Parade Magazine…lower your energy bill
homedesign
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Today’s Parade magazine suggests that homeowners brush “ceramic-powder laced paint” on walls to create a radiant barrier.
Is that really a good idea?
What is this stuff? How permeable would this stuff be?
Does it matter Where you live or how your wall is built? YES
The same article has some other confusing ideas about ceiling fans.
They claim that a ceiling fan can actually cool the heated air???
Well, I live in Texas and if that were true …I would get myself one of those!!!
Replies
Ceiling fans actually RAISE the temp of the air, due to conservation of energy. You're putting energy (motion) into the air; it degrades to its lowest form, heat.
A little, anyway.
Why don't they mention THAT to get people talking?
Forrest - raining on the Parade
The other thing that they do not mention is that a ceiling fan will have no beneficial effect unless there is someone in the room.
Can you imagine how many people turn on their ceiling fans and leave the room!
Speaking of Parade magazine...did anyone see "ask Marilyn" a couple ago weeks ago where she advises a double hung window strategy?
With radiant heat it is beneficial to move the air around while no one is in the room. Helps keep condensation from forming on the bottom of window glass. I'm thinking also that the moving air keeps the heat striation from forming in radiant houses with high or vaulted ceilings.A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
ok my foot is in my mouth...I am not thinking of all climates myself
thanks
Forrest - raining on the Parade
That was good. Pretty good.
Thank you - I try so hard to have comment-specific taglines
Forrest - congratulating myself
"They claim that a ceiling fan can actually cool the heated air???"
That is true, under the conditions that they specify.
The heated air is at the ceiling.
That means that there is cooler air at the floor level.
The fan will mix it up and thus cool the HEATED air.
But that is only a minor affect.
Of course the real problem is the cooling affect on the human body, not the mxing of the air.
"Today's Parade magazine suggests that homeowners brush "ceramic-powder laced paint" on walls to create a radiant barrier.
Is that really a good idea?"
There are radiant barrier paints. Sherwin Williams makes one. I think that there is aimmed for the underside of roof.
From my limited understanding of radiant energy transfer that, in general, radiant barriers are most effective where you have signficant heat sorces. The most common is the sun. But radiant barriers are sometimes used in engine compartments for example.
My guess is that radiant barrier on walls would have some, but not significant affect. And also that a material mixed into any paint would be much less affective than paints designed for such applications and that would be less affected then the polished aluminum radiatn barriers. But who wants to wallpaper their walls with aluminum foil?
They mentioned something else.
Using pipe insulation to keep the pipe from freezing.
In general it does do any good. In some very limited cases it could keep a pipe from freezing. But it others make it more prone to freezing.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Other than the heat added by the motor(forrest)..I don't see how the fan can add heat to the air...I can see how it can move the warmer air down low and I see how it may make a human more comfortable.
The point we usually make in a cooling climate is don't leave the ceiling fan on if you are not in the room.
I did not consider how mixing up the air may help in a heating climate with radiant heating.
I would be concerned about the radiant paint concoction becoming a vapor retarder on the wrong side of the wall in certain climates.
I've read books where squirrel cage blowers at the bottom of a duct that goes from ceiling to floor are recommended--less cooling "wind" generated and they sort of suck the hot layer of air from the top and blow it across the floor. Made sense.
Like someone else said, moving air is genrally percieved by humans as cooler (since it speeds up evaporation of moisture from the skin). Wind chill effect.
<a duct that goes from ceiling to floor >
I will use that technique in a house I will start in the next few months - I'll post pix.
Forrest
For a couple of years now, I've been trying to figure out a way to put in a 2-story version of that in my house. It would be a great way to equalize the temperature of the two floors.George Patterson
Maybe in a stairwell?
My situation will be easier because I'll have open trusses through this small house/suite and no ceilings (except where the bath goes; that has an 8' ceiling and the HVAC sits on top). Will pick up warm air in the clerestory and blow it down in winter -
View Image
Forrest
WE have alot of old, old houses downtown that has what they call a widow walk. Its like a crows nest on a house. suppose to be so the widow could watch the sea from land. But what it really is is a chimney for the heated air to escape the house. just like your picture..Haga su trabajo de fricken
brownie, Two different things, The "Widows Walk" actually was designed and built in the days of sail powered shipping and whaling for exactly the reason you mentioned. Not only were they built on houses but also on some banks and lending institutions so that they could be the first to spy the incoming ships. Fortunes rose and fell on who saw which ship first . I think that the ones you see are either copies or what is called a belvedere (sp?) They were designed to vent the houses and provide a place to take in the evening views"Poor is not the person who has too little, but the person who craves more."...Seneca
Access hatches for widows' walks are notorious heat losers. As are cupolas.
Like Brownie said.
;-)