Sleeping on the front porch after a hot summer day was an absolute must. The upstairs of the 1940s farmhouse had been converted into a sauna and sleeping in the rooms above was not possible. Even after the sun went down, the upstairs seemed to get hotter. Let’s look at some ways to cool down a house without air conditioning.
As I spend time trying to figure out how a home can be made more energy efficient, I think back to those hot summer days and ask myself two things:
1. Where was the air conditioning?
I have seen several articles doing the rounds that talk about air conditioning as an unnecessary appliance. That people have softened up, and if people could handle heat like a caveman, they wouldn’t need those energy-wasting air conditioners.
Growing up in that North West country house, air conditioning was not expected. Sleeping on the front porch a few times a year was. Air conditioning was only for city people who weren’t lucky enough to live on a farm.
Where was the air conditioning? It was still in the variety store catalog.
2. Why was it so hot upstairs at night?
When you’re sleeping on the front porch and you’re 10, you don’t really care why it’s so hot upstairs. It’s not something you try to figure out before you go back to sleep on the porch. You like to sleep on the porch.
If upstairs is too hot to sleep in and you’d rather not risk sleeping on the porch or anywhere else outside, then considering why the upstairs and the whole house are so hot at night becomes a problem. important problem to solve.
Air conditioners are quite energy-saving devices, but their operation is not free. With the constant screeching of the air conditioner and the electric bill rising by the hour, a person tends to think about why it is so hot upstairs and ways to cool down a house.
Years later:
The old farmhouse was moving to a new location and I had the chance to look into the attic while part of the roof was being removed. Instead of the attic being the dark and creepy cave of my childhood, it was an inviting place to explore with lots of natural light.
I was surprised to see that the attic had nothing inside. No old magazines, no old socks or toys, no old carcasses of rats or cats. Of course, there was no insulation either and I could look down the chimney gutter from the attic to the basement. This is a good place to start answering the question of how to cool a house.
The roof had no attic vent on the top of the roof or on the eves. The only ventilation was provided by two gable vents, one at each end of the attic. The roof tiles were always a dark color.
Now I quite understand why the upstairs of this old house was so hot after a hot summer day. The attic collected heat all day and then shared it with the floor below all night.
How to prevent the attic from overheating and ruining a good night’s sleep.
Here are 10 ways to cool down a house before adding air conditioning. These will help you in your attempt to keep the house available at night. Try these modifications and improvements.
1. Solar Powered Attic Fan
A solar powered attic fan works great and is a one-time investment of $450 to $800. When installed on the roof, the self-contained solar unit draws hot air from the attic whenever the sun hits the solar array with enough direct sunlight to operate the fan.
Best operation occurs when attic ventilation is added along the eaves and maximum roof ventilation is limited.
2. Ceiling sprinkler system
Well it works on flat commercial buildings, it might work on houses too. Anything that cools the roof surface will help prevent heat from radiating into the attic space. Unfortunately, this can add to your water bill substantially. Sprinkler and hose, $20. Water bill around $300.
3. Really big trees
Shade the roof and you have a cooler attic and a cooler home. If you have a two-story home and are just starting to plant shade trees, this solution may take a while to materialize. A redwood 12 inches high, $4.95. Expect shade in 40 years.
4. Air sealing the attic floor
Especially before adding insulation, do not add insulation to the attic floor without first air-sealing vents and penetrations. Best process, good light drop, knee pads, and a can of Great Stuff spray foam insulation. Materials cost, $30.
5. Addition of additional roof vent
Ways to cool a house start with attic ventilation. Most older homes simply don’t have enough attic ventilation. Ventilation must allow airflow from the eve to the peak. Take out the solid bird blocking and add vents in the eves. Add vents made of metal or plastic near the spout. During the installation of new roofs is the best time to add attic ventilation. Eve Ceiling Guys, $8.50. Roof vents around $12
6. Add insulation
After air sealing, install the insulation. The insulation will help slow the transfer of heat from the attic to the living space below. The more insulation, the better. Building codes keep adding insulation, in some of the colder parts of the country insulation to R-49 is the code. That’s about 16 inches of insulation.
Don’t worry, this could be a DIY project. Large building supply stores have the material and equipment you need to get the job done.
Add insulation in colder climates to keep warm, add insulation in hotter climates to keep cool. Add 12 inches of blown fiberglass insulation for about $1.25 to $1.75 per square foot of attic floor space.
7. Sealing of the knee wall floor connection.
Many older two story homes have knee wall attic space. This is the space along the walls of an upstairs room that has reduced clearance along the sides of the room. You know, you are standing on top and you have to be careful to stand in the middle of the room to avoid hitting your head.
The problem is that the knee wall attic is often open to the space between the floor of the room above and the ceiling of the room below. This means that hot air in the attic from the knee wall can travel right under the floor above and help heat the entire house.
Stuff some insulation in a plastic bag and place a bag between each floor joist opening in the knee wall attic. This will prevent hot air from traveling between the floor and the ceiling. It is important to seal these floor joist openings during the cooling season and heating season. Plastic bags $.50, insulation, $1.00 per bag.
8. Chimney sealing
In older balloon frame homes, the chimney flue is often open, allowing heat and cold transfer between all floors, from attic to basement. For effective cooling and heating, these chase runners must be sealed. Spray foam insulation, $7.00 per can.
9. Put fans in upstairs windows
Place one or more large box fans in the upstairs windows. Install them so that they go out the window. Close all other windows and exterior doors, but leave interior doors open all the way. Bring cooler air from the basement through the house and out the upstairs windows.
Basements are always cooler and can help cool the rest of the house. Hopefully you don’t have a smelly tank of stove oil in the base! A good box fan around $30.
10. Install solar panels
Typically, when you install solar panels on a roof, the panels are placed on a rack system that keeps them about 3 inches off the roof. The panels prevent the sun’s rays from hitting the roof surface and reduce heat transfer to the attic space.
One of the advantages of solar panels on a hot day is the shade they provide to the roof. Maybe not as good for shade as a big redwood, but it’s still shade.
Most power companies will help you install solar panels. They know that when it’s hot out and all those air conditioners turn on, they need all the help they can get to cool a house.
I wish I still had that old farmhouse with the big front porch and big yard. She’d have a few tricks ready for those hot summer afternoons when it got so hot upstairs. After sealing the air and insulating the attic, I would install a solar attic fan, mount some solar panels on the roof, attach a couple of box fans to the upstairs windows, and spread out my sleeping bag on the front porch.
These are ways to cool down a house, but you can still get a good night’s sleep on your front porch. Of course, a better air mattress would be needed these days than before.
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you sleep a little cooler tonight, don’t forget to turn off the light…
