Thread: Cooling A Room
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Unread 24-05-2007, 10:53
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Re: Cooling A Room

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan Anderson View Post
It sounds like you have two directions at which you can attack the problem. First, do something about the heat entering your room through the window. One of the best solutions is to use a deciduous tree to shade it, so the leaves are only blocking the heat in the summer. There are also metallized plastic films that you can put on the outside of the glass. Be wary of using shades on the inside of the window, as they'll mostly end up trapping the heat and radiating it to the inside anyway.

Second, you want to get some air moving. A ceiling fan will help dramatically, as will "booster" fans in the ductwork. If you can force the air inside your room to mix with the air in the rest of the house, you'll be able to keep the temperatures more consistent.
YES!!!! Increasing A/C to your room only deals with a SYMPTOM of the problem, whereas Engineering should consider the CAUSE and deal with it first, if possible!

Your window may be the most thermally transparent item on that wall, but the whole wall is transferring heat into your room. By shading the wall, so that the direct sunlight is deflected, you will lower the outside temperature of that wall by 10 or 20 degrees -- a direct reduction of heat transfer. A deciduous tree is a good long term solution, but for a quick term one, erect a large trellis along the wall and plant a quick growing vine to shade it as much as possible. All that photosynthesis you learned about in biology will transfer the suns energy into plant tissue rather than heat in your room. (I suggest Moonflowers, which will perfume the evening air if it cools down enough to open your window at night.)

Once you deal with the heat entering your room, then you can consider additional measures to increase A/C flow to your room. Otherwise, you are just increasing the bill you pay to the energy company.

Proper Engineering considers the "system-wide" problem when brainstorming a solution, rather than focusing on the one specific affected component.
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Last edited by Bill Moore : 24-05-2007 at 11:55.