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July 18, 2008
Cooling with air from basement
Is there any reason houses aren't cooled by pulling basement air to the roof via a duct along the back of the house, then dumping the cool air down into the top floor? SHouldn't this, in conjunction with an attic or whole house fan, do a nice job? Is there any hvac guy out there with a holistic approach to these things?
Comments
Technically this is called an isolated gain system, and it's used in green building approaches in new construction. I don't think it would be useful in a retrofit, as you have to have the whole cycle of air working for you -- another path for the return air to be pulled back down to the cellar and cool. Not very practical with conventional brownstone construction.
Posted by: Smokychimp at July 18, 2008 2:31 PM
If anyone's interested, tell me how to post pictures on this forum and I'll post a sketch of how these work
Posted by: Smokychimp at July 18, 2008 2:33 PM
Smokychimp, I'd be interested -- though I'm not sure how you might post pictures here. Question: would it be any more practical if your aim was to cool only one floor (say, for instance, you wanted to cool the basement floor in a brownstone with air pulled up from the cellar)?
Posted by: 16Street at July 18, 2008 2:58 PM
16street it'd work, but again only if you had the ability for the return air to come back down into the cellar.
Posted by: Smokychimp at July 18, 2008 3:12 PM
It would work for a short time. Warm air would return to cellar and soon enough warm cellar. Its not a big enough heat sink.
Posted by: chas at July 18, 2008 3:20 PM
You can post a picture if you start a new Forum post, but I don't think there is a way to post a picture in response to somebody else's post.
Posted by: clintonhillbilly at July 18, 2008 4:06 PM
This is interesting to me too, smokychimp.
But wouldn't it make sense to get the hot air to go out via the roof, so that the cool cellar stays cool? Or is there something I don't understand?
Please make a post that explains this. *Content* beyond neighbor-whining on brownstoner forum is a good thing!!!
Posted by: vanburenproud at July 19, 2008 4:54 PM
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