Help! Im alway’s coming to you for advice when Im up against an old dog who refuses to learn new tricks. Please settle this on going argument for me. Let me preface:We have a red brick georgian house that has a hip roof. Originally built in 1928( the soffits are stuffed tight with funny papers from 1930’s) and another owner put solid aluminum eaves with NO ventilation. There are 6 holes 7″ diameter roughly cut into roof and a huge whole house fan. The house is HELL in summer.
This is where the argument starts. I say can we PLEASE leave the windows open with shades3/4 down, for cross ventillation and a breeze along with ceiling fans.
HE refuses to listen and closes up the entire house during the day-windows shut curtains drawn.
The house is hotter inside that outside when we get home. Whos correct?
I suggested removing the newspapers, cutting ventillation into the eaves, putting in R13 batting until we can replace the 3 old roofs that are layered on top of one another. Please advise Pam
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This is where the argument starts. I say can we PLEASE leave the windows open with shades3/4 down, for cross ventillation and a breeze along with ceiling fans.
HE refuses to listen and closes up the entire house during the day-windows shut curtains drawn. "That's OK until the inside is Hotter. When you get home that's the time to turn on the whole house fan and open the windows."
The house is hotter inside that outside when we get home. Whos correct?
"It will be hotter until someone is home to open them up when the sun starts going down or when the cooler breezes come".
I suggested removing the newspapers, cutting ventillation into the eaves, putting in R13 batting until we can replace the 3 old roofs that are layered on top of one another. "Attic without insulation will cool down faster than an insulated one. When you do reroof, do add high dormers or ridge vents along with eave vents." Please advise Pam
The house is hotter inside that outside when we get home.
Obviously his approach is not working.
I say can we PLEASE leave the windows open with shades3/4 down, for cross ventillation and a breeze along with ceiling fans.
This will certainly help.....at least the inside temp of the home should be the same as the temp "in the shade" outside.
I suggested removing the newspapers, cutting ventillation into the eaves, putting in R13 batting
This will also help.....even without a vented ceil or "whole house fan".....removing the super-heated air (usually 20-30 degrees HOTTER than outside) from the attic will certainly keep the home cooler
Tell the old dog to learn........there are lots of new dogs out there.
Thank you Pickings. In the fall I will remove stuffing, put more attic insulation down, cut eave vents, and see about blowing in insulation behind the interior walls between the brick and the plaster/lathe walls. Until we can get a new roof. Then I would like to put in ridge venting as well.
There are good reasons for keeping the windows closed in the daytime. One is to prevent theft.
It is hard to determine if leaving the windows open will help or not.
In summer sun, 95 degree temps, and little wind, any house will get hot.
80 degree nights with even a little wind is much nicer.
Thanks GHR, At least with the windows open hot or not , a breeze will make it feel cooler not as stuffy.
I suspect the big problem, as others suggested, is the accumulated heat under the roof. My bedroom is a converted attic with small attics on either side of the knee walls. Increasing the insulation of the knee walls to block that radiant heat made a huge difference.
With the windows closed and the insulation in, the bedroom remains slightly cooler than outside. Before the insulation, it was considerable hotter inside than out.
Good luck.
An additional problem may be that the structure of the house is storing heat. We had that problem with one house. Aluminum siding over wood siding, no sheathing, stud wall construction, wood lath and plaster. At night it was hotter inside the house than outside. The mass of the walls absorbed heat during the day, and released it inside at night.
Who is right? Good question. Makes that "Phil" guy on TV a bunch of money coming up with answers <g>.
Spend about $10-15 on a Max-Min digital thermometer over to Radio Shack. That will let you at least "prove" that it's hotter inside than outside.
Now, would attic ventilation help? Dunno. It doesn't down here under the Tropic of Capricorn (29N) in a summertime typical 55-65% humidity. A well-ventilated roof around here only results in an attic 5-8 degrees cooler, about the same as a car with the windows cracked open--still typically over 120 to 130 in the attic.
Now, opening the windows in the house--that might help draw cooler air in the house. May not help cool the structure, sitting next to a warm wall radiating heat is not much better than being in hot, stuffy air, after all.
So, what's proably needed is insulation per the Building Science recommendation for your region.
Remove the paper and the solid aluminum soffit.Replace with ventilated soffit,the entire soffit run.This is a start, see if there is information available on the whole house fan you have. Possibly the holes cut in the roof are too small or nit enough.
I do not claim to be an expert on this particular problem , though I do know you are correct in your assumptions.You mention putting in R13 batting. Do not insulate the soffits, just the ceiling joists or rafters if the joists are not accesible.
mike
Thanks Mike, No I would not insulate soffits. I will just remove the newspaper stuffed in the eaves. The reason for the r-13 batting in the attic is to prevent the heat from coming down baking my face as I lay in bed. The reason I want the windows open a little is to relieve the heat build-up in my convection oven/house. Nightime is a whole different story. Thanks Again, Pammy
"the soffits are stuffed tight with funny papers from 1930's"
just so you know, there are collectors of those funny papers that will purchase them from you so be careful during the removal.
You only have around 230 square inches of ventalation if my calculations are correct. I'm willing to bet that is not sufficient for your attic fan - check the manual. It's certainly not going to be very efficient if there isn't enough exhaust capacity.