mm wrote:
On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 10:44:23 -0700, N8N wrote:


On Jun 2, 10:06 pm, "Edwin Pawlowski" wrote:

"Dave Bugg" wrote in message


When the sun hits the glass, not so much. Our retractable awnings are an
absolute neccesity.

Ah, awnings. They were on most every house when I was a kid, a long time
ago. Now we just stick a cooker box in the window and suck up electricity
instead. A decent tree can cool your house as much as a 12000 Btu AC and at
no cost.

Agreed, we have trees, but the upstairs still gets hot. After reading
this thread and seeing that several people recommended window fans, I
thought "what the hell?" when someone says "window fan" I think of
those cheezy little plastic things. Well I did a web search and found
that there are *real* window fans made; I've already ordered a big Air
King unit, we will see what happens. I suspect that whoever suggested
that the attic is getting hot is correct, although there's a ludicrous
amount of insulation up there. If the window fan does not do the


P&M

What you could do is get a wireless thermometer. Lowes had one for 15
dollars, but it seems to go through batteries pretty quickly.
Especially since I only use it one week every 26 or so, so I guess I
would remove the battery during the rest of the time. The lowes is
cheap and pretty, but for the same price you can get a big ugly one at
Harbor Freight, but it has a) min and max holds, that keep track of
current as well as min and max since the last time you reset it, and
b) has the current temp on the transmitter, not just the receiver.

First, you could calibrate a regulart themometer against the wireless,
and if they don't say the same thing, use a third as a tie-breaker,
then handicap the one that is off, if any.

Then without the fan on, measure the temp of your room near the
ceiling and at other heights closer to the floor. It is always hotter
near the ceiling of any room because hot air rises, but if the
difference is ?? just guessing, 6, 7 degrees more or less more than
at 4 feet high, too much heat is coming in through the attic.

Another thing one should do is go up when the attic is cool enough,
just at the start of dawn is when the attic is at its coolest, and
leave the transmitter there, and see how hot the attic gets as the day
goes on, and how hot it is at dawn. The min max would be nice for
that.

And out of curiosily, you might even bury the transmitter at various
depths in the insulation, to see how much cooler the temp is 6 inches
down than on the surface.

Insulation is great, but if it is 140 or 150 in the attic, I can't
help; thinking it will still be 110 at the top of the ceiling
sheetrock, and 100 at the surface of the sheetrock in your bedroom
But I just got the wireless thermmoeter and haven't made any
measurements at all.

With my roof fan, I think it gets no higher than 100 or 110 up there,
even in the middle of the day, but even that is too hot for me to go
up and measure temps. At least I never did.

It's better to have the most data to work with, and also if you do
install a fan, or someone else who installs insulation, he'll know how
much improvement he gets. And can post here like an authority.

I have one of those remote deals built into an alarm clock - it's a neat
little gadget I picked up at Target. comes with a remote thermometer
and the clock has an atomic clock receiver built in. I might see if I
can get another remote to go with it, as I don't want to move the one I
have inside; I use it to determine when to open the upstairs windows.

I also have one of those point and shoot infrared thermometer deals; I
might have to retrieve that from my buddy's garage next time I make it
over there. Not much use in the attic, but I could shoot the ceiling in
the bedrooms to see how much heat is really coming down from above.

I suspect that the eventual solution will be a fan in the attic, but
that would involve probably having someone install it, which isn't about
to happen this year. I'm envisioning a fan set up at one of the vent
openings blowing out, controlled by a thermoswitch somewhere in the
middle of the attic to come on at some set point (100 degrees? 110
degrees? Something hotter than any normal ambient outside temperature,
anyway.) However your point to actually collect data before committing
to that course of action is well taken.

I realize it would be just as easy to install a window A/C unit in the
bedroom, but the brute force method offends my sensibilities as an
engineer. I'd rather try the more efficient solutions first...

nate

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