Cooling Top Floor?
Central A/C aside, what do folks think about standard summer issue of cooling top floor? Roof recently “silvered”, have heard here that insulation drops temp a few degrees, and would certainly help in Winter. Is there such a thing as a vent system to remove heated air from the roof space? Those slim A/C thingies?…
Central A/C aside, what do folks think about standard summer issue of cooling top floor? Roof recently “silvered”, have heard here that insulation drops temp a few degrees, and would certainly help in Winter. Is there such a thing as a vent system to remove heated air from the roof space? Those slim A/C thingies? Have 2-3 feet gap. 3 floor brick. A/C in bedroom certainly helps but looks a little unappealing from the street. Hardly end of the world, but . . .
Any thoughts/experiences to share much appreciated!
trees on the south side of the house help a lot. But this is a multi year project. Insulating roof help too. When they will insulate it they will build vent “mushrooms” as well. If you have row house in Brooklyn – opening windows on the opposite sides will have some ocean breeze going though.
Funny last Sunday I drove in NJ and my car showed 97F outside. right after this it showed 89F in Brooklyn and temperature on the fist floor of my rowhouse was 78F. I guess dues to trees on the south side.
My grandparents had a fan in their attic that pulled air out. It was in D.C. which is very hot & muggy & it made a big difference. There were louvers in the ceiling of the top floor in addition to the exhaust of the fan that vented outside.
Some people have whole house fans that basically pull hot air out from the top of the house, which sucks in cooler air from outside. This of course only works if the air outside is actually cooler, such as at night. A more basic way of doing something similar is to close up the house during the hot part of the day, covering sunny windows with curtains, shades, or awnings, and then when outside cools off, open a window in the basement and the windows upstairs and hope there’s enough circulation to pull some of the cooler lower floor air up. At the very least I’ve found that opening windows on opposite sides of the top floor helps clear out the hot daytime air with cooler night breezes. Most old fashioned double-hung windows can be opened on top too, so you can leave them open up there to let hot air out during the day. I survive pretty happily with a lot of open windows and ceiling fans but heat doesnt bother me as much as some.