Soror Posted May 3, 2012 Share Posted May 3, 2012 We're trying to avoid the AC more this year but we need to move more air. Currently I find it best if I open things up in the evening when the sun starts to go down and then close things up in the am to try and block the sun with the shades. Well, it works as long as it cools at night which it still is at this point. However, I need to be able to cool it more at night to help offset the increase in the day- right now we have one cheapo box fan and it doesn't move too much air(obviously). I've also looked at window films especially on my eastern windows to help block some sun but reviews I've read seem mixed. I've tried keeping the house open during the day but it heats up considerably greater than if I do not. I just read as well in a saving energy guide not to do that as well. We do not have an attic fan and cannot install one due to the way our insulation is done. It is very high humidity here as well. However, if we can keep those temps livable it is doable even with the humidity. Yesterday it was 87 before it started to cool down and my dh was sweating just sitting there. Of course I had left the house and all the windows open as well as I didn't realize it was going to heat up so much- just last week I had an extra cover on our bed. Anyway- so opinions wanted on: Window/whole house fans- reviews and recs & Solar film (or other methods to block the heat/sun you've used) I thought we'd have the basement done enough to put up beds down there but we don't as of now and we still need to get the upstairs more comfortable regardless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama_Rana Posted May 3, 2012 Share Posted May 3, 2012 We have a whole house fan that sucks the hot air up into the attic and pulls the cool air in through the windows. Obviously, this doesn't work if it's warmer outside than inside. So as soon as the outside temp falls below the inside temp, I can turn on that fan, and then make sure in the morning to turn it off before it warms up. It also helps to keep the curtains and windows closed on the side of the house that receives the sun. I've never tried solar film, but my windows are supposed to be something special that helps keep outside temps out. In the boys bedrooms, we do have thermal drapes to keep their rooms dark in the morning, and that should help block the sun's heat rays too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymilkies Posted May 3, 2012 Share Posted May 3, 2012 We don't have central air. We have an attic/whole house fan. It doesn't do anything in this heat and humidity. I don't bother turning it on anymore. We try to keep sunny window shades down and we have ceiling fans in every room we run all of the time. Even then, we put on the window a/c whenever it's unbearably hot. Our electric bills never go over $115 a month in the summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KS_ Posted May 3, 2012 Share Posted May 3, 2012 Our house gets very hot in the summer at times - I usually don't open it in the evenings because the pollen's settling and it makes my allergies worse. So I'll get up in the middle of the night/early morning and open it and set the fan in the back patio door. We did use solar film on the west facing windows (we don't have any trees to help shade) and that did help, along with an awning over the patio doors. The 2 west facing bedrooms have blackout curtains and I put up some of that 1" foam insulation board in them during the hottest days to block even more sun from coming in (and that does help). If it doesn't cool down enough at night, it's just hot. The kids have taken to sleeping with blue ice packs in the summer (the kind you put in coolers). I made covers for them out of old towels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dangermom Posted May 3, 2012 Share Posted May 3, 2012 We have a whole house fan that sucks the air through the windows and out the attic. It's wonderful. Such a fan is ideal if your summers are usually cool at night--you run the fan at 6am to cool the house down for the day, and run it again when it cools off at night (around here that's generally 9-10pm in the middle of summer, except for that one week that is just too hot to ever cool down). Another very common thing here is extra window screens. You can get them made or make them yourself. They consist of heavy screen fabric put into a frame, which you then fasten to the outside window frames. Put them on all the windows that get a lot of afternoon sun. It works beautifully to keep the rooms from getting too hot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaxMom Posted May 3, 2012 Share Posted May 3, 2012 We have an attic fan that works well to suck hot air up and out, and we use individual window fans, particularly at night. It's also helpful if you can open bottom sashes on one side and top on the other, as the hotter air at the top of the rooms gets released. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lara in Colo Posted May 3, 2012 Share Posted May 3, 2012 No ac here at all!! here are my tricks: Close up the house before 10:00 am (or when it STARTS to get warm) I use dark sheets on the really hot windows and I have the window plastic on others--(mixed feelings on that stuff--I like it and hate it both) I would love an attic fan (a big, heavy duty fan that blows all the hot air out and pulls the cool air from the basement) but I don't have one---what I do instead is put a regular box fan in the attic opening and use it to do the same thing (only weaker). I dry my clothes on the line to keep the dryer turned off (if you dry the clothes inside, and your location has low humdity, you will cool the house) I also use a toaster oven for most of my cooking and a crockpot. They make less heat and I can put them outside to cook on my deck. I have a cover for my decks that keep the sun off of the deck and away from the glass door. Open up the house when it cools outside. Trial and error will tell which windows create a good cross breeze. I have a fan in the basement blowing air upstairs. I have a couple of window fans that are two directions, so I can either pull hot air outside or cool air inside (these are for the rooms that don't have two windows for cross ventilation) This is my summer survival journey. HTH Lara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted May 3, 2012 Author Share Posted May 3, 2012 I just checked our bills from last year and they were $115, $133 and $102 for the 3 months we used the Central Air(the middle month it was likely on the whole time as the temps were 90s-100+). My bills with no heat or ac were $75-$80. So, at $115-$125 for the year I guess, which isn't bad. It also means though that I don't want to spend a ton as it will take a while to get pay out. I haven't heard of the extra screens. I had thought about retractable awnings I don't want anything permanent though as that those windows heat the house in the winter as well. KH you are hardcore, I'm pretty sure dh will not be wearing a special backpack to sleep! We have ceiling fans in the bedrooms and the living room but I told dh that we need one in the dining room as well. To have the air moving certainly helps. Yesterday I realized that I hadn't changed the direction of the fan from the winter, oops, no wonder it didn't seem to be helping. Oh, and I see in two days it is to get up to 99 already, seriously! This is ridiculous for this time of year here. We've got to figure this out soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted