portable or ceiling fan costs 50 times less to run than central air conditioning, plus no harmful refrigerant is required. Even if you do use ACs, fans can lower their overall cost by supplementing their operation or reducing the frequency of their use. As long as the outdoor temperature is less than the indoor temperature, a fan is effective and will cool down indoor heat.
In an article I read from the Connecticut State Office of Consumer Counsel, a portable or ceiling fan costs 50 times less to run than central air conditioning, plus no harmful refrigerant is required. Even if you do use ACs, fans can lower their overall cost by supplementing their operation or reducing the frequency of their use. As long as the outdoor temperature is less than the indoor temperature, a fan is effective and will cool down indoor heat.
Solution: Create a Fan Cross-Breeze With Two Fans
- Move cool air into the house and hot air out simultaneously by creating a cross breeze. You'll need two fans and two windows that open.
- Position one fan at an open window so that it's blowing into the room.
- On the opposite side of the house, find another window that's in a straight line from the first window.
- Clear obstructions between the two windows (chairs, tables, etc.)
- Open the second window.
- Position the other fan near the second window so that the air is blowing out of the house.
- Turn on both fans.
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that households spend, on average, about 6 percent of their total energy use on cooling spaces in the home.
You can cool a room with just one window and one fan. Place a box fan in the window or a pedestal fan within 5 feet of the window. When the air is cooler outside than it is inside, point the air so it blows into the house.
The fan must be blowing from the outside to the inside. When the two temperature points reverse and it's warmer indoors than outdoors, turn the fan around so the air is blowing toward the outside.
The fan must be blowing from the outside to the inside. When the two temperature points reverse and it's warmer indoors than outdoors, turn the fan around so the air is blowing toward the outside.
Solution: Create a Cross Breeze With One Fan
- Even if you don't have two fans available, one fan can still create enough of a cross breeze to push out some of the hot air.3
- Open one window.
- Tightly close all other windows near the open window.
- Locate a second window on the other side of the home, in a straight line from the first window.
- Remove obstructions between the windows.
- Open the second window.
- Turn on the fan.ate a Cross Breeze With One Fan
- Even if you don't have two fans available, one fan can still create enough of a cross breeze to push out some of the hot air.
You should consider yourself a smart energy user if you've been using your ceiling fan. A ceiling fan is more efficient than a portable fan, moving more air at less cost. A 20-inch box fan on high will move 1,820 CFM (cubic feet per minute) and draw 83 watts. A 52-inch, four-blade ceiling fan on high is rated at 6,190 CFM and draws 50 watts.
Solution: Change The Ceiling Fan Rotation DirectionCeiling fans provide great air circulation, and you can optimize these benefits by ensuring blade rotation is correct for each season. Cold air sinks and hot air rises. During hot spells, you'll want to bring up that layer of cooler air and force the top layer of heat to stay in place. Make sure that the ceiling fan is turning counter-clockwise to draw up that cooler air.
What is the correct ceiling fan direction for summer and winter— and is your ceiling fan on the proper seasonal rotation? It could save you energy and money if it rotates in the proper direction, depending on whether it's winter or summer. Ceiling fans in themselves do not heat or cool a room, but the ceiling fan rotation creates increased air circulation, which can greatly improve the comfort of your living space. You can also save on energy costs when the ceiling fan is on the correct setting to support your cooling or heating efforts.
Ceiling Fan Direction in the Summer
Summer: The blades should turn counterclockwise to create a breeze effect by moving or circulating the air better during hot weather.
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To help produce a comfortable breeze or "wind chill" that cools the skin, blades should rotate in a reverse, or counterclockwise, motion. The air movement has the same comfortable effect as when you fan yourself with a magazine to get relief from hot, stifling air.
Fan Direction in the Winter
Winter: The blades should turn clockwise to circulate warm air.
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To help move warm air that's trapped near the ceiling, blades should turn forward, in a clockwise motion. This movement will push up the lower air and pull down the warm air to the sides of the room, improving heat distribution.
