Tips wanted on keeping your house\garage cool.

[greenpigs]

  With the hellish temperatures many of us are experiencing how do you keep the homestead cool without spending a fortune?


  I closed off a vent in one of my bathrooms and replaced the filter(again) in my furnace. BTW don't use a hepa filter unless your AC unit is up to the task.

[NHCharger]

How much insulation do you have in your attic? Should be a minimum of R19 (6 inches). Are your windows single or double panes? How old is your house? Does your attic have soffitt vents and gable or ridge vents?
If the attic isn't properly insulated and vented it will cause your house to get real hot.
I built my house in 1999. I  have ridge vents on the entire house including the garage. The garage is uninsulated and still got real hot. I installed a gable end vent and a 4 mill plastic barrier on the bottom side of the bottom chord of the roof trusses in the garage, that make a big difference.
Other factors are the color of your house, type of siding, what direction your house faces.

[Shakey]

  With the hellish temperatures many of us are experiencing how do you keep the homestead cool without spending a fortune?


  I closed off a vent in one of my bathrooms and replaced the filter(again) in my furnace. BTW don't use a hepa filter unless your AC unit is up to the task.

Keep the blinds closed all of the time.

[dodge freak]

How cold does it get a night and how safe is your area ? When it gets down to the low 60's at night I keep most windows with a screen open all night, then by 7-8 am close everything up till 6-7pm. Sure the house is freezing in the morning but it stays cold for half the day. Work fine for years cause we had a dog, not any more so I just crack the windows and put a bar to stop it from opening. Never know if some jerk would craw in at night. Be sure to block the sunshine coming in too.

[694spdRT]

I only have a couple small window A/C's in my old 2 story house and I made it through last week ok. I have the A/C on a timer to come on about an hour before I get home from work so it does not run all day long. I close all the blinds like Shakey said, shut off any rooms that don't need to be cooled, and run my ceiling fans. I had a bunch of insulation added to the attic and walls along with vinyl replacement windows 5 years ago. It was more for heating costs in the winter time but of course it works in the summer as well.

[dkn1997]

attic fan. mount it in the roof and it will pull air through the gable vents. if you have them.  this is especially good if the air handler for the AC is in the attic.....

[last426]

attic fan. mount it in the roof and it will pull air through the gable vents. if you have them.  this is especially good if the air handler for the AC is in the attic.....

This is, without question, the most bang for your buck when trying to keep a house cool.  Kim

[BigBlackDodge]

Window Blinds.
fans.............attic and inside.
insulation.........r-30 is recomended down here in south georgia....about 10" blown.
insulation around elec. outlets.......they leak pretty good sometimes.
Wall insulation. They can inject/blow insul into the wall cavity if you have none.
Check around windows and doors................the seal shrink/ware after a number of years.


...........fill the tub with cold water and 100lbs of ice and get in. Watch for shrinkage!

BBD

[4402tuff4u]

attic fan. mount it in the roof and it will pull air through the gable vents. if you have them.  this is especially good if the air handler for the AC is in the attic.....

Exactly - attic fan will do wonders!!

[Lowprofile]

Swamp Coolers work great. 

[bull]

Oh, that. I thought you meant this:

[Charger_Fan]

Swamp Coolers work great. 

Until it gets humid.

[greenpigs]

Thanks gang!

My attic is wicked hot and the vents I have must not be cutting the mustard. There are a few spots I can insulate in my garage to help out & I guess I need to look into doing something with improving the venting of my attic.

Its a dark brown brick single level with dark brown shingles..good in the winter, not so good in the summer. Also it has newer double pane windows and the blinds are closed all the way.

[73dodge]

Or you can do the industrial swap cooler thing like this honda plant in ohio

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/18/tech/main1813905.shtml

[694spdRT]

Another problem is that poor attic ventilation and the resulting heat will cut your shingle life quite a bit. We have installed turbine vents(whirlybirds) in place of standard roof vents and increased soffit ventilation on many of the apartment buildings we manage as some shingles were curling up and shot from poor ventilation after less than 10 years. Attic temperatures dropped dramatically by making these changes.

[SirNik73]

My dad was/is the master at keeping the house cool without an A/C... he installed a set of fans in the attic that had a temperatur switch so the would automatlicly come on in the summer and keep the attic air moving. that keeps the attic from getting hot and staying hot. he also installed a "whole house fan" this was a huge fan around 36" and it moved the air that was in the house into the attic. at night we would open all the windows and turn on the whole house fan. it would pull the cool air from out side through the windows and then up into the attic. then at 6 when he would leave for work i'd have to get up and close all the windows... the house was cool most of the summer this way... and when it was to hot for the whole house fan we would run the swamp cooler.

My dad did own a new central air unit... but he didn't hook it up until he sold his house.

Nik

[charger490]

move to alaska

[hemi68charger]

Insulate and drywall the ceiling and walls....... I miss that alot in my former garage.. Once the "moving/unpacking" in the new house is over, that's one of my main priorities in the new garage, insulation.........  Opposing windows would probably help too in regards to circulation.....

Troy

[greenpigs]

  I have a brick house so adding windows wouldn't be easy and the way my house is I wouldn't get much if any crosswinds.  The garage is drywalled but not sure if it was insulated...I don't really want to rip it out to see either. The ceiling is drywalled as well but I have a 3 inch gap between my pulldown steps for the attic and I can feel the hot air blowing on my hand.

Sounds like I need some whirlybirds!

[Chryco Psycho]

Move to Canaduh

[derailed]

I only wish I had this problem 

[Steve P.]

Pigs, do you have screen type vents up under your overhangs?? You should.. A MAJOR problem at my last house was NOT that I didn't have enough insulation. It was due to the idiots that put it in. They COVERED the overhang vents!! The idea is to have air flow under ALL of your roof. The best way to have good flow is to :

1) Make sure those vents are clear of any obstruction.

2) If you don't have RIDGE VENTS, add them.. They should run the length of every peak.

3) 10 - 12 inches of insulation over every ceiling in the house. Meaning from every exterior wall to wall. Like a  complete blanket.

4) Make sure your windows and doors are making a good seal.

5) Plant shade trees making sure you follow the nursery's direction on how far to plant from the house. You don't want the tree to add to your problems..

I am not a big fan of power roof vents. Only steel buildings. You want the ridge vents to do the job as they will flow air evenly up under your roof to cool the entire belly of the roof. Powered vents, whole roof or gable end, will disrupt that flow of air and cause large areas or pockets of heat.