how too cool w/o electricity

[lamoncha lover]

I am wanting to go with mostly propane. I really dont even care if i have elctric except for I don't know alternative ways to cool a house. ANy ideas if its possible? thanks

[Common Tator]

For one thing, porches that keep the direct sun off your exterior walls help, as do tall shade trees. Light colored exterior paint and roofing material are also recommended.

[lamoncha lover]

do they make propane air units?

[fishhead]

We put strings from the roof to the ground about 18" from the wall. Then we planted morning glories and scarlet climbing beans. It keep our house at least 10 degrees cooler than outside even with a canner going all day long.

[mnn2501]

Tall shade tree's and floor to ceiling windows that can be opened top and bottom at the same time (top to release heat because heat rises, bottom to bring in cooler air)

[o&itw]

They make propane refridgerators, but I have never come across larger propane coolers, and if their were, I suspect it would take a fan to make them usuful as air conditioning.

If one had yet to build their house, an underground house/basement house will tend to keep itself much cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter....think root cellar.

[artificer]

Originally Posted by lamoncha lover

do they make propane air units?

They make commercial chillers, which you could make into an AC unit. You don't want to know the price of them, nor do you want to feed them with propane. A larger one is here. At a COP of .6, its not too bad. 12,000BTU/hr of cooling would use about a quart of propane, or 6gal/day.

Michael

[PyroDon]

If you can find one a small diesel compressor unit off a refer truck would make for a great air condintioner

Ive often wondered if you could use solar in place pf propane to utilize an air conditioning system similar to a propane fridge .
If one had a cold running spring it would be a simple task to use piping like a radiant floor system to cool the house .

[uncle Will in In.]

We got along without air conditing for 46 years.
The secret to staying cool, is to sweat to beat the band, and carry a rag to keep it wiped out of your eyes.
If you find anything that does more work for the price than electricity, please tell me. <>UNK

[PhilJohnson]

Heh, I just put blankets over all widows except the north facing ones and run a couple of fans.

[HermitJohn]

Yes they make propane air conditioners or at least I saw one in a catalog once. Very expensive.

I think only cheap strategy is super insulation plus smallest AC room air conditioner you can find run off inverter/battery/solar panel setup. With the super insulation, it will have to run very little.

A super insulated building or room takes little to heat or cool. Trick is get ventilation without losing/gaining heat (depending on season) usually through an air to air heat exchanger.

[TnAndy]

Build the house right to start with, and avoid AC. We built our with 10" thick walls ( double 2x4 plus air space ) and mostly on concrete slab....LOTS of mass takes a lot of time to react to change in temps....either up in summer, or down in winter.

Then plant deciduous trees on the south and west sides for summer shade.

Then use a whole house fan to pull night air in.

Those 3 things let us live quite nicely without AC

[Loquisimo]

I would put in a swamp cooler, but I think Tennessee is too humid for that. I live in California, where prolonged dry air allows the use of swamp coolers. If the problem is that your homestead is too hot and humid to be lived in without danger (heatstroke, etc) the solution may be a tiny AC unit. There was a case in Modesto during the 2006 heat wave where there was a threeplex and two of the apartments had dead tenants. What saved tenant #3? A small AC unit, just a cheap little Korean piece of crap. It kept the studio apt cool enough to save his life. It didn't cool it THAT much, it was still warm, but it wasn't deadly hot. That would likely be my solution for a hot, humid climate. Also, planting shade trees, especially trees like oak where you can eat the acorns, or plant grapes.

[Horns Bach]

You are never too old for a swimming pool...the kiddee ones work great or else a big stock tank...that is the only way we survived for years without electric or air conditioning (plus we had a small stream). Make yourself a nice shady porch and nowadays they have all kinds of mist systems to stay cool on the porch even without electricity. Used to keep my rabbits cool with fans run off deep cycle batteries, inverter, and wet towels.

[Shadow]

If you dont have electicity you have no reasonable method of airconditioning. We did with out airconditioning for 25 years, then health problems I either had to have it or die. Heat puts a heavy strain on a bad heart. Before we used a couple of window fans when it was over 95. Thought we were saving money, found it cost same to run fans as small air units. No one has to have cooling unless there are health reasons, I was born in 41 never saw a air conditioning unit untill1955 or 1956 and it was installed in my familys store. guess we were all just tougher back then. Being a repair man I tried all the other ways none really was worth the trouble.

