What are the best ways to keep an existing house cool in dry summers in India?
How To Install A Cool Roof And Save Your Money And Energy:Now that the public is turning into more eco-conscious and trying to seek out the ways that to boost energy-efficiency, we are beginning to explore creative solutions to reduce our energy demand. One of these ways is re-evaluating the approach we build our homes.There are many alternative ways to cut down future energy use when renovating or a building home. One that’s turning progressively in demand is reflected roofing or installing lighter colored. This is called a cool roof or cool roof coating. During the summer season it will surely reduce a home’s energy consumption.A cool roof is most cost effective ways to keep your building cool.It reduces air conditioning prices.It has low installation costs with no dump fees.It uses no hot asphalt or fumes.It prolongs the life of the roofing system.The material used is seamless, tough, flexible.
How do you heat your home and keep Heating prices low?
The house I own had no heating system other than a blower box on the fireplace when I bought it. Several thousand dollars later I had central heat with a heat pump in place. I thought all would be great, until I got my first heating bill. If I use that thing I can expect heating bills to range from $300-600 a month in the winter. SOOOoo I have become something of an obsessive about tricks and alternative heating sources. 1. You would not believe how much outside air leaks into your house. Go around when it's cold and windy and put your hand over door cracks, keyholes in the knobs, window sills, even along the floor by the wall. If you can't plaster over the leak, tape it. All that cold air coming in just drives up your costs. 2. A $4 flannel blanket from Walmart works wonders when hung over doorways that are not regularly used. I also hang them over windows as a cheap alternative to heavy drapery. 3. Those fireplaces? Forget 'em. They'll suck out more heat than they put in. The only time a fireplace really does good is if you are either right in front of it, or you have a blower insert that forces the heat out into the house instead of sending it all up the chimney. 4. I can't say enough about those $1.25 draft dodgers that you stick on the base of your doors. Just peel the backing and stick them on. Any hardware store or Walmart will have them. 5. Insulation. When is the last time you checked it in your attic? You lose a LOT of heat through the ceiling, so a few hundred bucks worth of blown in insulation can save you thousands over a few years. You need at least 6 inches of insulation up there (I put in a foot!), so if it's all compressed down to a few inches, it's time to resupply. Look around, you'll find one of those radiators. I finally realized the heat pump was very efficient until the outside temp dropped below 45, then the meter nearly spun off it's base. So, I hooked up a free standing, vent free, propane fueled fireplace that will make the place toasty warm when the temp drops into the 30s or below. Avoid the temptation to get little electric space heaters. The energy they use up to make that little bit of heat is NOT worth it.
Will putting tin foil on my windows really help keep my room cool?
I'm almost 8 months pregnant, and need to find a quick, easy way to cool my room off. It's on the west side of the house, so it starts baking around 2:30pm, and doesn't stop until it gets dark. Someone told me tin foil taped to the window reflects heat. I don't care about it making my room dark, or making the outside look like a trailer park or a crack house. I'm hot, pregnant, and desperate. Does anyone have any other ideas? I'm broke right now, so it needs to be cheap, or something I can do with common things around the house. Please help!!!
How do you clean plastic yard chairs - our have a powdery residue on them?
your yard chairs have worn out in the sun...... it will keep getting weaker everyday... the solution is (a) clean with bleach (b) get any dash board shiner from auto care stores (c) spray and gently wipe with clean Cloth is will not only revive your chairs but also save them from further damage
HELP! My room is burning hot, how can I cool it down?
You have a lot of heat sources in your room. Evepourative coolers are not effective in small rooms; they do cool somewhat, but increase the humidity which offsets any cooling. Dehumidifiers actually cause heat gain - raises temperature (air out is hotter than air going in). The 3 fans are producing heat. ======================================... Possible solution Turn off the ceiling fan, Dehumidifier, and Evapourative Cooler Only open your bedroom door a crack Do not know the type of window, but if it slides up to open (sash window) or opens out at the bottom (awning window); open it about 2 to 4 inches Turn the 2 small desk fans around to blow air out the open window This should draw air into your room from the rest of the house if the 2 small fans are powerful enough to create a slight vacuum in your room. An alternative to the two small fans is to purchase a window fan(best are the ones with 2 fans in the unit) they fit in the opening created by open up the window. there are 2 controls on the unit, one for each fan. You can have both fans blowing the air out or have one blow air out and the other blow air in. Hope this helps Good Luck and pleasent dreams
Why does a metal object feel cooler than a wooden object although both of them are in thermal equilibrium with the atmosphere?
