Cooling (a house without A/C)

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Any ideas on how to cool a house inexpensively without an air conditioner? We are planning an off grid house for sometime in the future and are trying to get a few ideas sorted out without having to reinvent the wheel ourselves.

-- Chris Tomlinson (tomlinsonchris@netscape.net), May 09, 2001

Answers

Response to Cooling

Well it depends on where exactly you are planning to build. If you are down south then you might want to consider building underground. A/C isn't really a luxury down here....it is a necessity! If you will be building in a desert climate such as AZ then you might want to consider using a swamp cooler. You can get the most out of your A/C by designing your house well......few south facing windows....lots and lots of insulation(it will pay for itself)....insulated windows......talk to a good contractor in the area you plan to build in and he can point out some good ideas for your specific climate. Something I have always found useful is an attic fan....if it doesn't get up into the 100's then normally the fan is enough to keep you comfortable. Matt:7 7-11

-- Amanda in Tx (mrsgunsmyth@hotmail.com), May 09, 2001.

Response to Cooling

If you have a spring on your property, you can route it through some pipes in your house.

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), May 09, 2001.

Response to Cooling

If you can, build a log house. It will heat efficiently through the winter and be 10 to 15 degrees cooler than outside in the summer! If you also add lots of south-facing windows, it will be almost perfect.

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), May 09, 2001.

You can somewhat get an idea by looking at southern houses built before the era of A/C. Porches usually all the way around the house to keep sun out of windows. Almost floor to ceiling windows which could be opened at the top and bottom for airflow. Heavy curtains to keep out the heat. Roofs were often peaked with a large cupulo at the apex. Some had what were called 'sleeping porches' which were screened and used for sleeping during summer nights. Doors had transoms over them for air flow. Some had a summer kitchen out on the porch or attached. When electric became available, ceiling fans were used. Sometimes basements were used during the summer for both eating and sleeping. Probably people were just use to it. I grew up on the Gulf Coast of FL and we didn't have A/C. At night you just sweated.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), May 09, 2001.

I grew up for (19 years) in central Florida. I did not have A/C at home till after I moved to college. The "Florida Cracker" house is what you are searching for. Go to: http://www.flheritage.com/magazine/spring96/samp_art.html http://hallarchitecture.com/architecture/707.shtml

The early FL pioneers (my ancestors) cut the pine trees and constructed a box, one room home. It was built up off the ground on shell and clay pillars. Later they used limestone. The 12' porches were what shaded the house from the hot sun. Later they built another box about 12 to the side and extended the roof to cover and its 12' porches. The twelve foot 'breezeway' between the two rooms was what made them call this a "dog-trot" house. There was plenty of ventilation. An attic fan and the logs for insulation would make a very cool house. Their kitchen was another building seperated from this main house (in case of fire) and to isolate the cooking heat. The home was usually built on high ground with the surrounding yard cleared and raked clear (no grass). This allowed the breeze to waft in and through even on the stillest of days. The roof was heart pine wood shingles that they cut and used a drawing knife to taper on one end. Look into it and you will see the high ceilings and many other features that contributed to natural cooling in the heat. Best of luck.

-- Eve in FL (owenall@lwol.com), May 09, 2001.



You might think about straw bale construction. We have a 1200 sq ft sb house with no air conditioning and 2 days ago it was 88 degrees out and 70 degrees in the house. All we do is open the windows at night and close them in the morning. We also put in cool tubes but have not had to use them. Best regards, Doug

-- Doug in KY (toadshutes@yahoo.com), May 09, 2001.

You could build your house with 10 ft. ceilings. If you live where nights are cool enough you could have some thermo mass to store some of that cool. Have plenty of insulation and ventilation in attic. You could have a solar attic fan. A black pipe or solar collector to help draw heat out of attic.

-- ed (edfrhes@aol.com), May 09, 2001.

We don't have airconditioning and havent had it for 15 years. We live in the deep south and the humitiy is really bad. We decided since we would be spending most of our time in the day outside in the gardens and shops we didn't want air because going from hot to cold and back is really hard on people. At night we open windows in one end of the house and put a fan in the other end of the house. The house is not anything special, it has insulation 4 inches in the walls and 6 in the ceiling. It is not bad untill it gets over a hundred. We have problems when we go to someplace that is airconditioned we get cold. We adjusted to the heat and like it this way. I remember when no one had airconditioning. The first car I had with air was in 1965. First had air in the house when I was about 15, guess we all made it back then and would now. If you want to be a homesteader and can't stand the heat outside or inside with out air conditioning you are going to have to make a decision.

-- David (bluewaterfarm@mindspring.com), May 09, 2001.

We built about three yrs ago. I buried six 200' lengths of 4" drain tile around the footing of the house(basement) One end of the drain tiles enters the suction side of my plenum, the other end is elsewhere in the basement. I cut slots in the bottom of the tile to drain off any condensate that might accumulate. While I was at it I also buried 1200' of 3/4" poly pipe around the footing, hooked up a circulating pump and run water(closed loop) thru the pipe and thru the plenum heat exchanger. Works pretty well.

-- john (natlivent@pcpros.net), May 09, 2001.

In response to Ken S. responce. When I was growing up, nobody had a/c in their house. Most usually if anybody had something it was a water cooler, which we couldn't afford. So we spent most of our time sitting under the shade trees, and at nights we would make a bed at the back door since it was on the south side of the house. Let the cool air filter through the screen door. What will help a lot is to plant some very fast growing shade trees on the west and northwest side of the house. This alone will save you a bundle on the pocket book. Also, come to think of it, we also done a lot of our cooking outside too.

