"CoogarXR" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I am used to living in single-story, no-basement houses, where one would
just
open a window on either end of the house and pop in a box fan and have a
nice
breeze. Now I bought a big old uninsulated house from 1916 with a full
basement, main floor w/11ft ceilings, upstairs w/10ft ceilings and an
unfinished (but large enough to be finished) floored, walk up attic. Now
obviously, the basement is nice and cool, the main floor is about 77-81
during
the day (when its like 85 outside), the upstairs is noticeably hotter, and
well
the attic is excruciatingly hot! I have tried opening windows on opposite
ends
of the main floor, and putting a fan blowing out the hot side hoping to
draw in
from the shady side, but it only gave me about 1 degree of difference. I
tried
opening the basement windows and putting a fan in one of the main floor
windows
hoping to draw up some of that cool basement air, but all that did is
bring up
that not-so-cool basement smell hehe. Opening up the 4 attic windows helps
the
upstairs a little but we have been leaving the attic door closed. I guess
I am
trying to figure out the best combination of fans and open windows to cool
off
this monster house. From what I have read in various newsgroup postings, I
am
considering trying fans in the attic windows. But how should I do it? The
attic
windows are directly across from each other on opposite walls. Should I
put a
fan in one facing in, and one facing out on the opposite side with the
attic
door closed? Or should I put two in one side facing out and leave the
attic
door open in hopes to draw heat up from the rest of the house (and leave
the
opposing windows open or closed?)? Or, fans in both windows and the attic
door
open? I know I am over complicating things, but it takes like a whole day
to
see if each method is effective and I just wonder if any of you
old-house-dwellers have any good tricks! I am trying to not have to buy
any air
conditioners, as I am an incredibly cheap individual

CoogarXR


Gee hot air rises and cool air settles.
I lived in Iowa as a child and we used a whole house ventilator until my
mother got tired of me sneezing all night because of the allergies. We had
the fan in the upstairs hall window. Opened one window down-stairs and one
in each of the bedrooms.
If you exhaust into the attic you must have enough exhaust vents for the air
to move out. This will cool the whole house. Then shut everything off and
tight until the next evening.
Depending on humidity and out side temp you can reach outside temp ~+5
degrees.