How to cool the home.

[twombo]

If you live in a low humiidity area like me, an evaporative cooler is dandy!

I have a thermostatically controlled Solar Chill, model 2412. It is a 12VDC, 3500 cfm unit and it has 6" thick rigid media and electronic pump control to cycle the pump on and off to maintain the media at just the right moisture level for most effective cooling. Oh, its made of stainless steel too. One of the other energy saving bits is the 24 inch 4 bladed fan versus the less efficient squirrel cage blower.

I'm seeing about 180 watts of current draw versus nearly 900 watts for my old AC cooler.  It's been hot here in Northern California the last couple weeks and I happy as can be!

Another thing to seriously consider is a solar powered attic fan  or even better a whole house fan.

Here is a 1000 CFM unit that draws only 160 watts and has insulated doors. Unfortunately,  it is AC only, but in a properly installed system should get the job done in maybe 5 minutes of operation.

http://www.wholehousefan.com/faqs.html

Of course, reducing the generated heat load in the house is a biggy. Barbecue a lot or cook early in the morning!

Cheers

Mike

[Clifford]

A couple of ideas....

There are supposed to be Ammonia / Natural Gas / LP Air Conditioning units.  They might be as efficient as running a gas generator to make electricity to run a compressor to run an AC unit, and they should be a heck of a lot quieter.  Ammonia refrigeration is the oddest thing, using heat to generate cooling.

I would think that it should be possible to make a solar - Ammonia Refrigeration and AC unit.  I did see a description of a solar ice maker, but it was HUGE.

Note, the temperatures at night drop by 10-20 degrees in many communities.  If you work all day, open your windows, or put in some fans to blow out the hot air and let in the cool evening air.

Nothing beats some good shade trees....  unless they are obscuring your solar panels or blocking your wind.  Consider planting a grove of trees upwind from your house.

I'm not sure about the idea of living in a cave....  however, your basement is often the coolest room in the house in the summer, and can be the warmest room in the winter.

Good Luck,

Clifford

[Clifford]

Your link seems to have gotten scrambled.

I believe this is the page you were linking to:

http://techref.massmind.org/techref/other/spac.htm

There are several interesting links on that page including:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/library/1986_July_August/Heating_and_Cooling_With_The_Sun_

http://techref.massmind.org/techref/other/solfrig.htm

http://www.needfulprovision.org/main/solaroven.php

http://www.limsi.fr/Individu/mpons/solaradsor.htm

http://www.sjtuirc.sjtu.edu.cn/news/ISHPC%20-%20101%20K.pdf

Happy Browsing

[wooferhound]

I use a forced filtered ventalation system . . .

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2005/4/6/2056/94039

It works pretty good, until the outside temperture goes above 85º or so.

[Caradoc]

If you're in a low-humidity climate, an evaporative cooler will do the trick for you.

An alternative is tapping groundwater in a geothermal heat pump system. Note that in winter air-based heat pumps switch to their backup (absurdly expensive electric resistance heating) while 55 degree groundwater lets geothermal heat pump do the job without backup. In summer, your heat pump pulls calories out of your house and dumps them into the water. One plus is that if you run enough water through to keep outgoing temperature at 60 degrees fahrenheit or less, the outflow is cool enough that even in really hot climates you can get trout to breed in your pond.

Other alternative is the solar powered unit by Sunchill:

http://www.partsonsale.com/sunchillhigh.htm

Caradoc