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wrote:

In article ,
Wayne wrote:
wrote in :

In article 5TMLc.28901$9I.20458@okepread02,
"Richard Henry" wrote:
snip

How do I "arrange tree shade"? Trees in big planters on wheels?

You can. Awnings or shutters help. Shutters are neat in that
you can shut out the sunlight and keep the airflow going. Curtains
block air flow. I'd have to see the layout of your yard and
house to tell if growing stuff would help.

snip

Most of your suggestions are helpful but they are not a solution to the
heat of the desert Southwest.

Definitely not :-). I'm in the northeast.

.. Shade helps, of course, but when the
"cool" night air is 95-100 degrees, the only things that bring relief are
swamp coolers and a/c.

Australians build their houses on posts. The air flows over and under
during the hot seasons. Then they close up the underneath "shutters"
when it gets colder. If I were in southwest, I might dig a hole
and live underground.

Tahitians have large platforms outside and that's where they sleep.

However, in both of these cases, wind exists.

snip

Fans, especially ceiling fans, certainly do help and allow you to
maintain a more evenly distributed temperature. The constant air
movement makes a slightly warmer temperature more tolerable. However, in
hot climates and without a/c, they only blow hot air. That's barely more
tolerable than nothing at all.

It helps with the evaporation of sweat, nature's cooling mechanism.
I don't know why but, if I shut up the house and run the fan during
humid days, it seems to lower the humidity.
snip

I put on my winter woolies before I walk in the grocery store.
It's ****ing freezing in those stores...but not as cold as
the post office. There is no mystery about why those people
go postal; their brains get frozen to the point of no possible
electrical activity. I want to put on a wool face mask when
I walk into those buildings.

You clearly don't require as much cooling as some people do. To me, it's
blessed relief to walk into a supercooled office or store.

Males seem to need more cooling than females.

A 5000 BTU a/c would barely keep a closet cool when the temp outside is
110-112 degrees F.

Right. I was not talking about that level of temps. I'd live
underground in that environment.

Wouldn't straw bales on the outside surface of your house reduce
the cooling you need inside?

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.
Older houses in the US (pre-A/C) are often built the same way. Very high
crawl spaces with vents to open or close depending on season. If you are
lucky enough to have a house with a crawl space a small fan circulating air
through the space will save lots of money on A/C costs. Even more effective
is adding a small fan to ventelate the space under the roof.
--
Russ Lyttle
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