central A/C

[Tango Yankee]

Even dogs like A/C!

A few minutes ago I let our dogs in for the night. One of them, a female Australian Shepherd/Australian Cattledog mix by the name of Bacall (her brother's name is Bogie ), came in and made a bee-line for the floor vent, flopped down next to it and shoved her face against it.

In our bedroom we often wind up having to put something over the floor vent that will let air flow but will keep her from lying on it. It gets a tad warm in the room when she does that. :eusa_doh:

She may be a dog but she knows what she likes!

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Burton]

Reading the posts on this topic made me remember a vist to my old Texas home years ago after I had thought I could be cheap and not worry about climate control while away from the house for a number of months.

The places houses a fairly large collection of ethnic arts from around the globe and upon entry I was horrified to see the effects of humididty on artifacts (particularly animal hides) that were originally from dry areas like the Sudan. They had changed to a very interesting shade of green due to the new mold/fungus/whatever that was growing. My 17 foot dugout canoe from New Guinea was quite fine though.

 

[Feraud]

Air conditioners do an excellent job of blocking out unwanted neighborhood noise.
My drunken neighbors think they can sing but the howls of my dog tell me otherwise.

 

[KittyT]

Air conditioners do an excellent job of blocking out unwanted neighborhood noise.

I find that earplugs do a pretty good job of this as well

 

[Feraud]

My wife says I never listen to her. Earplugs may result in a divorce. lol

 

[Elmonteman]

eco-panels

Even though I know next to nothing about construction, I have managed to cool a number of houses without A/C. I live near Los Angeles, California, and it does get hot--very hot during the summer. Of course, "hot" is a relative term when it comes to describing heat and hot sauce. My heat solution was to spray the roofs with polyurethane foam.

A great proportion of the heat in a house comes from the sun (hey, I'm gifted!) during the day and then the attic once the sun goes down. Usually if there is any insulation in an attic it's laying on top of your ceiling--but that's too little and too late. The theory of the foam is to prevent the heat from penetrating the roof so that the attic is never turned into an oven. The foam becomes the insulation and it becomes a one piece membrane enveloping the roof. Some people leave their asphalt shingles in place and spray over them. Living in earthquake country, I prefer my roofs as light as possible so I remove the shingles and am happy with just the foam and the sealing agent used over the foam.

Many places where it becomes extremely hot, like Arizona, etc. have used this technology for a long time. You can spray in different colors, but I prefer white for maximum effect. If you've ever worn something dark in blazing sunlight you know that changing into something white makes a difference. You may have heard that, "If the 100 biggest cities in the world installed white roofs and changed their pavement to more reflective materials -- say, concrete instead of asphalt-based material -- the global cooling effect would be massive...." http://articles.latimes.com/2008/sep/10/local/me-roofs10 But let me leave that digression right there.

People commonly spray an inch or two for with pretty good results. The biggest problem that I have run across with foam roofs is simply the aethetics. People prefer the wood shingle look to a roof that looks like snow. Fortunately, I just ran across a company that solves that problem. They manufacture what they call "Eco-panels." They make a panel that resembles an ice cream sandwhich. They take two panels of any number of materials (your choice) and then fill the gap inbetween with foam. What I think is exceptionally exciting (Lord help me) is that the insulation can vary from 1 inch to 8.5 inches! The latter has been used in arctic regions where they use these panels for the walls and the roofs.

By encasing the foam with wood or other materials for the panels, not only is the insulation perfectly even without spraying, one can apply wooden shingles (if your local fire code permits) on the top panel and no one would ever notice that you've got the "coolest" roof in world short of being in a cave. Here is the website of the panels:
http://www.eco-panels.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11&Itemid=44

 

[Mav]

My heat solution was to spray the roofs with polyurethane foam.

This works. It was done with Eichlers.