Why didn't we think of that earlier?
Posted on 08/02/2021 5:29:41 PM PDT by Jonty30
Just a point of curiosity. I've been reading up on how buildings can be designed to draw heat from the ground and have it sent upwards, which keeps the ground floor cooler.
So, I'm just wondering how often southern homes make use of this design and why it isn't used more?
I don’t live in the South, but I live in a place where the summer temps can reach the high-90s with high humidity, and I don’t have air-conditioning in my house. The truth is, you get used to it. Simply by opening the windows at night, closing them during the day and making sure the curtains are drawn, you can maintain a temp in your house that’s 10* cooler than the air outside. You just deal with a house that’s 89* inside and live your life.
Air-conditioning and electric water-heaters have made us soft.
I’d like to know more about this. TIA
Well, down South we used to have high ceilings (heat rises), tall windows, big wide porches with rocking chairs, dog runs and breezeways, root cellars, and, among the rich, slaves wielding fans.
A type of traditional architecture in the south often had squarish floor plans, high ceilings, and steep pyramidal roofs with vented pyramidal “monitors” at the apex (a whole house attic fan could be used to intake cool air from the shady side of the house and push rising heat out the top very efficiently), plus covered front porches to control the sun on the southern side. Cheap electricity and air conditioning killed these by making “ranch style” tract houses with low ceilings viable. People moving to the suburbs perceived these “affordable” homes as “modern”.
I designed an updated version of a monitor house with some enhanced features for a friend who built it in Florida. I remember him calling me to say he was standing in the central space measuring 72F on a thermometer while it was 98F outside; no AC — just convection. The perimeter rooms were probably warmer.
Ice houses did exist.
Ice houses did exist.
That’s impressive, but for me, in a humid climate, you gotta have A/C to knock down the moisture.
Heavy metal leaching from the condensor? I ran a couple dehumidifiers and those 70 pint tanks filled up quickly I thought originally wow I can use that to refill my fish tanks as they routinely evaporate. Did some research and that water would kill the fish. Also looked into the possibility of using that water for my plants and it was also not recommended.
I live in south Mississippi. The fireplace has gas logs and is used heavily for heat. Much more efficient than heat pump. Also have porches all around house, cuts way down on solar heat from windows in summer. Finally throw in trees for shade. I have concrete board siding but at least around me most houses are brick. So we do use architecture to cut energy use.
Lol!
Exactly.
The big change over the past couple of decades has been the increased use of insulation, and sometimes thermal mass.
There’s a whole long discussion about why plants work better than fixed architectural elements — the seasons don’t perfectly track the sun’s path around the sun, but plants do. Bare-branch shading in winter is a problem for passive heating designs, but more than makes up for the benefit during the summer.
We have a 30 year old architect designed home in South Carolina. Our home has concrete floors, 10 foot ceilings with ceiling fans, large fixed windows with transom windows above that are screened and can open and close. The home was built with a geothermal system, which we loved because it was efficient and inexpensive to operate. One disadvantage is that the indoor units and piping ran through our attic, and there are many winter days of freezing temps. Would the pipes hold? When it came time to replace the geothermal units we discovered they were not readily available so we decided to switch to traditional electric heat pumps. Electric units are expensive to maintain and operate.
Air conditioning.
Solved.
“I was also reading up on how pipes that are filled with water can be used to also cool houses.”
****
I did that when I started in Hollywood, and my previous apartment did NOT have air conditioning which was a killer during summer time. I would just place water containers around the apt. to cool off the area. My neighbor who catered to studios had at least 100 of those ice plastic containers and I would freeze them and take out 30 at a time.
I’m not a fan of heat pumps, but they have become more competitive over the years. I’m more of the school of using a DX unit in the summer for AC, and natural gas forced air in the winter.
Very politically incorrect, but I like to be cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
In Việt Nam many homes are built with very high ceilings and they stay cooler.
“Why aren’t houses built underground?”
Have you smelled a basement?
Why didn't we think of that earlier?
If the homes is made of Brick or Stucco they are much cooler!!
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