[CamM]

Dip some sheets in cool water and hang them over windows. Somebody else metioned evaporative cooler (swamp cooler) but I think those require a continuous source of water and it's sort of a pain. This past summer I opened the top and bottom of the double hung in my room to let air circulate, and left it opened at night to bring the cool air in; this made my room the coolest on the upper floor but still it could get into the 80s. If you can vent air into the attic the heat can escape through the ridge or soffit vents. Old houses were equipped with vents on every floor so the heat would travel up and out. Shade windows from the outside, etc.

[raymilosh]

Read about passive solar cooling. Proper overhangs, shade the roof and the wast and west walls with trees, get good curtains and close them and the doors and windows in the day and open them and the windows at night. Don't let sunlight into the house. Also, cook outside, move the fridge outside...basically put as many heat producing things outside as possible.

[roachhill]

I'm going with the method of high thermal mass but I'm building my house it's not really something you can do after the fact. I was considering a unit they make for semi sleepers to keep a small area cool for sleeping. You fill a cooler with ice water and hook this dodad to it and it circulates the cold water through a radiator like thing with a fan blowing across it. Of course you need a 12 volt battery for the fan and a freezer for the ice and after all that trouble it only cools a small area but I could look up the name if your interested.

[Ken Scharabok]

Many of the solar cooling ideas seems to be taken from farmhouses in the South. In addition to what has already been mentioned about them, often had a cupola in the middle of the roof to vent lots of heat out of the attic and ceiling fans.

I have a 16' x 80' mobile. Lots and lots of air gaps. About the only reason I'll open a window is to get at the screen. I positioned it so most of the windows face south for the solar gain during window. We get about three months of cold, three months of hot and six of in-between. I'm in a valley which opens to the Southwest - the direction of the prevailing winds. I can prop open the front and back doors and get a breeze through, which really helps. As long as I keep the cattle and donkey manure picked up in the yard (which is just an extension of their pasture), flies aren't a particular problem. And, even then, there is 'the thrill of the chase'.

[Alex]

CAUTION SOME ADVANCED COOLING IDEAS -- DO NOT SHOOT THE MESSENGER
As mentioned, use,

• Stack-effect to move large air flow
• To get stack-effect open a big hole or put in a duct in the center of your house
• The opening would be from the bottom floor ceiling of your house to as high elevation as available
• You could even create a stack-effect chimney to get greater draft
• Open windows, or walls -- large areas, all around perimeter of house
• The warmer, and lighter, air rises and new air rushes in
• The in-flow travels past skin and evaporates moisture,
• Which cools the body at the rate of 1000 Btu/hr per pound of water evaporated
• There are 8.35 lbs of water in one us gallon

Another form of evaporative cooling, which, as mentioned, is using a swamp-cooler, in dryer climates -- like parts of AZ, etc. A swamp cooler is a fan, which is electric, which blows air over a wet media.

A variation of evaporative cooling, which I like, and works well, in dryer climates,

• Spray water, yes even in a house,
• Use the house water supply
• Arrange small irrigation misters all around your house or patio

Another idea is to use a waterfall to cool the water in a pond, same idea, some evaporates. However, this time use a bit of electricity.

• Pump water to a, water-cooled chiller or air conditioner
• The condenser side of the chiller is cooled by the water falling and evaporating from the pond.
• This still uses energy and saves cooling tower cost and saves some traditional cooling tower fan and spray pump energy.
• Or, there is radiant-ceiling-panel-cooling this uses electricty

• Pump the water from the waterfall or pond through pipe in the ceiling -- normally a concrete ceiling
• Works best in dryer climates so no condensation
• Works best in conjunction with a large air flow sysetm like the stack effect idea
• Works well with the waterfall water which is NOT too cold, again, no condensation

Other ideas,

• Wearing much lighter and less clothing is important
• Previously mentioned exterior shade could reduce solar radiation on windows, walls and roofs by up to 80% -- very effective
• Insulation
• Thermally-broken double glazed, low E windows and doors
• Compact florescent lights and try to not use too much power for lights in summer
• Arrange windows and clerestory for day lighting
• Cook outside in the summer to reduce heat and moisture
• Shower or take a bath outside -- create a comfortable and private location according personal requirements
• Washer and dryer outside in summer, or not in conditioned space, hang on line, not on-line

And my favourite,

• Live in a heavy-mass log cabin like we do
• Cool in the day, even in our 90F summer
• Warm at night
• Big overhang on south windows for exterior shading -- previously mentioned 80% solar radiation reduction in summer
• Only small reduction solar radiation and light reduction -- day lighting in winter when sun is lower -- we want the solar radiation from the window in winter

Oh heck, there must be lots more ideas?

Good Luck,

Alex