Soldato
I know you can't abide criticism and have half the forum on ignore as a consequence, but seriously that is one stupid reason to have AC. It's literally like trying to cool a room with the radiator on.
Should more homes have air conditioning these days?
- Thread starter Pawnless Endgame
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I know you can't abide criticism and have half the forum on ignore as a consequence, but seriously that is one stupid reason to have AC. It's literally like trying to cool a room with the radiator on.
Soldato
So you're saying more Aircon, but we leave the windows open, on a treadmill?
Soldato
AC and heating are only solutions to a problem that need not exist (or at least to a far less extent) if homes were built in a way to naturally stay temperate. For example heat exchange systems in a well sealed home with good insulation can keep temperatures reasonable all year round without wasting huge amounts of energy on heating or cooling (the heat given off by the people living in the house can be enough at times).
It just seems odd that we have all this technology available but loads of people still live in old draughty houses that they can't afford to heat, some new builds aren't always much better (last one I rented was freezing downstairs). We should able to keep a building at a constant (or pretty close) temperature rather than the extremes of too hot / too cold and the arguments over when to turn the heating on (do you set it for a couple of hours or leave it at a minimum temperature etc). Plus you have other downsides to AC / heating such as drying the air out and causing skin complaints.
Essentially I want to live in a cave.
My house has a heat recovery system (MVHR) but it's crap as far as I can tell and is a total waste of time. In the summer it helps not at all to keep temps down, in the winter it simply blows cold air into the house meaning I have to work harder to heat the house.
This on top of being noisy (the developer had it switch off at the fuse box when showing me around - whether intentionally or or not I can't really say). There are vents in all 3 bedrooms which give a constant background droning sound when the vent is in the open position. I have to close the one in the main bedroom so I could get to sleep properly.
The unit I have can't be switched off unless I do so at the fuse box to make matters worse, I can't even have it off overnight on a controllable schedule. I believe it's the Ventaxia Sentinel Kinetic B model: https://www.vent-axia.com/range/lo-carbon-sentinel-kinetic.
My understanding is the MVHR system is meant to push a certain volume of air to work at the designed capacity. At that calibrated level it was so noisy I thought I was on the deck of the starship enterprise when I flipped the fuse switch to the on position.
My old house had trickle vents in the windows, and extractors in the bathroom/kitchen (on 24/7 for moisture removal, but boosted when the lights were switched on). I had isolator switched though so I could disable them if I wanted to. The old one seemed to work better and cost a lot less to do. Presumably the developer does it to meet some kind of green energy accreditation.
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Air conditioning does cool things down though???
Soldato
I have ceiling fans in the bedrooms of my house. If you get decent ones (ie. not the crap from B&Q) then they're silent, do a great job and use less much electricity than AC.
AC units generate a lot of heat: https://www.popsci.com/ask-us-anything-does-using-ac-make-it-hotter-outside
Caporegime
Did his name not give you a clue?
Soldato
Fans do zero to cool your house down though they just move air around. Make you feel a bit cooler due to the breeze effect but that's about it.
Soldato
I've seen his posts in the Motorsport forum. At this point he seems more dumb than a troll.
Soldato
I agree. The fans are all I need to get a good nights sleep. Admittedly I enjoy hot weather, though, so having a warm house during the day doesn't bother me.
Soldato
That's all you need.
Soldato
OK, but I have maybe 4 rooms I use frequently enough that I would then need 4 fans minimum, I'd need to put them somewhere so that I could use them without them being in the way/access to power, and to keep on switching them on/off all the time depending upon what I was doing. I can't really sleep with a fan blowing at me either.
Split aircon is far better if done properly, and doesn't just move the hot air around the house. I don't know if you've tried living in a stupidly insulated new build house during a few months of heat like we've just had, but it's not been a lot of fun with or without fans. Frequently reaching 29-30c with no way to properly dump the heat, as opening windows doesn't even help unless there is a decent breeze outside.
You don't need 16c indoors at the height of summer for a home, but a small unit or two will take the edge off the higher temperatures. They can also heat as well if you get the ones that do air source heat pump functions.
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Soldato
You could also consider manning up a bit... It's just a little period of discomfort during an unusual spell of hot weather.
Soldato
I don't call 3-4 months of a 12 month year a little period of time.
Tell you what, go the whole winter without using heating, just man up a bit?
Meanwhile I'll look at booking in some AC installation so I don't spend all summer dying in the heat.
Permabanned
If you all got out and exercised more you wouldn't be such sweaties dying in the awesome warm weather. 