A/C advice needed

[bossass]

Yo Dogs!

Thanks in advance for any advice. Here's the situation: I live in the attic of a 120 year old house. So, all my walls are slanted and are the roof. It's been remodeled and there's windows a plenty, although they are mostly skylight type things that crank open a few inches. There are 4 regular type windows--one in each vaulted upside down V-thing.

I don't recall last summer being exceptionally hot in my place (we moved in mid-august) but today it was low 90s in PDX and it was a fucking furnace up here. I'm considering some investment in A/C since electric is included in our rent. It/they would have to be window units. Here's my query:

1. The windows are pretty small(24 inches wide), so I'm guessing only a low output unit would fit. I don't know the square footage of my place, but it's basically one big open space, so just putting something in the bedroom and closing the door is out of the question--there are only doors on the bathroom and closet. Would one of those small units do the trick? I'm thinking it would be a losing battle for it to cool our place. What would happen if I did try it? Would it be cool right next to the thing and blazing down at the other end of the house?

2. Would it then work if I had two small units?

3. I saw at costco there's this big unit on rollers and you just run some sort of really big exaust hose to the window and seal it off. Anybody ever use something like this.

Thanks for any insight, stay cool.--BA

Place looks like this, probably double the space you see here, with a small loft that has one opening skylight.

[Idris]

The first thing I would try is get that skylight (the loft one) open as far as possible and mount fans, with ducting if the opening is too small to mount them. Hot air rises, you want to pump that hot air out. Do you get in through an internal stairway? if you do let the air in this way. If you look at how older houses in say florida used to be cooled it was by having a very high roof vent and letting the air in sowhere at the base.

[bossass]

I have a window fan blowing out the skylight in the loft (just did that an hour ago, not during the day when it was real hot). It's not a tight fit or anything, but I think it's mostly blowing out.

There is a stairway up into the apartment, but there's a door and it'd be hard to keep it open (kitty would escape).

[Spats]

You need to exhaust the hot air out the skylight, and pull cooler air in from somewhere else.

If you can't get it from lower in the house (best option), you'll have to open a window. Otherwise the exhaust fan will just pull air around the sides and do no good.

Without seeing the skylight I can't really tell you how to set the exhaust fan up. But without it, I guarantee that sunlight can heat the roof faster than any portable AC can cool the air.

[13]

Ice cube foreplay with the lady friend?

[Snow Dog]

3. I saw at costco there's this big unit on rollers and you just run some sort of really big exaust hose to the window and seal it off. Anybody ever use something like this.

Nice looking place.

I have a freestanding unit not from Costco. It has a 4" exhaust duct for the hot air plus a 24 hour timer so it runs automatically. I use it in the bedroom and set it to cool down before night-night. It works ok but it's a little loud. It's way better than a fan.

I cut an insert with exhaust port to replace the bug screen out of plexiglass so the hot air doesn't drift back in. In hindsight I could have used 1/4" plywood instead to block the light at 4am.

I also built a screen out of a space blanket to block a south facing skylight. That makes a big difference. it still lets a little light through and you can look at the sun during an eclipse.

[Sublime]

You should take a look at swamp coolers. They require no venting and can be moved around the house with ease. I'm not sure how much square footage your cooling but they have models that go from 88.00 to about 300 bucks. Some of them come with remote controls and built in air filters.

http://www.air-n-water.com/swamp-coo...vaporative.htm

[Spicoli]

Move to the basement.

[assgasorgrass]

just bought a house with central air so I have a small window unit, fairly new, for sale cheap.

[EPSkis]

Roughly how many sq ft?

I had the same issue in one of my old apts. Sounds to me like you might want to buy shades for the sunlights & windows, which should keep the ambient temperature down at LEAST a few degrees. ANY direct sunlight is going to keep the place warm. You *should* be able to get away with a small AC unit, and a pedestal fan to keep the cool air circulating.

If you're blocking enough light, you may not NEED to vent the place, it depends on how well the AC unit works - you're probably not getting a TON of 90+ degree days there, so you should be fine.

[PJ2001]

Boss, I design A/C systems for commercial and multi-family buildings as a career so hopefully I can help you out here.

First, swamp coolers are really only effective in warm, DRY climates like here in Denver. You need to evaluate your location as to whether it's a viable option. My guess is that a swamp cooler would not be very effective in that type of space considering how much envelope (roof, windows, walls) load you're getting into the space. Swamp coolers are not capable of delivering air at as low a temperature as a window A/C unit so it probably wouldn't work very well. Also, you'd need to provide a water connection to the swamp cooler which may not be feasible.

Window A/C units are usually capable of throwing air at about 30-50 feet barring any obstructions. Personally, I would go with two units. You're going to get much better air distribution. Also if your climate is humid, one oversized A/C unit is going to present humidity problems. It's much better to have a couple small units cranking away most of the time than to have one large unit cycling on and off. Oh and spend the extra money for one with an actual thermostat instead of the "Warmer-Colder" knob. You'll save yourself a lot of fidgeting with the controls.

Oh, and if you go with the window A/C unit forget about any exhaust venting. You'll just end up spending money on cooling air from the other parts of the house instead of maintaining the air within your space at the temperature you want. You're probably getting enough outside air into the space via infiltration so that air quality shouldn't be a concern.

Hope that helps.

[splat]

Square footage determines your btu needs, bossass. Top of a house always needs more. Looking at the pic, one windowshaker will do you fine if your sleeping area is not walled in. I have a fairly large brand new Kenmore Model# 78189 that would chill the place I'll sell.