I live in a 106 year old building in Pasadena, CA, where it is supposed to be 102 today. Luckily, the building is solid concrete, and I have a ceiling fan and a smaller fan, which usually keeps the temperature below 85 inside. I also have a high ceiling and a transom opening opposite the windows for some cross ventilation.
It’s still hot - and I know that people were around before air conditioners…any ideas for cooling the room off?
So far, I’ve had limited success blowing air with a fan over a bowl of ice.
You might try hanging wet sheets over the windows. It is pretty dry in Pasadena, no? The evaporation from the sheets ought to cool the room. Also, keep the lights off, blinds closed.
You might be able to get really creative with a window unit, a dryer exhaust hose, cardboard and some duct tape… have the window unit inside the room with the hot air getting vented. Watch out for condensation, though.
I’m not sure what a window unit is, but I know that you can get portable A/C units with the dryer exhaut hose attachment. AFAIK, you just put the hose out of an open window (so it’s not particularily efficent, as you’re letting in more hot air). Still, better than nothing - you could even fit the hose into a white plank and set it up at the bottom of your open sash windows (it looks like you have sash openers from the photos).
It’s a UK site, but Heatbusters will give you an idea as to what’s out there.
Evaporative coolers (aka swamp coolers) work well in low humidity regions. Yes, there’s in-the-window kind but there’s also a stand alone version that looks a lot like a bulky box fan.
Fill it with water from a pitcher, put it near a partially open window and it’ll draw the dry air from outside and blow it over a water-saturated material cooling it. You should leave an exhaust window open, too for the moist air to leave or you turn your room into a greenhouse and it stops working. You’ve got to keep a steady feed of dry air.
Check at OSH and home depot near the beginning of summer, I got a room evap cooler for $99 and it helped alot.
I live in fresno,ca which with its relatively low humidity makes evap coolers rock. The main unit on my 1280 square ft house is a 5,000 CFM (turns over the whole air volume of my house every 2-3 minutes)and its been 78 inside when its 105 outside.
well it is 1:07 here, and the temperature outside is 104, and inside it is 83. The best thing I’ve found so far is a wet rag draped around my 12" fan, that I rewet as needed.
Something else that seems to work somewhat well is the same fan blowing over a bathtub of (relatively) cold water.
I’m beating the hallway outside my door my 5 degrees :).
Don’t the atomizing units just make it feel like new orleans in july? Sure, it’s only 90 instead of 110, but it is so freakin’ humid that you just don’t care?
Also, when you say evaporation via wet sheets, does the window have to be open (heat energy) for the effect, or will it work with the windows closed?
I think the idea was to hang them over open windows. Of course, if it is 104 outside and only 84 inside, I would have the windows closed. The wet sheets should have an effect similar to the towel over the fan.
Go to the movies, or shopping, or a motel if you just want sleep. The heat won’t last much longer this year and the wet sheet stuff tends to be messy. Home Depot had portable evap coolers (pad, fan, and water tank in one) at the begining of the Summer season.
For next year ask about a Mitsubishi Mr. Slim type wall-mount a/c. It is a split system and the indoor unit mounts flat against the wall or ceiling and has a remote controller. It is connected to the outdoor unit by two small refrigerant lines. Historical buildings seem to prefer the small split systems because you usually don’t have to do much (if any) drilling or cutting and they are easily removable. They run about $5,000 installed, but it would be real cooling, not just wet air.
Also, consider a radiant barrier in the attic, if applicable. They really help cut the cooling load and are a fairly easy DIY project.
Make sure your fans are spinning in the right direction cause, one way warms the room the other cools it. I forgot which is which cause I don’t use them .
If you have survived your ordeal here’s something I’ve found works well when I’m home during a NYC Spring or Fall hot spell (when the landlords are no longer required to provide AC (if it’s central).
Wet you hair and, if necessary, your shirt. Works great and it’s easy and cheap (just like some people I know:)) Your own personal swamp cooler.
For your shirt, just the shoulders often or works.
I’ve seen the Castle Green! Never knew about the AC problem. How awful! Wherever it’s hot, I think the AC inventor was the greatest. Some movies were filmed at the Castle Green: http://www.seeing-stars.com/Locations/70sLocations2.shtml
My parents’ 1930 house has no a/c, and many of the windows don’t even shut that tightly, but we manage to keep the house at a nice 75 or so, even when it’s over 100 outside.
The way we do it involves not only fans but a system of opening and closing the windows – leaving them open all night to let in the cool air, then closing them during the day starting with the east side of the house. When the last person leaves in the morning, they close all the windows and turn off the fans blowing air in. As soon as it’s cooler outside than in, the windows open again.
We also use one of these: http://www.heatersnfans.com/4C509.ASP (though not this particular model – and I don’t think my mom paid that much for it). Hassock fans take cooler air from the floor and circulate it, in an efficient way that moves and cools a whole room full of air very quickly.