Hi there, time to share ways to keep your home cool during hot times
So ok, usual ways I use:
- open everything during night
- close everything during day
- external sheets on windows without shutters
- some curtains to prevent heat from going upstairs
I was also wondering if plants could also help inside, any ideas ?
Share your advices !
Years ago I was watching Doomsday Preppers and one fella dug a long trench, 100 foot if I’m not mistaken.
In the trench he laid a large PVC pipe and filled in the trench. At the far end of the pipe there was an air inlet. He ran the pipe into his basement and up inside a wall with an inline fan. Cool air, as well as fresh air.
Didn’t do anything for the humidity, I suspect.
He claimed it worked, I can not confirm.
It does make since as it’s about 4c/39f four feet/1.2m underground.
So DIY ground source heating/cooling, basically.
I suspect that’s not long and deep enough, but if it is, it will produce air at the local year-round average temperature, at all times. (Whatever that happens to be)
Thats basically how earthships are cooled. You can also run the pipe through an evaporative cooler to cool the air even more.
At some point there, you’ve just reinvented AC.
Only if you use a better working fluid and add compression and expansion steps, but a long pipe in a ditch filled with water isn’t what I would call AC quite yet.
Aren’t there AC systems that just evapourate water from municipal supplies to the atmosphere?
I mean, yes, I’d agree that blowing air over a standing water body isn’t AC, but we’re getting close.
As another person stated, that’s an evaporative cooler or “swamp” cooler.
AC works by “moving” heat energy from one place to another by way of the refrigeration cycle. This helps you feel comfortable by both cooling the air and also as a byproduct it removes humidity from it. If you want a nice long video on how that works just search “technology connections air conditioning” on YouTube and enjoy. Very informative.
You’re thinking of a swamp cooler. In some places they work great, in other places they’re next to useless.
Air conditioners are called that because they “condition” the air by not just cooling but also by reducing the humidity.
Ah, okay. So not technically an AC unit then.
I think on a purely technical note, Air Conditioning goes beyond just cooling the air and involves reduction of humidity. Personally, I wouldn’t consider it AC because you’d have to keep refilling the evaporator resivor, instead of just powering the device, but that is a nitpicky item that isn’t technically a requirement.