Random Question-Engineers?

jasonfish320 · 08-18-09, 11:30 AM

Okay, we are having some freakishly hot weather and our house gets very warm during the day and I am not a fan of AC so we don't have any. So I'm sitting at my desk thinking how I can cool off the house 'cause currently my future wife (3 weeks til the big day) is home and it's 86 degrees... I have a drive under garage at my house and it's always cool in the basement, we have a forced hot air furnace system that's down there and I'm thinkin' that if I remove the back panel where the hot air builds up from the boiler and use a filter so no dust or anything gets sucked upstairs and only turn on the blower part of the furnace so maybe I can suck the cool air upstairs thru the vents and help keep my woman happy...what do you guys think?

WaffleJaw · 08-18-09, 11:40 AM

does it not get that hot in Maine?

Im in TX so hearing someone say ''their not a fan of AC'' is strange to me.
but from what your describing sounds like a possibility....i dont know much about furnaces but common sense says it should work assuming you can force the air without using the heat.or heating element.

or you could get a couple of industrial fans and open a few windows!
i dont know,Im a puss when it comes to heat.....lol,so i love my AC

oh yea,congrats on getting married!!!....forgot to say that

1/4 stick · 08-18-09, 11:56 AM

I'm no engineer, but I have survived in a humid southern heatwave many times without ac. Not knowing if the furnace would work or not; I think window fans blowing to outside would be your best option. And maybe a osalating fan in whichever room(s) you'll be in. Keeping the air moving rather than just sitting there stagnating is the idea.

nofearengineer · 08-18-09, 12:09 PM

HVAC is not my specialty, but I do have a couple of thoughts.

First, I don't know how large your basement is, but I serisouly doubt it has enough cubic feet of cooled air in it to provide more than a momentary relief for your overheated house. Remember, the basement is cool mostly because you're not pulling the air out of it. That would end quickly.

Second...what is your humidty level like there? If it's not bad, you might think about a "swamp cooler", where you blow water-cooled air into the house. It's a lot cheaper than traditional HVAC if your humidity is low, and doesn't require a trained technician ($$$) to work on it.

One more thing that will help a little is switching over to fluorescent lamps instead of the old incandescent lamps. They use much less power for the same light output, and thus give off much less heat. You'd be surprised how much heat is coming from your lighting.

Other than getting newer low-e windows or switching to a lighter-shade roof, there isn't a lot else you can do except pray for an early Autumn.

3dkicker · 08-18-09, 12:43 PM

I'm not an engineer but I stayed at a Holiday Inn once. Using an attic fan to blow the hot air out of the attic will help. Ceiling fans will help too. Make sure the fans are pulling air up instead of pushing it down.

I've got family members who live in New England and they all hate AC but complain when it gets hot. And every summer it gets hot. Go figure.

jasonfish320 · 08-18-09, 12:52 PM

NoFear, the humidity level is currently 74%!..yeah it gets humid..my basement is actually pretty good size, 8ft ceiling and dimensions of 42x38. I'm going to give the furnace thing a shot, who knows...

Bob Smith · 08-18-09, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3dkicker

I'm not an engineer but I stayed at a Holiday Inn once. Using an attic fan to blow the hot air out of the attic will help. Ceiling fans will help too. Make sure the fans are pulling air up instead of pushing it down.

I've got family members who live in New England and they all hate AC but complain when it gets hot. And every summer it gets hot. Go figure.

Many years ago before A/C was a popular thing, I was a younster in Houston, TX. That is where the humidity and the temperature during the summer hovered around 98. We had Attic fans and louvered gables on the house. The Attic fans blew upward into the attic and out through the louvers. The air that was sucked in through our opened windows was usually very cool (at least we thought it was). It was a noisy operation with that big old fan, but it kept us cool through some extremely hot and humid days.
I believe that nofear has probably the best solution for your situation, with the swamp coolers. You will find them all over from West Texas all the way to California.

nofearengineer · 08-18-09, 12:58 PM

Hmmm....if your humidity is that high, I don't think a swamp cooler will work very well for you. Usually they like to see 40% max humidity. (I lived in Wyoming, where just about everybody used them).

I can't sympathize with the negative attitude about AC though. Once you get a nice central air system going in your house, you'll wonder why it took you so long. Heck, I actually need to get myself a generator for my house, since temperatures like you're talking about would probably kill my pet parrot. And believe me, Evansville, Indiana gets HAWT!!

CMorg · 08-18-09, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3dkicker

I'm not an engineer but I stayed at a Holiday Inn once. Using an attic fan to blow the hot air out of the attic will help. Ceiling fans will help too. Make sure the fans are pulling air up instead of pushing it down.

I've got family members who live in New England and they all hate AC but complain when it gets hot. And every summer it gets hot. Go figure.

Well done. I like a well placed joke. However , its Holiday Inn Express.

jasonfish320 · 08-19-09, 09:29 AM

UPDATE-- To my utter amazement..it worked! I removed a vent panel so cool air from the basement could get into the duct, I have manually shut the burner off so it will not try to ignite but the blower will continually run until you shut off the furnace with a switch, which is located at the top of the stairs so I don't have to keep messing with the furnace...atleast for about another month until I need to switch the power to the element back on...

The best part about this is that my return vents are taking hot air from inside the house and forcing it back down into the basement which eliminates the need for a dehumidifier...also, since I have a drive under garage I am able to replenish the cool air at night by just keeping the garage door open for a few hours....

I dropped the temp in the house last night from 89 (it was 77 outside) to 81 in about an hour and a half...

nofearengineer · 08-19-09, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasonfish320

The best part about this is that my return vents are taking hot air from inside the house and forcing it back down into the basement which eliminates the need for a dehumidifier...

