Tips for scorching weather?

Innovation – that was on low which is the setting we use all of the time anyway as it gives a cool gentle breeze and is not very noisy. Coming from Queensland I must say the evap coolers are wonderful compared to aircon!

bigfeet said :

How nice was that cool change that came through this afternoon?

I sat out in my pergola with a bottle of wine, a cuban cigar and some relaxing tunes and just kicked back.

It was good and bad, while it reduced the temperature it also dumped about 3m of rain and hail that flooded my pergola and ruined all my chillies that had not matured on my chilly plants.

How nice was that cool change that came through this afternoon?

I sat out in my pergola with a bottle of wine, a cuban cigar and some relaxing tunes and just kicked back.

aronde said :

Innovation said :

Growling Ferret said :

Two words. Ducted evaporative. There is no heatwave in this house and it costs 9/10s of sweet FA to run….

We have it too and leave the fan/no water on low overnight to keep the airflow going and cool the thermal mass back down again. But I think that I remember reading somewhere recently that the water consumption on these things can be excessive (up to around 90 litres per hour). Does anyone know how much these things use (and I’ll ignore posts to look at my meter because the more modern ones refill intermittently and I’m not interested in waiting in front of the meter in the middle of the day)?

We worked out ours uses 30 litres an hour. Not sure if that is good or bad by modern standards as ours is a pretty old model.

Ta. Was that flat chat or at reduced speed? I presume it makes a difference as well as does the size of the unit.

Gungahlin Al said :

The problem you’ve described there Beejay is thermal mass. You want mass that can absorb heat on the inside but not on the outside. Brick homes have the mass all on the outside and eventually it gets to the point where no matter how much cool air is coming in, the heat radiating out of the bricks just overwhelms it. A literal oven.

That why we chose Hebel panels for the skin of our place. 20% the mass of solid masonry plus all the air bubbles make it like bubble wrap insulation

I know! Luckily for us, we built under the OwnPlace scheme, but you don’t get a lot of choices. At least we don’t rent anymore and now have shade on our western windows, insulated slab, solar HWS, northern orientation, and now, cooling 😀

When paying off the mortgage raising children and the home facing north with the 30’s – 40 temps, airconditioning could not be afforded for ten years by the time it was put in vehicles for the kids and other major costs.

So, for those with little ones at home with no airconditioning, I suggest purchasing a Bonaire walk a round cooler, put iceblocks into it (yes those work), close the blinds, purchase a little pool for under the entertaining area and pop iceblocks into it, to give the kids a dip throughout the day. A bucket of water for pets with iceblocks out of the sun, hydralite or gastrolyte for kids who are active perhaps once a day, to re-hydrate them, tap water not bottled water, watermelon, a cool bath during the afternoon (half filled) and if feeling the heat, drive the kids to a shopping centre for a break or to the movies for airconditioning (if it works properly)!

Thumper said :

Holditz said :

Thumper said :

My cat sits under the sprinkler.

Seriously funny.

Pictures or video or it didn’t happen.

This cat….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q5xyaHBdhs

Come on thumper… Video of the cat under the sprinkler please 🙂

Innovation said :

Growling Ferret said :

Two words. Ducted evaporative. There is no heatwave in this house and it costs 9/10s of sweet FA to run….

We have it too and leave the fan/no water on low overnight to keep the airflow going and cool the thermal mass back down again. But I think that I remember reading somewhere recently that the water consumption on these things can be excessive (up to around 90 litres per hour). Does anyone know how much these things use (and I’ll ignore posts to look at my meter because the more modern ones refill intermittently and I’m not interested in waiting in front of the meter in the middle of the day)?

We worked out ours uses 30 litres an hour. Not sure if that is good or bad by modern standards as ours is a pretty old model.

Thumper said :

Holditz said :

Thumper said :

My cat sits under the sprinkler.

Seriously funny.

Pictures or video or it didn’t happen.

This cat….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q5xyaHBdhs

Strong ladder…

I live in a double brick home slabs on both storeys. Last night I had to run the aircon for almost a whole hour!

Growling Ferret said :

Two words. Ducted evaporative. There is no heatwave in this house and it costs 9/10s of sweet FA to run….

+1 for that.

Oh, and four words. Cerveza Sierra Nevada fria.

Growling Ferret said :

Two words. Ducted evaporative. There is no heatwave in this house and it costs 9/10s of sweet FA to run….

We have it too and leave the fan/no water on low overnight to keep the airflow going and cool the thermal mass back down again. But I think that I remember reading somewhere recently that the water consumption on these things can be excessive (up to around 90 litres per hour). Does anyone know how much these things use (and I’ll ignore posts to look at my meter because the more modern ones refill intermittently and I’m not interested in waiting in front of the meter in the middle of the day)?

Gungahlin Al said :

beejay76 said :

We have a well insulated house with eaves (I know! Eaves!) and it still gets hot. We do all the things you’ve mentioned and it does take days to heat up. But it always heats up in the end. Then we’re stuck with a house that’s 30 inside day and night, with no way for the heat to escape because the ceiling is too heavily insulated to let it out. Yes, we could install double-glazed roof windows to vent it, but we can’t afford that. So we’ve just installed ducted evaporative cooling instead. F#*&ing brilliant. House is now awesome in winter *and* summer.

The problem you’ve described there Beejay is thermal mass. You want mass that can absorb heat on the inside but not on the outside. Brick homes have the mass all on the outside and eventually it gets to the point where no matter how much cool air is coming in, the heat radiating out of the bricks just overwhelms it. A literal oven.

That why we chose Hebel panels for the skin of our place. 20% the mass of solid masonry plus all the air bubbles make it like bubble wrap insulation

Good stuff indeed!

We moan about our increasing need for energy, but one of the most significant things we could do to mitigate it would cost nothing: legislate that all houses have to be north-facing with properly-designed eaves.

Holditz said :

Thumper said :

My cat sits under the sprinkler.

Seriously funny.

Pictures or video or it didn’t happen.

This cat….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q5xyaHBdhs

Gungahlin Al said :

Well you know where to start then… 🙂 I wasn’t going to write all that advice all over again when people can just google the old threads.

Sadly for the renters of Canberra, making substantial changes to the house isn’t really an option.

One thing I recently discovered is that you can use space blankets (the silvery mylar ones you use for camping/emergencies) as a type of reflective window treatment to keep the heat out. At a couple of dollars off ebay, they’re way cheaper than real window tinting, and surprisingly, work like a one way mirror, you can see out from inside, but they’re like a mirror on the outside. If you mist the glass lightly before applying them and rub out the wrinkles, they stick by themselves, and I’ve found them to be extremely effective for the price.