Quickest way to cool room

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t0ny

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#228628 15-Jan-2018 10:07

With temperatures hitting sky high and AC units struggling, what is the best and quickest way to cool the house/room. Opening windows dont really help much when there is no wind coming from outside and shutting blinds when its already hot dont let the hot air dissipate much.

rscole86

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#1938922 15-Jan-2018 10:18

There is already a good thread on this if you have a look for it. But first question would be why is your current air conditioner not doing it?

t0ny

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#1938936 15-Jan-2018 10:29

I searched but threads that resulted seemed inconclusive :p

Air conditioning is part of the central heating/cooling system which i fairly ineffective when trying to cool a large house. Since we cannot add more windows , is the only viable solution tinting the windows?

MikeB4

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#1938951 15-Jan-2018 10:51

Placing a fan in the door way with the airflow direction out the door is probably the most affective way to drop the temperature. It will of course equalise with the ambient outside temperature.

Aredwood

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#1938954 15-Jan-2018 10:56

Opening the windows is definitely not going to help the aircon system. As outside air will have high humidity, which takes a lot more energy to cool down than low humidity air.

Install shade sails or tarps to block the sun from shining in the windows. And if your ducted system can change between drawing in outside air and recirculation. Set it to recirculation.

Either you have a system fault, an undersized aircon system, or something causing excessive heat load on the system. Such has high air leakage between inside and outside.

wellygary

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#1938955 15-Jan-2018 10:56

t0ny:

I searched but threads that resulted seemed inconclusive :p

Air conditioning is part of the central heating/cooling system which i fairly ineffective when trying to cool a large house. Since we cannot add more windows , is the only viable solution tinting the windows?

Or closing the curtains and windows when the sun is on that side of the house,

When the air temp outside is near 30C, opening windows actually makes very little difference to the temperature of the room,

You basically have to close all the windows, turn on the AC and close off rooms you don't need to use/cool,

hio77

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#1938956 15-Jan-2018 10:58

aircon really should be covering it for ya.

In my main computer room, I ended up picking up a high airflow fan from mitre 10 - Impulse buy...

Sits between open window and door, pumping hot air on out and encouraging a bit of flow from outside (doesn't help when it's averaging 26+ outside though!)

Added advange of it directing the head coming out of computer away from stagnating.

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t0ny

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#1938960 15-Jan-2018 11:04

Pumping hot air out gave me an idea. I have a positive pressure system (basically two fans in the cieling space which pull air from outside and pump in the rooms); how about changing the direction so instead of bringing air inside, it pumps it out. The AC or open windows will then fill that space with cool air??

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Coil

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#1938966 15-Jan-2018 11:17

I reckon you just lock the place up all day and run the AC for a few hours each morning 3AM-8AM and at intervals throughout the day. keep everything closed.

wellygary

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#1938971 15-Jan-2018 11:25

t0ny:

Pumping hot air out gave me an idea. I have a positive pressure system (basically two fans in the cieling space which pull air from outside and pump in the rooms); how about changing the direction so instead of bringing air inside, it pumps it out. The AC or open windows will then fill that space with cool air??

not really worth it,

and anyway the AC doesn't bring "in" any air to the house,

It just takes the air in the room runs it across a heat exchanger and puts it back out into the same room,

Just close up the windows and let the AC do what it does best,

timmmay

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#1938981 15-Jan-2018 11:46

I saw a thread which referenced a story recently. It said put a fan in the window and point it out, so it's blowing hot air out rather than trying to push cool air in. The air being drawn in from the house has to be cooler, of course. Seems to work.

Senecio

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#1939042 15-Jan-2018 13:26

t0ny:

Air conditioning is part of the central heating/cooling system which i fairly ineffective when trying to cool a large house.

I think you've partly answered your own question here. Central heating/cooling systems are most effective when used to maintain a set temperature. They're not as effective at trying to drop the temperature of a room/s that has already gotten uncomfortably hot. As well as the other suggestions to shade windows to prevent heat build up I would suggest turning the air con on earlier before the room heats up.

timmmay

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#1939046 15-Jan-2018 13:38

Last winter we kept the heating on 16 hours a day as we had a young baby. The house felt much more comfortable than previous years, where we turned heating on an hour or so before we got home. Heating cost wasn't a heck of a lot more, though it's difficult to compare because I changed power companies and due to things like holidays making comparisons difficult.

We'll probably do that every winter now, though maybe the temperature can go down a bit if no-one's home.

neb

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#1939136 15-Jan-2018 15:28

t0ny:
I searched but threads that resulted seemed inconclusive :p

Air conditioning is part of the central heating/cooling system which i fairly ineffective when trying to cool a large house. Since we cannot add more windows , is the only viable solution tinting the windows?

If you don't mind doing a bit of building work, you could put in a windcatcher to deal with the worst of the heat, then once it's down to a manageable level let the AC do the rest.

mugs2000

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#1939142 15-Jan-2018 15:46

Here's an option although it might not be what you are looking for.

Dampen your clothing with water and aim a fan at yourself. The water evaporating cools you down much like sweating does except that you don't experience the same amount of discomfort.

Aredwood

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#1939445 16-Jan-2018 01:21

@t0ny have you confirmed that your system actually does have air conditioning installed? As lots of gas central heating systems have provision for adding air conditioning as an extra. Yet very few in NZ had the aircon option installed. But almost always the supplied thermostat does support cooling.

On such systems, if you set the mode switch to "cool" and turn the thermostat on. It only turns on the fan that moves air through the ducting.