Ceiling fans sold in the United States follow this rotation guideline, some models may have been designed overseas though. If you do not find your ceiling fan is working properly on the seasonal setting above, change it, and note the difference. There should be a noticeable difference. Because fan settings and blade angles are set by the manufacturer and these design features dictate how the fan operates, your fan could be designed to work opposite to the above settings. If your fan has instructions for summer and winter obviously follow those guidelines.
In the summer, you want to feel the air circulating underneath and around the area reached by the fan. On a hot day, you would feel more comfortable and can detect air circulation on the right setting. In winter, as hot air rises, it becomes trapped at the ceiling level. On the correct winter setting, the fan should push air up and draw that hot air down the side walls of the room. You would feel practically no air movement underneath and only a little air circulation closer to the walls. During summer, this setting does not provide any comfort or enough air circulation to the room. But it does bring the hot air down to warm the cooler air closer to the floor.
In the summer, you want to feel the air circulating underneath and around the area reached by the fan. On a hot day, you would feel more comfortable and can detect air circulation on the right setting. In winter, as hot air rises, it becomes trapped at the ceiling level. On the correct winter setting, the fan should push air up and draw that hot air down the side walls of the room. You would feel practically no air movement underneath and only a little air circulation closer to the walls. During summer, this setting does not provide any comfort or enough air circulation to the room. But it does bring the hot air down to warm the cooler air closer to the floor.
When It's Too Hot For a Fan Combine Fans With AC
Three-quarters of all homes in the United States have air conditioners. Air conditioners use about 6% of all the electricity produced in the United States, at an annual cost of about $29 billion to homeowners. As a result, roughly 117 million metric tons of carbon dioxide are released into the air each year.
Its important to know that fans do not cool a room. Instead, they cool people in the room. The New York Department of Health say fans are not effective against heat. Fans are good only up to a certain indoor temperature point, usually agreed to be about 95 °F. Fans create airflow and the illusion of a cooler room. Fans do not lower body temperature nor do they prevent heat-related conditions like heat stroke, heat cramps, or heat exhaustion.
Fans can boost your AC's ability to cool your home. In fact, a ceiling fan allows you to raise your AC thermostat by 4 °F and still maintain the same level of comfort. Box, oscillating, or pedestal fans positioned near AC air registers help broadcast the cool air over a greater distance.
When the indoor temperature exceeds 95 °F, fans can actually work against you, causing your body to gain heat.
Air conditioners employ the same operating principles and basic components as your home refrigerator. Refrigerators use energy (usually electricity) to transfer heat from the cool interior of the refrigerator to the relatively warm surroundings of your home; likewise, an air conditioner uses energy to transfer heat from the interior of your home to the relatively warm outside environment.
Air conditioners incorporate two different coils to cool your home. The cooling compressor is set outside the home, separate from the fan unit used to blow the cool air throughout the home on the central air unit. The central air unit can cool the entire home evenly by using the existing heating and cooling ducts throughout the home. An air conditioner cools your home with a cold indoor coil called the evaporator. The condenser, a hot outdoor coil, releases the collected heat outside. The evaporator and condenser coils are serpentine tubing surrounded by aluminum fins. This tubing is usually made of copper.
The coil outside of your home is called the condensing coil. It consists of a compressor, condensing coil condenser fan, and a grill to protect persons from coming into contact with the fan blade, a case built around all of the components, controls, and two refrigerant lines that run into the home to the evaporator coil. A pump, called the compressor, moves a heat transfer fluid (or refrigerant) between the evaporator and the condenser. The pump forces the refrigerant through the circuit of tubing and fins in the coils.
The liquid refrigerant evaporates in the indoor evaporator coil, pulling heat out of indoor air and cooling your home. The hot refrigerant gas is pumped outdoors into the condenser where it reverts back to a liquid, giving up its heat to the outside air flowing over the condenser's metal tubing and fins. The refrigerant inside the compressor is pumped through the evaporator coil inside, which cools the air as the furnace fan blows air through the coil. The coil absorbs the heat from the air. Then the refrigerant flows back outside to the condenser coil, and this is where the heat that was absorbed is released. The refrigerant returns to a liquid form as it is cooled, and the cycle continues until the home reaches the desired temperature.