I hope that keeps working for you, Jason. Just be very careful with your humidity. If you are pumping hot, humid air into your basement, where it then cools off, you are playing around with a potential mold problem. I have seen condensation destroy homes before to where they were condemned out from under the owner's feet. They city moved in and wouldn't even let them live in the house they owned.

08-18-09, 11:30 AM	#1
jasonfish320 BassFishin.Com Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: MAINEIAC Posts: 585	Random Question-Engineers? Okay, we are having some freakishly hot weather and our house gets very warm during the day and I am not a fan of AC so we don't have any. So I'm sitting at my desk thinking how I can cool off the house 'cause currently my future wife (3 weeks til the big day) is home and it's 86 degrees... I have a drive under garage at my house and it's always cool in the basement, we have a forced hot air furnace system that's down there and I'm thinkin' that if I remove the back panel where the hot air builds up from the boiler and use a filter so no dust or anything gets sucked upstairs and only turn on the blower part of the furnace so maybe I can suck the cool air upstairs thru the vents and help keep my woman happy...what do you guys think? __________________ "If at first you don't succeed; have another beer"

08-18-09, 11:40 AM	#2
WaffleJaw BassFishin.Com Super Veteran Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Dallas,TX (DFW) Posts: 2,212	does it not get that hot in Maine? Im in TX so hearing someone say ''their not a fan of AC'' is strange to me. but from what your describing sounds like a possibility....i dont know much about furnaces but common sense says it should work assuming you can force the air without using the heat.or heating element. or you could get a couple of industrial fans and open a few windows! i dont know,Im a puss when it comes to heat.....lol,so i love my AC oh yea,congrats on getting married!!!....forgot to say that __________________ [nelsoncustomrods.com] Last edited by WaffleJaw; 08-18-09 at 11:58 AM.

08-18-09, 11:56 AM	#3
1/4 stick BassFishin.Com Super Veteran Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Fayetteville, N.C. Posts: 3,529	I'm no engineer, but I have survived in a humid southern heatwave many times without ac. Not knowing if the furnace would work or not; I think window fans blowing to outside would be your best option. And maybe a osalating fan in whichever room(s) you'll be in. Keeping the air moving rather than just sitting there stagnating is the idea. __________________ Just a redneck having fun. https://www.youtube.com/user/donaldvlogsify

08-18-09, 12:09 PM	#4
nofearengineer BassFishin.Com Premier Elite Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Southwest IN Posts: 5,630	HVAC is not my specialty, but I do have a couple of thoughts. First, I don't know how large your basement is, but I serisouly doubt it has enough cubic feet of cooled air in it to provide more than a momentary relief for your overheated house. Remember, the basement is cool mostly because you're not pulling the air out of it. That would end quickly. Second...what is your humidty level like there? If it's not bad, you might think about a "swamp cooler", where you blow water-cooled air into the house. It's a lot cheaper than traditional HVAC if your humidity is low, and doesn't require a trained technician ($$$) to work on it. One more thing that will help a little is switching over to fluorescent lamps instead of the old incandescent lamps. They use much less power for the same light output, and thus give off much less heat. You'd be surprised how much heat is coming from your lighting. Other than getting newer low-e windows or switching to a lighter-shade roof, there isn't a lot else you can do except pray for an early Autumn. __________________ Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing it is not fish they are after.

08-18-09, 12:43 PM	#5
3dkicker BassFishin.Com Super Veteran Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Spotsylvania, VA Posts: 4,483	I'm not an engineer but I stayed at a Holiday Inn once. Using an attic fan to blow the hot air out of the attic will help. Ceiling fans will help too. Make sure the fans are pulling air up instead of pushing it down. I've got family members who live in New England and they all hate AC but complain when it gets hot. And every summer it gets hot. Go figure. __________________ Smitty www.smittystubes.com

08-18-09, 12:52 PM	#6
jasonfish320 BassFishin.Com Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: MAINEIAC Posts: 585	NoFear, the humidity level is currently 74%!..yeah it gets humid..my basement is actually pretty good size, 8ft ceiling and dimensions of 42x38. I'm going to give the furnace thing a shot, who knows... __________________ "If at first you don't succeed; have another beer"

08-18-09, 12:58 PM	#8
nofearengineer BassFishin.Com Premier Elite Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Southwest IN Posts: 5,630	Hmmm....if your humidity is that high, I don't think a swamp cooler will work very well for you. Usually they like to see 40% max humidity. (I lived in Wyoming, where just about everybody used them). I can't sympathize with the negative attitude about AC though. Once you get a nice central air system going in your house, you'll wonder why it took you so long. Heck, I actually need to get myself a generator for my house, since temperatures like you're talking about would probably kill my pet parrot. And believe me, Evansville, Indiana gets HAWT!! __________________ Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing it is not fish they are after.

08-19-09, 09:29 AM	#10
jasonfish320 BassFishin.Com Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: MAINEIAC Posts: 585	UPDATE-- To my utter amazement..it worked! I removed a vent panel so cool air from the basement could get into the duct, I have manually shut the burner off so it will not try to ignite but the blower will continually run until you shut off the furnace with a switch, which is located at the top of the stairs so I don't have to keep messing with the furnace...atleast for about another month until I need to switch the power to the element back on... The best part about this is that my return vents are taking hot air from inside the house and forcing it back down into the basement which eliminates the need for a dehumidifier...also, since I have a drive under garage I am able to replenish the cool air at night by just keeping the garage door open for a few hours.... I dropped the temp in the house last night from 89 (it was 77 outside) to 81 in about an hour and a half... __________________ "If at first you don't succeed; have another beer"

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