12 Jul 2003, 14:06, Phil Marlowe (1:167/133), wrote to Michel Samson:

Hi Phil.

 >> temperature dropped to 23.8 degrees Celcius. At
 >> 4:00 in the morning i shut down the fans then
 >> closed openings, fifty minutes later the
 >> temperature had risen to 24.9 degrees Celcius -
 >> i'm not too certain that the sun was up yet...

 PM>   Well you're doing the wise thing there.
 PM>  Venting [it works faster and better if you use a
 PM>  window fan], and then shutting the windows and
 PM>  drawing the blinds to keep the sun out, usually
 PM>  keeps the place here cool until noon or later,
 PM>  sometimes into late afternoon, depending.

 PM>  Even on very hot days, I usually don't use the
 PM>  A/C until 2 pm.

I use an automatic "setback thermostat", one of those electronic
gadgets with programable time and temperature settings.  I set it the
opposite of the recommended settings, that is, colder at night when the
outside is cooler reduces the load on the A/C, and pre-cools the house for
the next day.  At 8:00AM it goes up one degree, and at 1:00PM it goes up
another degree.  On most days when it is 90 degrees outside, the A/C
doesn't come on until 3:00 to 4:00PM.  At 9:00PM after the sun is down, it
drops one degree, then again at 11:45PM it drops another degree for
comfortable sleep.

 PM>   I don't really think a frig generates that much
 PM>  heat, but I could be wrong. How hot are the coils
 PM>  in back of your frig? A tip Hydro-Quebec repeats
 PM>  often is to keep those coils free of dust-buidup.

That's a good tip too!  If the heat can't get out of those coils, the
fridge has to run longer to get it's job of removing the heat from inside
the box done.

 >> Only the lower halves of our windows let air
 >> circulate, that puts a lot of distance between it
 >> and the ceiling which is more than a meter higher
 >> - some heat reservoir!

 PM>   Sounds like -that- could be a problem.
 PM>   Again, a good window fan might help get that
 PM>   hot air out.

It would help a lot if such a fan could be mounted in the upper half of a
window to skim the heat from the ceiling area.


     Good luck...  M.

--- Msged/386 TE 06 (pre)