Air conditioners incorporate two different coils to cool your home. The cooling compressor is set outside the home, separate from the fan unit used to blow the cool air throughout the home on the central air unit. The central air unit can cool the entire home evenly by using the existing heating and cooling ducts throughout the home. An air conditioner cools your home with a cold indoor coil called the evaporator. The condenser, a hot outdoor coil, releases the collected heat outside. The evaporator and condenser coils are serpentine tubing surrounded by aluminum fins. This tubing is usually made of copper.
The coil outside of your home is called the condensing coil. It consists of a compressor, condensing coil condenser fan, and a grill to protect persons from coming into contact with the fan blade, a case built around all of the components, controls, and two refrigerant lines that run into the home to the evaporator coil. A pump, called the compressor, moves a heat transfer fluid (or refrigerant) between the evaporator and the condenser. The pump forces the refrigerant through the circuit of tubing and fins in the coils.
The liquid refrigerant evaporates in the indoor evaporator coil, pulling heat out of indoor air and cooling your home. The hot refrigerant gas is pumped outdoors into the condenser where it reverts back to a liquid, giving up its heat to the outside air flowing over the condenser's metal tubing and fins. The refrigerant inside the compressor is pumped through the evaporator coil inside, which cools the air as the furnace fan blows air through the coil. The coil absorbs the heat from the air. Then the refrigerant flows back outside to the condenser coil, and this is where the heat that was absorbed is released. The refrigerant returns to a liquid form as it is cooled, and the cycle continues until the home reaches the desired temperature.
The two most common types of air conditioners are single room air conditioners and central air conditioners.
Some people have portable window air conditioners to cool the house, while others have central air conditioners. Each method works essentially the same; the air conditioner removes heat and humidity from the indoor air and returns cooled air to the indoor space, transferring the unwanted heat and humidity outside. They both work well; you need to determine your usage pattern to decide what makes the most sense for you.
The most significant difference between them is how air gets circulated throughout your home: do you have a system of ducts that reaches the entire home? Or is the unit localized to a room? Central air works in each room that has ducts connected to it. Meanwhile, all the other systems are localized—cooling the air of the space where the unit is mounted or positioned.
Energy-Efficient Window Air Conditioners; athough high-efficiency air conditioners cost a little more than non-efficient models, there are many advantages:
Improved environmental footprint: Overall home energy use is improved, which decreases your overall carbon footprint to the world at large.Better cooling performance: High-efficiency units cool down rooms faster than older models.
Improved environmental footprint: Overall home energy use is improved, which decreases your overall carbon footprint to the world at large.Better cooling performance: High-efficiency units cool down rooms faster than older models.
- Quieter operation: With better insulation and higher quality parts, high-efficiency air conditioners run considerably quieter.
- Better durability: Thanks to better materials and parts, these air conditioners typically last longer than non-efficient models.
- Flexible controls with "smart: features: ENERGY STAR® compliant window units must have “smarter” features, such as an energy-saving mode and automatic reminders to service the filters.
Central air conditioners are favored for homes that require cooling throughout all their spaces; however, it is costlier in most cases. Window units effectively cool a room, provided they are sized correctly for the room. The energy to use a window unit versus a sizeable central air compressor varies dramatically, so if you only need one room cooled versus the whole house, it makes sense to use more localized units to save on energy usage and costs. However, if you need to buy and maintain more than five window units, they will be more expensive than buying and maintaining a central air conditioner.
A central air system cools all the rooms connected to ducts at once, getting the home cooler quickly. However, it is the most expensive method of home cooling.
A central air system cools all the rooms connected to ducts at once, getting the home cooler quickly. However, it is the most expensive method of home cooling.
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