Robert Gammon wrote:

This will be the LAST time I EVER respond to ANYTHING that Nick at
Villanova posts to the alt.home.repair newsgroup.

Nickie is a math and theory lover. That can be great if you want to
know how much heat a standard ASHRE mouse puts out, but Nick sometimes
gets confused when confronted with the fact that not all mice are
ASHRE compliant.

Weather station instruments are commonly placed at airports or other
open areas. That may not be representative for an area that otherwise
has dense vegetation and/or standing water. Airports have to be level
and dry enough to land planes, and they also usually have a lot of
paved or concrete areas and low cut grass. That means more wind can
sweep the ground, less groundwater can be transferred by vegetation
into the immediate air, and temperatures and humidity can differ from
areas nearby.

If Nick builds his constructions on or near a runway, he may be right.
If he builds on a typical wooded or swampy southern lot, he may find
the real world intruding.

In other areas, the representative weather stats can be off because
the weather instruments are NOT at an airport. I used to take
measurements at a radio station where my father worked. That station
was (logically) on a hill, and the town below might be lost in fog
while I was recording clear skies, low humidity, and a mild wind for
the town. Fast foreword a few years. Now, another weather reporting
site in that community is located about 50 feet above a river, at a
spot where it enters a small canyon. It also has different
measurements than if you set up a station in the middle of the small
town. On a practical basis, weather is an extremely local phenomenon.

Here in south Florida, I have become accustomed to seeing rain-soaked
streets that are totally dry 500 feet up the road. I've had my pool
fill with four inches of water, while the airport reported no rain at
all. The heavy rainstorms here can be that localized. Depending on
the winds and the season, the coast may get strong breezes and a cool
temperature, while five to fifteen miles inland, clouds billow up and
create a line of storms that never touch the coast. You can't always
go by reported weather from a selected set of sources

Having been through southern Georgia many times, I know there are
large differences in temperature and humidity around the peanut and
cotton farms compared to the pine forests and towns. That is common
sense and experiential knowledge.

However, Nick takes it as an article of faith that discrete samples
from professionals always represent a greater norm. :-)


FWIW, I've used economizer dampers on theatre HVAC units in Vermont
and in Alabama. The greatest use was over Christmas vacation, when
crowds would overheat the theatre and the outside air was less than 40
degrees F. Much of the rest of the time in Vermont they had to be
sealed with plastic and duct tape to prevent drafts and heat loss.
The integrated ones also had more electro-mechanical problems than
other systems. That may have been design related - unsupported lever
arms, corrosion, ice, etc. but they were only marginally cost
effective overall. In Alabama, the vents were straightforward exhaust
vents, and were used only if the AC was overwhelmed or there were
smokers (which were still allowed in certain sections of some
theatres).

Whole house fans were common in the south before AC, and venting is
just a variation on this. The success of those whole house fans often
depended on measures such as opening certain windows after 10 PM and
closing the house up tight before 8 AM, drawing all the curtains, and
sweating out the early evening on a porch. Once AC became affordable,
life changed for the better. Getting people to go back is nearly
impossible, and Nick should know this, but his stubbornness lack of
experiential knowledge prevents it.