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

[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.