So how did we cool this house ... uh, we didn't.
Since the walls are R42 and as tight as a balloon, and we didn't want to mess with a bunch of air returns flying through the timber frame; we decided to forgo air conditioning. Personally we are not fans of air conditioning ... it's just too cold and what we would find later with our electrical bills - too expensive. But I totally get if people think we're crazy. The day I was putting in the wood floor upstairs in the middle of July, temperatures reached 105 degrees, and humidity in Indiana - albeit not as bad as places in the South - is nothing to sneeze at.
After a full very hot summer of this grand experiment I can tell you that the summer was surprisingly comfortable. Don't get me wrong, there were days when we just sat on the screened porch and watched the chickens fuss about drinking sweet tea - but it's completely manageable. Considering we probably ended up saving about $800 in lower electricity bills, it's a total do again. Here's what we learned ...
1. The key is not how hot it gets during the day, but how cold it gets at night.
We actually shut all the windows in the house during the day, to keep the cool air inside. We opened the windows at night when it got cold. Sounds like a pain, but we only had about 4-6 weeks of running around doing this, and we only opened a few key windows. Basically whatever the nighttime temperature got down to, that was the temperature during the day.
We should get even better, once our plants have a chance to shade all the possible places where heat can come in.
2. A fan takes the edge off
We installed one in our bedroom (look for an efficient one), and we found it made us feel about 3 degrees cooler, which can mean a big difference when nighttime temperatures have not dropped below 90.
3. You adapt
Just as winter makes you slow down and rest for a busy season of planting and harvesting, so does the high summer heat. You do move slower. Most of the people who came to visit found the inside temperature surprisingly manageable - but many who just ran in from their air conditioned car and were still moving fast took awhile to adjust.
4. There is a backup plan
In the event we tire of this no cooling in summer thing, we did have backup plans. And keep in mind, eventually the house will need to be resold to someone, and right now, you need an air conditioned house, apparently.
First, the radiant floor heating system can be converted into a relatively easy radiant cooling system. In fact, the people who did our system also did the Indianapolis Airport which is cooled in summer by radiant cooling as well. Basically you just tell the system to pump 70 water through the floor if there's a cooling call from the thermostat - but honestly, we don't see doing that anytime soon.
Second, we put in a whole house dehumidifer - since that is essentially what an air conditioner is doing. We figured that we could handle a 90 degree day, what we didn't want to deal with was the 95% humidity that went along with it. In truth, we didn't really turn it on during the summer, since it takes about a day to make it worthwhile, and usually the nights were low enough to want to open the windows.
Sorry if that sounds a little hippie to those of us familiar with a Hoosier summer, but believe me, it works.
Since the walls are R42 and as tight as a balloon, and we didn't want to mess with a bunch of air returns flying through the timber frame; we decided to forgo air conditioning. Personally we are not fans of air conditioning ... it's just too cold and what we would find later with our electrical bills - too expensive. But I totally get if people think we're crazy. The day I was putting in the wood floor upstairs in the middle of July, temperatures reached 105 degrees, and humidity in Indiana - albeit not as bad as places in the South - is nothing to sneeze at.
After a full very hot summer of this grand experiment I can tell you that the summer was surprisingly comfortable. Don't get me wrong, there were days when we just sat on the screened porch and watched the chickens fuss about drinking sweet tea - but it's completely manageable. Considering we probably ended up saving about $800 in lower electricity bills, it's a total do again. Here's what we learned ...
1. The key is not how hot it gets during the day, but how cold it gets at night.
We actually shut all the windows in the house during the day, to keep the cool air inside. We opened the windows at night when it got cold. Sounds like a pain, but we only had about 4-6 weeks of running around doing this, and we only opened a few key windows. Basically whatever the nighttime temperature got down to, that was the temperature during the day.
We should get even better, once our plants have a chance to shade all the possible places where heat can come in.
2. A fan takes the edge off
We installed one in our bedroom (look for an efficient one), and we found it made us feel about 3 degrees cooler, which can mean a big difference when nighttime temperatures have not dropped below 90.
3. You adapt
Just as winter makes you slow down and rest for a busy season of planting and harvesting, so does the high summer heat. You do move slower. Most of the people who came to visit found the inside temperature surprisingly manageable - but many who just ran in from their air conditioned car and were still moving fast took awhile to adjust.
4. There is a backup plan
In the event we tire of this no cooling in summer thing, we did have backup plans. And keep in mind, eventually the house will need to be resold to someone, and right now, you need an air conditioned house, apparently.
First, the radiant floor heating system can be converted into a relatively easy radiant cooling system. In fact, the people who did our system also did the Indianapolis Airport which is cooled in summer by radiant cooling as well. Basically you just tell the system to pump 70 water through the floor if there's a cooling call from the thermostat - but honestly, we don't see doing that anytime soon.
Second, we put in a whole house dehumidifer - since that is essentially what an air conditioner is doing. We figured that we could handle a 90 degree day, what we didn't want to deal with was the 95% humidity that went along with it. In truth, we didn't really turn it on during the summer, since it takes about a day to make it worthwhile, and usually the nights were low enough to want to open the windows.
Sorry if that sounds a little hippie to those of us familiar with a Hoosier summer, but believe me, it works.
