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Heat people, not spaces (2015)

solar.lowtechmagazine.com

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Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#101

Post by Izkata »

inter_netuser wrote: post #87
GeekyBear wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had family members who lived in a home in the deep south that was built before air conditioning was common. It had a large fan in the ceiling of a central hallway that vented the air from the inside the house out through the attic. This was an industrial grade fan that moved a huge volume of air. At bedtime, they could open the bedroom windows and turn on the fan and a stiff wind would blow in through all the bedro…

what state and what was the average humidity, or even better dew point? I personally find fans made very little difference for me in humid climates.

GP and GGP are describing different methods of cooling:

Sitting in a breeze does two things: 1) Allows your sweat to evaporate more quickly, and that evaporation is what causes most of the cooling effect. It's not very effective in high humidity because your sweat won't evaporate very easily. Evaporative coolers / swamp coolers work off this same principle. 2) Sitting in the still indoor air your body heat warms the air around yourself and you end up sitting in that pocket of heat. Just about any airflow stops that, which is why air circulators (fans that are meant to point from one end of a room to another instead of directly on a person) work to make a room feel a bit cooler.

Running the attic fan at night with open windows can have similar effects as above (especially the air circulator), but on top of that it's for pulling in the air from outdoors after it's cooled off at night, and expelling the warmed-up air that accumulates near the ceilings and roof. You'd want to close windows in the morning so the warmed-up air doesn't get pulled in and replace all the cooler air.

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#102

Post by lazide »

myth2018 wrote: post #59
kccqzy wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly the problem with newer design and construction philosophy. Its premise is that we will use mechanical systems, and then try to make these mechanical systems more efficient such as improving insulation, using multi-stage condensers for the AC, etc. This is epitomized in the passive house concept. In contrast the older philosophy is that natural ventilation is good enough, so we design houses to improve…

Indeed. Speaking about hot and sunny cities like mine, besides strategic placement of windows I would also mention barriers to direct sunlight over the walls. Simple barriers can improve inner temperatures sensibily and costs no energy, but most projects don't take that in consideration. Jesus, here there are even buildings importing those "glass wall" concepts, which makes total sense in climates like European's and…

It doesn’t even make sense in North America - the glass walls make it very unpleasant in summer, even in heavily air conditioned buildings, even in moderate climates (California). It’s like working out next to a space heater, with an AC unit blowing on your neck.

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#103

Post by [deleted] »

coryrc wrote: post #89
throw0101a wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In contrast the older philosophy is that natural ventilation is good enough, so we design houses to improve that, such as strategic placement of windows to allow cross ventilation, use high ceilings to allow heat to rise, etc. Yeah, and all those open windows bring in pollen and dust. Yay! Hope you have a good bug screen as well. Of course if there's high humidity then all than ventilation may not help because the…

People lived before 1902 and the invention of compressor-based air conditioning.

[deleted]

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#104

Post by jandrese »

GeekyBear wrote: post #67
myth2018 wrote: post #12

I've been thinking about the inverse problem. I live in a very warm city. Air conditioning (cooling spaces) is the norm, but tons of money are spent with installations, maintenance and the monthly electricity bill. The new houses are designed with zero consideration about ventilation, designers seem to take for granted that you are going to buy an AC system. Oftentimes, a very simple change in the project would be en…

I had family members who lived in a home in the deep south that was built before air conditioning was common. It had a large fan in the ceiling of a central hallway that vented the air from the inside the house out through the attic. This was an industrial grade fan that moved a huge volume of air. At bedtime, they could open the bedroom windows and turn on the fan and a stiff wind would blow in through all the bedro…

There are air conditioning robots that follow a person around blowing cold air on them.

They aren’t very practical, but could be more efficient than cooling an entire building for one person.

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#106

Post by animal_spirits »

myth2018 wrote: post #12

I've been thinking about the inverse problem. I live in a very warm city. Air conditioning (cooling spaces) is the norm, but tons of money are spent with installations, maintenance and the monthly electricity bill. The new houses are designed with zero consideration about ventilation, designers seem to take for granted that you are going to buy an AC system. Oftentimes, a very simple change in the project would be en…

There is an article on the notechmagazine site about ancient air conditioning here: https://www.notechmagazine.com/category/air-conditioning

Really interesting architectural technologies came out back in the day.

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#107

Post by naravara »

myth2018 wrote: post #12

I've been thinking about the inverse problem. I live in a very warm city. Air conditioning (cooling spaces) is the norm, but tons of money are spent with installations, maintenance and the monthly electricity bill. The new houses are designed with zero consideration about ventilation, designers seem to take for granted that you are going to buy an AC system. Oftentimes, a very simple change in the project would be en…

Ventilation is so underrated. There is not only the obvious benefit in reducing electricity usage, but it helps with noise (AC doesn’t run as often), dust (free flowing air keeps it from collecting in air-flow deadzones), mildew (as with dust, air flow keeps moisture and humidity from concentrating in one spot), and the longevity of your appliances (cumulative effect of all of the above).

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#108

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

novok wrote: post #60

An issue with keeping yourself warm with clothing is some hotspots get too warm, and others too cold. Like the armpits usually get too warm, but your exposed hands too cold. If your slippers have sheep's wool in them, like ugg slippers, then they often sweat a lot or feel a little wet while simultaneously feeling cold at times, or warm enough. Most sweaters are also not designed to keep your armpits a little bit cool…

Are there any good fingerless gloves for typing? I'd like to give them a shot, cold hands are usually what causes me to turn the heat on and I try to use as little heat as I can.

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#109

Post by egypturnash »

myth2018 wrote: post #12

I've been thinking about the inverse problem. I live in a very warm city. Air conditioning (cooling spaces) is the norm, but tons of money are spent with installations, maintenance and the monthly electricity bill. The new houses are designed with zero consideration about ventilation, designers seem to take for granted that you are going to buy an AC system. Oftentimes, a very simple change in the project would be en…

I live in an old shotgun double in New Orleans. A lot of the features designed for airflow have been fucked up by “modernization” - most of the windows are permanantly closed due to window AC units, transom windows above the doors between rooms are painted shut with the hinge support stuff gone, etc - but it’s still really amazing how much colder it is than the outside. It is designed to shed heat in a ton of ways and it’s so much better at it than the newer house in the same city I grew up in.

Re: Heat people, not spaces (2015)

#110

Post by sydbarrett74 »

Gigachad wrote: post #20
noodles_nomore wrote: post #2

Idea: Divert some CPU generated heat to the keyboard and wrist rest of a laptop. Code outside in any season.

Problem: Modern laptops like the macbook run cold. Maybe future node versions can address this.

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