I think we're ready.

[kickaha]

AC units were put in the windows Friday night before it got too hot. Yesterday in the 93deg heat, we let the house warm up to see just how bad it would be with the blinds and windows shut, and the new light-blocking drapes up. It peaked at 86deg, at the ceiling (where the indoor/outdoor weather station console is at). Not too bad, really. But then it *stayed* at 86deg until we finally relented and turned on the AC at midnight to get it down to 78. It's not too bad today, we'll see how it gets when the temp hovers near 100 in the coming week. (78 on the AC units means that the bedroom is about 78-80, and the living room is about 78, while the study and kitchen are... well... the weather center still says 85 in the kitchen. It's just enough to take the edge off. (Now if there was something we could do about the damned *NOISE*...)

On a related note - we have a funky layout - while we have the third floor apartment, our door is on the second floor, and then there's a stairwell that comes up the middle of the unit into the central landing area. This landing has a railing around the huge hole in the floor for the stairs to come up. Problem in the summer: cold air falls. Which means that we have a huge well of air that's about 70deg doing us no good, but helping our neighbors, and any cool air from the AC units flows into that hole, as its the lowest point.

So today ginkgo set up a fabric wall around the bannisters, and a fabric 'gate' at the top of the stairs, so we'll have an additional 2.5' of cold air around our feet. We'll see how it works. :)

Comments

[gwywnnydd.livejournal.com]

I was going to suggest a door in your stairwell, flush with the floor. Fabric would do, a wooden door would be more effective.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

That would be optimal. If we owned the place and were allowed to put so much as a nail hole in the walls for pictures.

No, really, we can't even do that.

[gwywnnydd.livejournal.com]

Heh.
That sounds like an excellent oppotunity to decorate using flour paste and cloth.
Find some light cloth (muslin, or handkerchief weight linen). Paint designs, tie-dye, batik, or just go with the cloth pattern.
Use a flour and water paste to stick it to the walls. The beautiful part? It washes off with water. No muss, no fuss, no damage :).

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

*laugh* Cool. :D

We've actually been using the 3M Command strips - they're really slick.

[jason0x21.livejournal.com]

How about a big sheet of foil faced styrofoam? You might be able to cover the whole hole.

It's what I use for my attic fan grate.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

The hole is 4'x9'... with a bannister that would have to be cut around... which means a hinged system wouldn't work without leaving a big hole for the bannister. And, since it's our ingress and egress, we'd have to remove it/replace it every time we wanted to go in or out.

Been checking the temp up and down both since putting up the fabric barrier... it's stabilized at 2deg cooler than up here. :) Since at least one of our neighbors downstairs doesn't have AC at all, and her place is about 90 right now, it's probably heating it up some, but it's a far sight better than the 10+ differential we had. I think giving the cool air a chance to collect at *all*, and be intermixed with the rest of the air by the ceiling fans is doing the trick. We're steady at 78-80 in the house, with the AC units coming on only intermittently, which is pretty good for right now. Livable until Thu when the heat is supposed to break a bit.

[theevilhalf.livejournal.com]

A 2 degree difference, that's a pretty good return on the effort. That sounds cheaper than my idea. I heard on the radio (WHUD) that the NY legislature is considering instituting the A/C trade in program again - either 50% off or $75. Maybe you'll be able to trade for quieter units.

When we were in Queens, We had a 4 room, 1000 sq. ft. apartment with 2 window units. Both would cool 800+ sq. ft.. We kept the kitchen closed off from the rest of the apartment with an adjustable curtain rod and full length curtain from Target. When it's just going to heat up the next time you cook, why keep it cool? We ate in a corner of the living room. Also, we used a fan to pump cool air into the small bedroom, which kept it pretty comfortable for the kids.

At least y'all don't have our house - large, old, no central A/C, even though there's an unused central vent system. We've got some of the Sanyo outside/inside units but they only cool the individual room they're in. Instead of being sized for the house, they were sized for the room. So we usually hole up in the family room once the place gets too hot to take.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was wondering about that... it looked to me like you guys have some pretty good southerly shade though. Hopefully I was right in that observation. :)

Unfortunately, we're on top of a hill, top floor, white roof, with no shade to speak of. :p Hence the temp spike up to near-90 during the day, and no cooling off at night. It wasn't air temp that was killing us, it was direct sunshine.

Quieter units would be nice. Although, now that we moved the living room around, we no longer have the AC unit blasting right in our ears while we're watching TV, and the speakers are backed by the kneewall, so there's a bit more focussed sound to boot. It hasn't been too bad.

[theevilhalf.livejournal.com]

The shade is more SSW. The trees are great for keeping the yard just outside the backdoor cool. They block the beginning of the hottest part of the day but then we get a good western blast of sun heating up our bedroom and the front parlor. It has gotten near 90 in here last year when I didn't understand the dynamics of this house. The attic rooms will easily hit 95 on days like today when I use fans and not the A/C. I've learned through experience to start venting the house at night as soon as the outside temp has dropped below the inside temp regardless of the humidity. It guarantees that the house will be at it's coolest by the time the temp starts to rise the next morning. Which at that time you'd button up again, whether using fans to vent the hot air from the attic or turn on the A/C.

Direct sunlight is a problem for us, too. The house is laid out so that all rooms get sunlight at certain times of day i.e. the corners of the house point to the four corners of the world. I could lecture quite a bit on how pre-modern homes were living beings when originally built and the features that made them so. Unfortunately, this place is between the pre-modern and modern home. Too many pre-modern features, the ones that made it alive, have been unmaintained, removed or crippled. Furthermore, no truly efficient modern replacements were installed. Major items: Shutters (which would keep direct sunlight out best) fastened to the house, rotted or (mostly) missing. Attic vent system removed (rightly so as it was a trap door opened to the elements) but not replaced with a ridge vent. Our short term plan is to go backwards and reinstate the Victorian era features which should be quick and cheaper than modernizing them.

Our units are deathly quiet, as the compressors are outside in the yard. I've decided to test cool the whole house today so 4 of our 5 units are running. The girls is broken but their room is holding at 82 - 84 degrees. The coolest room is 78 even though it's set for 80. The computer room in the attic is 86. The rest of the house, even the rooms w/no units, are ~80 - 82.

[ginkgo.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :) I was happy with the return. In the beginning, I thought we were trying to reduce our guilt and feel that we had done everything we could for efficiency and decreased temperature if we were going to run window units. Having the stairwell now feel warmer than the upstairs is really rewarding.

I hear you on the kitchen. I cook very differently up here in the summer.

We looked at Stats/Reliability/Variety of Speeds/Noise/Cost when buying our units and bought the ones which blew away the others on all axes except for noise. :/ Fortunately, there's a substantial difference between the noise when the days are below 92. This spring has been wonderfully cool so far, especially compared to the last two.

I think your house would be pretty sweet in the summer. K would move into the cellar and come up to bathe and eat. :D It'd be all Risky Business for me upstairs.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Hey waitaminnit, if you're upstairs doing the nekkid bugaloo, what makes you think I'm gonna stay in the cellar??

;)

[theevilhalf.livejournal.com]

It is sweet in the summer except in heat waves. Usually the pattern is 85 tops then 60 - 65 at night. If you want details why it sucks during heat waves read my lengthy reply to K's reply to me.

Heh! Subterranean Lair is on my to do list.