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Keeping Your Apartment Cool in the Summer Time?
uvince asks: "Sure, the air is on all day at work, but when you are at home and it warms up (as the west coast is now) what do you do when a fan just won't cut it? Do you install a swamp cooler, set out a standing air conditioner, or install some air conditioner that fits in the window. How can I keep my apartment, or at least my bedroom cool? Anyone have any creative, green ideas?"
A swamp cooler will only work if it's hot but not very humid. Here in Boston, for example, it would only make things worse. Note that you can't leave loose papers lying around with a swamp cooler running -- it's like a hurricane in the house.
A ceiling fan makes your air conditioner work much better.
One thing to look for in an air conditioner is the ability to suck in a bit of its air from outside, instead of just recirculating inside air or (with the lever pulled) blowing some inside air out. (Why you would want to do the latter mystifies me, but that's what they do.) Sucking in some outside air helps push some of the cold air into other rooms.
Some ACs can be configured as heat pumps, too, so that when it turns cold they can heat the room, for much less than the cost of running an electric radiant heater, and maybe for less than gas heat, these days. As heat pumps, they cool off the outside air and blow inside air past their hot condenser coils.
Live on the ground floor in summer, the top floor in winter.
That's the way to go!The main reason (i think) for Americans huge energy consumption compared to the rest of the world, is because AC's are used everywhere, most of the time, houses, work, cars... A lot of places in Europe have comparable climate with New York; but usage of AC is A LOT lower, especially in domestic circles, people using them are considered 'wasters of energy, too lazy to open ther windows at night et.c.) admittedly, New York is not the hottest place in US of A, I guess sometimes AC's are a real necessety to live a Western (= very active, no sleeping during the hot hours, et c) life...
After seeing all these suggestions for fans, I'm surprised no one's suggested a huge copper heatsink and a vat of Arctic Silver III.
Seriously though, having a house in the shade of something else (trees most of the time) does wonders. I know it's not the greatest idea to have trees large enough to overhang a structure (not my idea, not my tree, yes limbs have damaged the roof when falling before) between the shade from the trees and the fact that none of the windows have a clear path to catch sun, it stays a good 5-10 degrees colder most of the time.
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
My apartment's AC isn't that good, so here's some of the things that I try to do:
1. Change your lightbulbs. Either switch to a lower wattage incandescent, or use the compact flourescent fixtures. The halogen torches stay off all summer.
2. Turn off computers, lights, monitors and TVs when they're not being used. Yes, it will ruin your uptime, but most computers from the past few years dissipate 30-90 watts of heat. CRTs and TVs also generate a lot of heat. I had a room that I kept 10 degrees F warmer in winter just by leaving the computers (P3-866 and Athlon 1800+) and their monitors on all night.
3. Use your bedroom for nothing but sleeping. Turn on as few lights as possible, keep the TV and computer out of there. And sex will heat up a room (done properly).
4. Control your apartment's airflow. Put a fan in the window of your bedroom, aimed in. In another room, put a fan in the window, aiming it out. Close all other windows, and you should get a nice amount of airflow -- either to cool down your bedroom, or take heat out of the rest of the apartment.
5. Put a fan at the foot of your bed, and crank it up.
#2, #4, and #5 have the greatest effect in my apartment. Just remember that everything that uses electricity is going to generate some heat, and decide what you want to do from there.
Instead of buying a single Kenmore 15,100 BTU Room Air Conditioner for $US380 (39.7 BTUs per dollar) why not buy three Kenmore 5,250 BTU Room Air Conditioners for US$99 each (53.0 BTUs per dollar)? Install each of the three units in different sections of the house or appartment. Some of the benifits of this solution are as follows:
-> More uniform distribtion of power leads to greater effiency
-> Slightly lower equipment cost
-> Multipule "zones" (at night, or whenever you sleep only one "zone" needs to be cooled)
-> Smaller units are usually quieter leading to a quieter "zone"
-> A few more BTUs total
Just a thought.
--adam
"Go back to bed America... your government is in control." --Bill Hicks
But, the dehumidifier works on the same principle doesn't it? AFAIK it's basically an air conditioner, except the air also goes over the condenser on the way out (rather than having the condenser mounted outside as with a window AC), so that it doesn't end up any cooler, just drier. I submit that having two compressors doing one job is less efficient than just letting the window AC work harder. (Unless you were exceeding its capacity, and this extra "help" from the dehumidifier got you better performance)
I had a professor who said the same thing, and I know people in Turkey and Morocco (amongst others) drink hot tea for that reason, but my experience is different. When I drink hot soup I get hot, when I eat ice cream or drink cold water/coke/ice tea I get cold.
The whole idea is that your body overcompensates, because its 'thermostat' is in the back of your mouth (or troath, don't remember) and it gets it contact with the beverage, measuring an incorrect temperature.
Now that may be (though personally I doubt it), but it still is counterproductive. When it's hot, your body needs to lose heat. When you drink something hot, you need to lose even more heat.
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When I lived in Southern California, I rented an apartment on the top floor. Typical California apartment complex- the roof was six inches think, maximum. The landlords reroofed the place and all that black tar up there would help the sun cook my place in the summer. The "property managers" were unresponsive so I took matters into my own hands, climbing up on the roof with a bucket of white paint and basically spilling it about where my apartment was located (the roof was flat and not visible from the street). This made a huge difference in temperature.
I subsequently learned that they make a paint specifically for this purpose (reflecting sunlight off of roofs instead of absorbing it) and that a lot of large buildings in the LA area were using it to lower energy usage.
Also, the previous post about awnings was spot on. Having shades is one thing, but the heat is already inside. Being able to block direct sunlight before it gets to the window will shave a few degrees off of the temperature.