May 3, 2012 Author Share Posted May 3, 2012 Lara- my dh was just commenting about how he wants a little enclosed area in the back to help with keeping the heat out of the kitchen. I try to use my crockpot and keep stove use minimal and very minimal on oven use, but I do cook a lot and our poor cheap grill died. I have cats though and am paranoid about putting anything on my deck. I was just thinking about if there was a way to get our basement air upstairs, it is at least 20 degrees cooler down there, thus why I wanted to sleep down there. Oh, and I do hang the clothes outside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted May 6, 2012 Author Share Posted May 6, 2012 Dh was talking to a buddy at work and he just happened to have a window fan like we were looking at purchasing and he gave it to us. They generally just run their a/c all the time so they never use it. It is older but in good condition. It is a double fan with one side for intake and another for exhaust. Dh also picked up another box fan ($16) so now we have box fans for the kids rooms and the double fan in ours. We still need a ceiling fan for the dining room as there are no windows over there and we eat dinner at the hottest part of the day. I'd also like an oscillating fan for my kitchen as well, but I'm hoping to find one at a yard sale. I told dh to ask his father if he has any box fans we could use as well, I know they have their air on also. Today I told dh as well that he needs to research how we can block more sun from coming in. Most especially in the great room we have 7 windows and with the positioning of the house they let a lot of sun through. If we could keep the house from rising just 2-3 degrees during the day it would go a long way towards prolonging the amount of time we can get by without the air. So, he is to check out the film and also the designs pp were mentioning earlier. We've had some 90+ weather this week and have felt generally fairly comfortable inside except for that one day I left all the windows open. It was 95 or so yesterday but the house only got up to 84 as we had cooled it to 74 the night before. I think if I can get a few more fans as well for the great room perhaps I can cool it more at night as well. Between blocking more heat during the day and bringing in more cool air at night I might be able to bring it down 5 degrees total, which can be a huge difference. Perhaps I am optimistic though :) I'm hoping also that maybe we can get some more finished in the basement, we have the materials for the flooring but haven't had the time. I have a bed headboard and frame for my mom, I just need a mattress. Perhaps I'll ask around. You never know what people will have. Ideally I'd like 2 beds 1 for dh and I and another for the kids down there. I'm scheming and planning on how to make that work as cheaply as possible. Also, I thought even if we do get to the dog days with 100+ temps and little drop at night and we turn on the air we could turn the thermostat even higher than before if we sleep downstairs. Usually once the air is on I *think* I kept it to 82 or so during the day and 77-78 at night. If I could just have it at 84 all the time that would save a considerable amount and we are fairly comfortable at 84 in the house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chepyl Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 We have an attic fan. It is great until it gets over 85-90, then of just moves the hot air amd does not cool at all. We save a lot of money in the fall and spring, but just a couple of months. It is already topping 90 degrees here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tricia Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 We have a large farmhouse and live in a humid area too. We do use the window AC's sometimes but we also put a fan in the attic doorway a few years ago. It is awesome and circulates a ton of air around the house. But not so awesome when the day is quite hot and high humidity. But mostly, it works well and we've cut down on AC usage quite a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 I grew up with an attic fan and a basement. The AC would go off after dinner, and as the house got warm and the outside got cooler, it would be used to suck coolness out of the basement. We'd also run it if there was a sudden drop in temp, e.g. right after a cloud burst. Kansas has very moody weather, and the attic fan helped exchange the air very quickly. As a side benefit, when it was tornado weather and the pressures were changing rapidly, the alum. slats would snap open and shut, thus equalizing pressure and giving us our own storm warning system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jpoy85 Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 We live in an apartment and theres no central AC. Its HOT! Its 80o so far today! There is a wall unit, but ever since we moved in, it doesnt work. We had to go buy a Window A/C for the Living Room. (its only a 1bdrm 4rm apartment) They have a wall fan that blows the cold air into the bedroom. Here are my tips (last month my bill was $54): Keep blinds and curtains closed Keep A/C low and turn it on Fan when you can (its cheaper to run the fan than the AC compressor thingy) Open the window and have a fan blowing at night on cool nights. Close off all open areas-- we have a curtain blocking off the hallway to keep the cool air in the living room and we keep the bedroom door closed day and night + the bathroom door. We dont have a ceiling fan. I wish we did. I also dont have a solution for the bedroom on really, REALLY hot nights. we survived last summer though, so well see how it goes this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHomeScientist Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 We have a whole-house fan. We used it once, in the spring of 1988, only a few months after we'd moved into our home in October of 1987. It's in the hallway and exhausts to the attic crawlspace. I turned it on, and my wife and our families started yelling from the den. I switched it off immediately, after maybe two seconds. In that time, it had sucked a bunch of newspaper off an ottoman and strewn them across the floor and sucked open the fireplace doors and covered the entire den in wood ashes. My wife said a few seconds longer and it'd probably have sucked the dog up into the attic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dangermom Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 :001_huh: Did you open the windows before turning it on? Ours has 3 speeds and we always turn it on low, which is plenty. I don't even know what high would do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted May 7, 2012 Share Posted May 7, 2012 We have a whole-house fan. We used it once, in the spring of 1988, only a few months after we'd moved into our home in October of 1987. It's in the hallway and exhausts to the attic crawlspace. I turned it on, and my wife and our families started yelling from the den. I switched it off immediately, after maybe two seconds. In that time, it had sucked a bunch of newspaper off an ottoman and strewn them across the floor and sucked open the fireplace doors and covered the entire den in wood ashes. My wife said a few seconds longer and it'd probably have sucked the dog up into the attic. You need a rheostat, pal. And you DO open a window downstair, you know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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