Portable air conditioners?

[xpc]

You should both take control of those seemingly nice but wasteful children, 2 computers plus monitors can easily cost $20 a month. The heat that is generated is also about 1000 btu's or the equivalent of a 300 watt space heater on 24/7. and now you have to pay to cool that room too.

A small rooms AC's cost about a nickle an hour, seems cheaper than the 30 minute hot water showers they take twice a day, that only cost 50 cents a day. Even so a nickel x 20 hours x 30 days adds up to a bunch of money ($60 mo). add the $15 showers and $20 computer electricity and you have $100 a month.

 

[sylvie]

I built solar shades for the exterior of my house last summer where the sun shines directly into the windows. What a difference it makes! Far better than trying to use shades on the inside of the house you stop the heat BEFORE it gets in.

They are made with 70% solar block fabric from FarmTek and plastic wood like they use on decks. They have galvanized corner pieces. Should last a long time and were fairly cheap to make.

http://www.ubuilderplans.com/img/personal/solar shade composit.jpg

Farmfresh - thanks for this info. I will make good use of the Farmtek site.
Is the solar block fabric the same as shadecloth? Is it a coarse weave? I have some that is 1/8th" square plastic mesh.
This is a sample of what I have with a dime for reference

 

[Farmfresh]

The stuff I have does NOT ravel. I like it really REALLY well.

 

[silvermoon]

I'm dealing with heat issues and have done a bit of homework to see what the options are.

The solar screens are indeed a great value. After that there are awnings. Simple pull back awnings are pretty reasonable.

However, where I live, wind is a big issue. And I'm afraid neither is a
long lived solution.

So, for relatively little more money and less than paying electric for an AC and for additional heat, what I've worked out is adding additional caulking to the outside to better control what gets in, adding a layer of styrofoam insulation to the west side of the house that just BAKES and hard constructing awnings for the windows on that side that can stand up to wind and winter.

I looked at adding a layer of straw insulation to the back, but its labor intensive and the Building code people in town just don't keep up with the latest....they take great issue with straw. Although I read that its very effective.

My house was built when people thought energy would be cheap and plentiful forever.

Two years ago I added extra insulation in the attic. It made a HUGE difference! I spent $500 and it was done in half a day.

Since the home is not so big, we looked at drawing all the air up with an attic fan in the ceiling, but pretty much figured the house might fly if we did that. So, now, We close the curtains and windows during the day, open up at night and run box fans.

Its not too bad.

Good luck!

 

[valmom]

Good luck! Whatever you do, don't invest any money in one of those free-standing ac units that have a hose to vent out the window. Absolutely useless. Even here in VT! We got one to try to cool the living room that doesn't have windows suitable to put an ac unit in. (we don't have- or need- a whole house ac unit. We are only that hot about 10 days a year.) That thing might as well be an inefficient fan for all the coolness it produces. If you sit directly in front of it you might get a cooler breeze. But it does NOT cool a (smallish 12x14) living room.

 

[Farmfresh]

Good luck! Whatever you do, don't invest any money in one of those free-standing ac units that have a hose to vent out the window. Absolutely useless. Even here in VT! We got one to try to cool the living room that doesn't have windows suitable to put an ac unit in. (we don't have- or need- a whole house ac unit. We are only that hot about 10 days a year.) That thing might as well be an inefficient fan for all the coolness it produces. If you sit directly in front of it you might get a cooler breeze. But it does NOT cool a (smallish 12x14) living room.

Good to know. We were thinking about one for our second story bedroom a while back.

 

[Wallybear]

This is for people who don't have air conditioning and for those that want to lower their air conditioning bills. Soak your roof with water several times a day during hot days. The evaporation of the water will cool your house down as much as 10 degrees. You could install a couple sprinklers on the roof during the warm season or just use a hose and nozzle a few times a day.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

We used to soak the roof when living in a mobile home. Seemed to work well.

If cooling only a small area, it always seemed more efficient to me to use a window unit. They can make it REALLY cold! I don't like using them for a large house though. They tend to cool unevenly and cost a fortune in that case (and you need several).

I'm going to look into the window shades this summer. I was told the insulation in this house was poor in the attic, but I must say that, to me, it holds temps pretty well. It's pretty thick-walled though and brick all around, so maybe that's why. Always good to improve on efficiency though!