-- Russell Hays (rhays@sstelco.com), May 09, 2001.


Hello Chris, We are presently building our house in the Ozarks, and it too will be without air conditioning. One of the things that I did before deciding where to build the house was to observe the sun and how it falls on the land. I noticed that a particular area was shaded nearly all day by the trees. I cut out a section in that area and built the foundation of our house in that section so that it was facing south. The south side of the house, (the front) windows will have shutters that can be closed in the summer to keep the suns rays from heating up the inside of the house and opened in the winter to allow the sun rays to warm the house. The house will also have cross ventelation so that hot air will be drawn out the upstairs windows as the cool air is drawn in the down stairs one. I will not be off the grid so I will install a couple of ceiling fans to help circulate on days that there is no wind. Hope I helped, Ernest

-- http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), May 09, 2001.

There's a web site with lots of ideas http://frugaltips.4mg.com This web site has lots of good tips on lots of subjects. Wish you all the best on building. So good to start planning and getting information early, once you start you may be to tired. Theres lots of house plans sites to visit. Also visit the library.

-- Joanne (ronandjo@sisna.com), May 10, 2001.

Thanks for all the help. It looks like I have my work cut out for me to design my house. I tried to respond to everyone personally, so I hope I didn't miss anyone. I especially liked John's idea about the pipe into the plenum and the ventilation in the attic. I think we can make this work!

-- Chris Tomlinson (tomlinsonchris@netscape.net), May 10, 2001.

Not that this may be of any use... but... I once viewed (on the TV) one of the ealiest "air conditioners". It was basically a big burner at the very top of the house in a cuppola (sp) type enclosure. Apparantly all the doors and windows would be opened in the summer months... the burner would create a draft through the house.

cheers and best,

-- Max (Maxel@inwindsor.com), May 10, 2001.


I saw an old woolshed in Australia that had sheet metal 'chimneys' going up 20 feet or more above the roof, the chimneys were painted black and were reputed to be quite effective at drawing out the hot air. Not too pretty to look at though!

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), May 11, 2001.


== If you will be building in a desert climate such as AZ then you might want to consider using a swamp cooler. ==

This was true years ago, but as a lifelong Arizona resident, I can say it's no longer true. The outsiders who moved to Arizona wanted it to look like where they came from. The indigenous plants weren't good enough; the desert landscape didn't appeal. What really shot the humidity way up, according to meterologists, is all the grass that's been planted. I now live in south central Texas. The humidity runs about the same as in the Phoenix, Arizona area. It just doesn't get up to 135º (true temp) in July and August like Phoenix does!

Soooo, forget the swamp cooler; it's hardly worth the installation for the little time you can use it.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), May 12, 2001.


We live in sunny, humid South Florida and don't use our A/C. Our house has terrazzo (super smooth concrete with marble chips imbedded) and tile floors, high open beamed ceilings with ceiling fans and many shade trees around the exterior. People think we're nuts, but they marvel at how cool our house is.

-- Lynne David (lynnedavid@msn.com), May 15, 2001.

For anyone who's seriously interested in the dynmics involved, there is a fabulous article in the April/May issue of Home Powe Magazine (it's availble on line, by the way, totally free, surprisingly enough)

This month's article is called Part 1, and is basically a primer on the physics of heat, with a small amount of practical info on the main subject. The author's focus, I believe, will be mostly on hot and HUMID climates, such as he experienced in Belize.

This being the very hardest climate to deal with, I'm anxious to see more on the subject. Where I live, it's hot and dry, and cooling is quite straight forward: Just open the windows, and preferably have a good whole house fan, so it gets COLD in the house in the mornings, then close all the windows, turn off the fan, and put on long sleeves and pants until the house warms up a bit. We've only been using air con maybe five hours per year. (when we actually get high humidity and high temp for several days in a row)

JOJ

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@ecoweb.net), May 15, 2001.


A house being in the shade is worth a half ton of airconditioning.Since a tree cannot grow in a day what if you put poles up 3 on each end of house and stretched cable in front and rear and on top of house and put chicken or other wire on top of that and then planted a fast growing vine to cover the house.You could just grow the vine on the house but it might ruin the roof.Then plant trees around the house to shade it later on.You could plant banboo on on the south and west side it will shade the wall in a very few years.

-- Nick Mars (Nickmars55@aol.com), May 27, 2001.

When I lived in Mexico I had a house made if rock. The walls were about two feet thick and 10' ceilings with 8' walls and ceiling fans. It also had ceramic tile floors. when it was 110 degrees outside it was 75 inside.

You can also circulate air through pipe set about 6 feet underground into the house and get air temperatures of about 60 degrees coming out of it. Soil temperature at that depth is something like 50 degrees. I built a model of a system like this which was solar powered. The building was not energy efficient other than 12 inch thick rock walls and lots of caulking around the windows. The inside temperature was around 75 degrees inside with outside temperatures of around 110. No stale air, no moving parts and very inexpensive. My prototype was a room about 10x20 and it cost me around a hundred dollars in Mexico. If anybody is interested you can email me and I will be glad to explain it to them.

A sod roof with about 6 or 8 inches of soil is another method. The grass makes shade over the entire roof.

Building a house underground, half underground or in the entrance of a cave is the best. I have seen several housed built in caves with glass fronts. Very beautiful and lots of storage behind. One was in the face of a strait up and down cliff. They put a double insulated glass wall across the front looking out over a valley. You could look strait down for a thousand feet. Unbelievable

Bob

-- Robert Bodell (webmaster@marine.mail22.com), June 01, 2001.


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