Enjoying your air conditioning?

[maxx]

http://www.independent.co.uk/environ...t-2041647.html

And we've been spending $20 B a year air conditioning tents in Iraq and Afghanistan. That sounds like something out of "Catch 22".

[wolverine]

We can design homes and office buildings nowadays to utilize passive cooling for highrise and midrise buildings. For example, I have both windows on each side of my apartment open and the cross breeze coming through makes it feel like 65 degrees when it's actually 88 outside. I don't use my air conditioner. A more high tech system uses a double skin facade where excess heat is trapped and either exhuasted to the interior during cold weather or simply rises up through the top instead of being trapped in interior spaces.

For people in low rise buildings and single family homes, you can utilize ground heat exchange. The ground's latency to temperature allows cool air from the winter to be exchanged in the summer and warmer temperatures in the summer to be exchanged in the winter.

[GOAT]

Wolverine, how would a person do the double skin facade? I have a loft in my 3rd floor where it gets very hot in the summer and the only way to get rid of the heat is through skylights but then the A/C up there runs quite a bit.

How does one get it to "rise through the top"? Since a ceiling is closed the air would just be trapped until the heat pushes the cold air down the flight of stairs resulting in a hot room.

In my loft the actual roof is only a foot away from the plaster ceiling/walls [[the walls are at a 45 degree angle meeting in the center at the top of the room). Insulation can't be put there because then no draft would keep the roof sheeting dry.

[gnome]

http://www.solarroofvent.com/

goat, just wrote you a long explaination, but hit the wrong button and the whole thing poofed.

[gnome]

Are you saying that when you open the skylight, the noise from the AC is too loud? is there any way you can shield the unit without interferring with the function or performance? A line of arborvita might work if you can get water to them.

[GOAT]

Sorry I should clarify. I mean that I have to keep the skylights open inorder to continue to release the hot air inthe room. Having the A/C on either negates the effect if humid outside or the cool air drops down the staircase.

I would like to find out how to release the heat in the summer and keep it cool with Mr. Slim [[a central air unit designed for areas without air ducts).

[GOAT]

The Solar roof vent looks very interesting. In fact that may do the trick because I only have knee-walls and the remainder is sloped.

Thank you very much for the info. They are a bit pricey but if they last it will be well worth it.

[wolverine]

Wolverine, how would a person do the double skin facade? I have a loft in my 3rd floor where it gets very hot in the summer and the only way to get rid of the heat is through skylights but then the A/C up there runs quite a bit.

How does one get it to "rise through the top"? Since a ceiling is closed the air would just be trapped until the heat pushes the cold air down the flight of stairs resulting in a hot room.

In my loft the actual roof is only a foot away from the plaster ceiling/walls [[the walls are at a 45 degree angle meeting in the center at the top of the room). Insulation can't be put there because then no draft would keep the roof sheeting dry.

It's not practical with existing construction. Older glass buildings from the 60's to the present have been successfully retrofitted, but if the facade is masonry, concrete, wood, whatever, the double skin facade cannot be used. Really my post was geared toward new construction and the fact that the majority of recently built office and residential highrise buildings are glass curtainwall.

I wonder if you are thinking of a different system I'm describing since the comments about the ceilings and skylights relate to the interior of the building, not the exterior. Here's a wikipedia article on it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-skin_facade

It's unfortunately very expensive to do, but with the economy improving and highrise construction picking back up, we're starting to see more clients pursue this as a strategy to make their buildings more energy efficient.