Retro Tech to reintroduce:

[jeffreyab]

I have been thinking the future will look alot like the early part of the 20th century and bradhicks has laid out four ways in which this should be true.

His full post is on his blog but here is a summary of retro tech to reintroduce:

1. Ceiling fans in every room. In the summer they suck up cold air from the floor and in the winter they blow down hot air from the ceiling to the floor. Every room used to have them.

2. Window awnings They shield the house from direct sunlight in the summer keeping things cool and they allow windows to be open during rain letting in cooler air in the summer.

3. Weedy but fast growing trees like sugar maples, sweet gums, Bradford pears, or Tree of Heaven. To the west, east and south they shield the house from the sun in summer but let in the sun in winter. Gardeners got away from them because they need replacing every 40 to 60 years.

4. Attic fans Suck hot air from the whole house and then sends it through the attic and then out through the vents to keep the air up there cooler by circulation.


Bonus move: keep doors to rooms you do not use often shut. No need to heat or air condition a room you do not use often.

Comments

[erikvolson.livejournal.com]

In many areas, a big "whole house fan" that would pull air from the whole house into the attic (and then out via the attic vents.)

The trick here -- you'd run this at night, pulling the cooler night air through the house. You then close up the house and pull the curtain during the day -- esp. the hottest part of the day.

[elizilla]

There's also the option that I'm working right now. Consider the ease of heating/cooling a given room, as part of your plan when deciding how to arrange your house.

Another retro tech idea: Deep porches. Sociable porches on the first floor, and screened sleeping porches on the second floor. They make a house very comfortable.

I really want to get away from the whole central air thing. It's expensive, bad for the environment, and isolating.

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

I really want to get away from the whole central air thing. It's expensive, bad for the environment, and isolating.

I'll cheerfully kill to keep mine. I spent decades living in houses and apartments which didn't have it and used all of those techniques above, and I hated summer with a passion. It just gets too goddamn hot and humid not to have it in this part of the country.

[eviljohn.livejournal.com]

You're not really arguing with what elizilla is saying, right?

I also have central air, but I've implemented #1 and #4 (thinking about #2), we've used the AC I'd guess 3-4 days so far this year.

Obviously different people have different heat tolerances, but I think we'd all agree that needing to use AC less is better.

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

If you're using a conventional AC system, you'll certainly save money by running it less. We've got #2 (which actually sucks during the majority of the year when it would be nice to have a little sunlight in your house so use retractable ones if you do this -- we're thinking about tearing ours off and eventually doing that) and #3. #1 isn't an option because our ceilings are too low, and #4 is likely not an option because of how our house is constructed.

One thing we do that they didn't mention is use a booster fan over our key upstairs vent. That helps a lot during both the heating and cooling seasons, because otherwise you have to crank the HVAC to make our upstairs bedroom habitable. (We did try moving to an easier-to-heat room two winters ago, and because of the layout of our house it really, really sucked.)

One big option that isn't mentioned -- probably because it isn't retro enough for the theme -- and really should be is a geothermal heat pump:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_heat_pump

If you've got one of those, you can heat and cool your house to comfortable levels for a lot less money. We plan to install one when our furnace wears out, if not before, assuming we stay in our current house.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

Booster fans are a good idea, getting more air flow to the rooms you want it in.

Heat Pumps need to be researched as all areas are not suited to them, I have a neighbour with one that was always kicking in its electric heater which at the time was much more expensive than gas.

With the energy paradigm shift approaching all this may change.

Have you and L bought a wind mill yet?

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

No, but wind power is something we're keeping an eye on. It's a lot more practical than solar in this area (i.e. it might actually pay out; solar electricity on a residential scale won't with current tech).

[eviljohn.livejournal.com]

In this area solar hot water is the best payoff.

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

Interesting.

[elizilla]

Oh, I'm not saying I'd rather be hot and miserable than run the central air. But if there are things I can do to avoid being hot and miserable, besides just cranking the central air, I am all over that stuff. It's the best of both worlds.

[(Anonymous)]

I installed a ceiling fan in my bedroom about 10 years ago (don't tell the landlord!). It's the best $100 I ever spent. It's one of my favorite luxuries, even with air conditioning.

[elizilla]

When I was riding in the Balkans, a lot of the places we stayed had these terrific shutters on the windows, with wide slats that moved. Kind of like really thick venetian blinds, on the outside. Since the buildings were all made of concrete blocks, and they had these shutters, the buildings were cool inside even though they didn't seem to have AC there and the climate was hot. I don't think they had mosquitos - there were no screens on a lot of these windows, but I don't recall getting any mosquito bites. Just friendly cats coming in to visit.

But I don't know if it ever gets as humid there as it does here. The house I grew up in was constructed of those same kind of blocks. It was cool inside, like a cave, even though we had no AC, very pleasant in summer. But one summer we closed the house up and went away on vacation for a month, and we came back to a mold disaster. And the central heating was inadequate - we were always cold in there in winter. I think the concrete block buildings are far more practical in hot dry climates.