Lets get back to our basics.What is coolness?Coolness is absence of heat. There is nothing 'cool' (or cold) in real.There is only heat. At microscopic level, the molecules of a substance keep on vibrating, and as long as there is little heat, they vibrate. So, even at low temperatures like below 0°C, they still vibrate. This indicates that some (even though very little) amount of heat is present in them. Coming back to the point.There are various degrees of heat: extremely hot, very hot, hot, mildly hot, less hot, etc. To save ourselves from this difficult measures of heat, we assumed a physical quantity opposite to heat as cool or coolness. So basically there is always transfer of heat between substances or bodies.Finally answer to your question is:If bodies are at same temperature, means at thermal equilibrium, there is still transfer of heat between them and surroundings. But the rate of exchange or transfer of heat between them is different for each body. So, if we touch a metal object, the heat transfer rate is much more than that of wooden object. As soon as we touch the metal object, its thermal equilibrium is disturbed (assuming our body temperature to be higher). It will try to maintain its previous state of equilibrium by rapid transfer of heat from our body to itself, making us feel cold. Since this transfer rate is much higher in metals than wood, the metal feels cold instantaneously while wood do not.Similarly, if metal piece is hot (our body temperature is lower), then heat transfers from metal to us. This makes us feel metal to be very hot in comparison to a wood piece at same temperature.
Should the floor or crawl space of a pier and beam house be insulated?
First, moisture moves to cold. You know how a glass of iced tea sweats in summer. That happens when warm air moves from a warm room to a cold one in winter. Condensation can also occur if you warm a house quickly from a cold or very low temp. Insulation will actually STOP condensation. Remember the tea? Put a cozy around it, and what do you get? Putting a vapor barrier on the ground is a good thing to do, but you can use the cheap window plastic sold at Wal Mart for it as well. All that matters is that you have it overlaying each piece. You don't need to tape it together, though that is a scrupulous way to proceed. You can use foam sheets to insulate the inside fo the skirting, though regular batting works well. If you can find un-faced batting, that is great, it is cheaper, but if you can't don't worry, that is okay too. Just put the paper side to the inside, not the outside. Now, if your floor joists are relatively clear you can insulate your floor space too. I'd suggest you look into under the floor heating elements. This can be a way to heat your house evenly, but in any case, it can take the chill off of your floor in the worst weather cases. HOWEVER, you will need to insulate below that so that the heat goes up and not down. Also, if you have carpets, it is less efficient. Hope this explanation helps some. Good Luck.
How do you keep water in a tank at a terrace cool during summer in India?
I suspect you are talking about a concrete or black HDPE (Sintex type) tank that is exposed to the sun. Then it s very tough because weathered and darkened concrete and the black color would absorb a lot from direct radiation. Best to accept it as a fact of living in the tropics. Still if its important to you to get at least some reduction in temperature you need to reduce the radation one obvious way would be to shade it with a simple light roof or screen above the tank that would shade it in the most part of the day say 11 to 3 . if you have space on the roof and its flat you can do it with grouting some angles into the slab and make a shade from lightweight corrugated galvanized iron sheets. if that is likely to be logistically challenging, Another way to get some benefit is to paint or coat it with a highly reflective paint.. there are specialized coatings but even ordinary titanium dioxide based white paints will help to some extent. Getting a smooth rather than matte or rough surface finish will also help before you apply the paint, by applying a fine plaster in the case of concrete. Or for plastics several layers including primers to remove the roughness of the original plastic. even this is a lot of work and these coatings or surface treatments will deteriorate quickly exposed to the elements and harsh sunrays so will need extensive touch up or re doing every couple years or even more frequently.