68
votes
Accepted
Why is my house energy efficient only in winter?
The heating in your home is natural gas. You are not using any electricity to heat your home in the winter.
Therefore, from your electric company’s perspective, you are very energy efficient in the ...
- 5,227
64
votes
Accepted
Why does my house heat up, even when it's cool outside?
Meet solar gain
For the most vivid example of solar gain, sit in your car with everything off - A/C off, blower off, windows rolled up tight, doors shut tight. You can't. Your body will force you to ...
37
votes
Why does my house heat up, even when it's cool outside?
Because you have indoor heat sources
There's a lot of reasons your house will get warmer than the outside temp, but this is the single largest one.
The human body produces as much as 400 BTU (422 kJ) ...
- 24k
29
votes
Accepted
Heat dissipating materials for a wall that gets very hot?
Since it's a "Heat in summer" problem, a traditional decorative and edible approach would be to train/trellis a plant or plants in front of the wall - grapes, vining tomatoes, espaliered fruit trees, ...
- 201k
20
votes
How do you cool a concrete home?
There are many options, but concrete is very dense and makes a great heatsink.
You can try insulating and air-conditioning the inside, but this approach is costly, energy-intensive and overall ...
- 417
14
votes
How do you cool a concrete home?
The first thing you should do is insulate the roof. Even just gluing sheets of Celotex or your local equivalent will make a huge difference, though installing it in a proper ceiling would be better. ...
- 5,978
14
votes
Why is my house energy efficient only in winter?
Don't over think this graph. It looks like everyone in the data base has the same heating as you, gas, because if they had electric heat, the points would be much higher than 500 to 650 KWH per month. ...
- 78.8k
14
votes
Accepted
Weatherize old multifamily building against extreme heat
Additional blown cellulose insulation is VERY cheap and based on the pic, it should be done.
I don't recommend a box fan. Increase the ventilation and use proper fans that are designed for that space. ...
- 7,430
14
votes
Can you use water from a municipal supply and return it for home cooling?
Congratulations! You just invented a geothermal heat pump.
It's like an AC unit, but uses liquid and ground for cooling side instead of less efficient air. At this point you might as well get an ...
- 250
14
votes
What can I do to cool down the room?
First of all cardboard is not a good reflective insulator.
Second, hanging cardboard on the inside will not help much since the heat has already entered the room through the glass.
Get some aluminum ...
- 16.8k
14
votes
Accepted
Would sprayed insulation under the roof deck cool down a hot attic?
Spraying the roof deck would create an insulated box. It's difficult to predict how that would affect average interior temperature. It would certainly increase roofing temperatures, which isn't ideal. ...
- 129k
13
votes
How do you cool a concrete home?
To be clear -- Concrete does not cause it to get warm. Concrete is a very good thermal buffer - it resists changes in temperature. This is a highly desirable trait in a passively heated and cooled ...
13
votes
Heat dissipating materials for a wall that gets very hot?
Put a false wall in front of the existing outside wall and allow air to flow between the two.
That will reduce the conducted heat into the room by a huge amount.
- 26.2k
13
votes
How should I deal with an air conditioner that doesn't keep up?
If the system is running (fan is blowing; condenser/compressor outdoors is running) then replacing the thermostat won't help any.
You've done well checking the filter and ensuring the outdoor unit is ...
- 27.8k
12
votes
Why does my house heat up, even when it's cool outside?
In addition to the other answers that address your question for the most part, there is one more possibility I can think of. It is possible that your AC is not only trying to get the inside ...
- 4,947
11
votes
Options to cool attached sunroom
Keeping what is effectively a greenhouse cool in the summer is a heavy workload for any AC system. Your best bet is to prevent solar heat gain by blocking the light. Doing this with an opaque shade on ...
- 8,182
9
votes
Options to cool attached sunroom
I think you're overestimating the energy benefits you can get from window films. Those are primarily indicated to reject ultraviolet radiation that can increase fading of indoor materials.
You're ...
- 2,597
9
votes
Meausure the temperature of a fridge
There are special thermometers for refrigerator & freezer use.
I have a Rubbermaid thermometer (amazon link) in my garage fridge compartment and another in its freezer. This showed me my freezer ...
- 3,393
9
votes
Accepted
Why do I have 3 HVAC professionals telling me 3 different things about heat gain/heat loss?
In an ideal world, the numbers would really be based on your actual house construction and detailing.
In my world I have a spreadsheet that details the thermal characteristics and area of every part ...
- 201k
9
votes
Can you use water from a municipal supply and return it for home cooling?
No, not allowed in 3 countries I am aware of.
The primary reason is controlling contamination.
Then you will have to exceed the mains supply pressure - which in my country is 9 bar. At each point of ...
- 26.2k
9
votes
Would sprayed insulation under the roof deck cool down a hot attic?
Note that there has to be airflow along most of the underside of the roof, to let the wood dry and discourage rot. There are channels you can buy to hold that space open; you would then install any ...
- 27.5k
8
votes
Why does my house heat up, even when it's cool outside?
Because an Air Conditioner doesn't give any airflow between inside and outside. An AC is essentially a refrigerator. Inside is the conditioned space, and outside is the heat dump (i.e. the back of ...
- 14.1k
8
votes
Accepted
How to fit portable air conditioner hoses through a too small wall vent
You could investigate the rectangular panel that holds the two holes in the wall. Perhaps it can be removed, then you can replace it with a new panel with a suitable hole cut out.
You could search ...
- 34.3k
8
votes
Accepted
Why does my heat pump "blow" at warm (even hot) outdoor temperatures? Should not it be inactive?
The heat pump is also responsible for heating hot water (also a feature), is that the reason for the blowing?
Yes, hot water in a the tank (which is well above ambient temperatures) will slowly cool ...
- 11.6k
8
votes
How should I deal with an air conditioner that doesn't keep up?
It depends. If the A/C has a mechanical problem, have it fixed. You'll know soon enough, if it suddenly got worse.
If the A/C is working properly and simply has never been able to adequately cool ...
7
votes
How can I add thermal mass to my house?
I have about 50 55-gallon drums stacked in my basement, all filled with water. They are stacked one on top of the other (bottom row/top row) along our north basement wall. I have two in floor-...
7
votes
Why is my house energy efficient only in winter?
As heat can travel through your walls and roof in either direction, what you should really take from what the electricity company is telling you is that your house is inefficient all the time except ...
- 26.2k
7
votes
What can I do to cool down the room?
You need to do your best to cool the whole building overnight, then keep it cool with shade during the day. External shading of windows (and walls if not well insulated) is better than internal, but ...
- 5,978
7
votes
What can I do to cool down the room?
We have used two techniques on one of our properties.
Retrofit Double glazing (Secondary Glazing) - Where another window is installed on the inside of the existing one. The outside were sash windows,...
- 5,090
6
votes
Does running a dehumidifier with an AC unit save money?
I would say a dehumidifier would not be a more efficient choice for summer comfort than turning down the thermostat on an A/C. Sure, the delta-T across exterior walls would drop, so somewhat less heat ...
- 61
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible