Help me cool my house better

[GoLowDrew]

Blue are the AC vents on the ceiling.Red ceiling fan (one) is in the middle of the living room.Green is return air.We run both AC and ceiling fan for the summer.I'm thinking of adding additional pedestal fans to improve wind chill to help keep it cool (so AC temp can be higher).exampleWhere should I place them? How many?Factors:- We don't stay in the kitchen much other than cooking, so I'm not concern about it. But it does conect dirctly to the living room.- We don't want the fans to "blow in our face." So that's why we are thinking about air movement, instad of in your face type of cooling.- Because the ceiling fan is running too, we don't want the additional fans to be counter-productive against the ceiling fan.- Living room is about 500 sq ft.- Ceiling fan is 52" (I know a bit small).- Adding additional ceiling fan is (perfer) not an option.TIA

[northvibe]

is the AC only in the kitchen?

[GoLowDrew]

Quote, originally posted by northvibe »is the AC only in the kitchen?There are three AC vents in play here. One in kitchen, two in living room.

[Kari]

I don't have any suggestions for your fans, but one way that you can help keep the whole area cooler is by cooking with the microwave or a slow cooker, neither of which heats up the kitchen like the oven or the stove. Also change your lights to CFL bulbs. That will reduce ambient heat as well as energy usage.

[northvibe]

Quote, originally posted by GoLowDrew »There are three AC vents in play here. One in kitchen, two in living room.WOW I didnt read the picture right hahah, I thought that was the entire kitchen.Check your ceiling fan to see if it has a "winter/summer" mode. Mine did, it would spin a certain way for each season (change that with a switch) so like in the winter, it would spin pushing air down, in the summer up (something like that). You could also have a fan in corner A blowing to B if you wanted circulation.

[Whelan]

Closing off a vent will help direct cooler stronger air to the right places.Also your ceiling fan in the middle is vortexing the air coming from the corner vents. Think of a tornado effect. Try leaving the fan off when the A/C is on.If you own the house, look into what they call a whole-house fan. It goes into your attic and has big vents that literally suck the hot air out of the house.Personally I would start by not using the ceiling fan and see what happens.

[Mattsky]

Quote, originally posted by Whelan » If you own the house, look into what they call a whole-house fan. It goes into your attic and has big vents that literally suck the hot air out of the house.Personally I would start by not using the ceiling fan and see what happens.I agree with Whelan. I have an attic fan and it works great.

[jimincalif]

Need more input.Where are the windows, which way is North South East and West? Do you get direct sun thru any of the windows? Where and what time of day? Is the airflow balanced from the AC vents? Do you have any hot spots and cool spots in the rooms now? Are the AC vents directional? IOW can you adjust them to blow one direction vs another? Do the living room/kitchen run warmer or cooler than the rest of the house?

[Sublimewind]

Which way do you run your celing fan? they can be run either way and for cooling, it more likely best that you run it in reverse, so it's pulling air up to the celing and passing it along the celing towards the walls... That will take the warm air, and push it down the walls and mix it with the cool air in the process.. I do this myself, and in the winter I switch it to get forward and reverse the cycle.. As far as an auxillery fan, I would place that/them in the corners and run them along the wall... like put one in corner B and blow it toward corner A, or vise-versa, depending on the layout...As Jim said, having more info would help, but what ever windows get late day sun, you should have blinds in... heck in my house I get sun in the end of the house (it happens to be a trailer home, but a nice one) from @4pm to dark.. and it REALLY warmed the house and made watching movies very difficult... In the end I literly put up a cut contractor garbage bag (I know getto, but it WORKS) over the 2 end windows. It makes the place like a cave, even with the other windows being near, but it keeps the house at LEAST 10 degrees cooler if not more, and i'm trying to rely on a 10,000 BTU windowshaker A/C unit in my bedroom for the whole place... it's not to bad, but the day heat that the house soaked up is difficult to manage sometimes..

[BlueCrush]

I would get 35 pedestal fans and line them all along the wall, then turn them all at a 45 degree angle to the wall in the same direction. Good news is your place will stay cooler. bad news is it will create a vortex or tornado effect so don't leave any loose papers, light items, small animals, or small children alone in the room unless they are teathered to the floor, chair or couch. Hahaha!But seriously, need more info: 1 story, 2 story, what level is this space on: main or lower + everything that Jim asked. the vent's in the ceilng makes me think this is on a lower level.For window coverings, use white or beige only, darker colors will absorb the heat and make your rooms warmer.

[prathman]

Quote, originally posted by Sublimewind »Which way do you run your celing fan? they can be run either way and for cooling, it more likely best that you run it in reverse, so it's pulling air up to the celing and passing it along the celing towards the walls... This sounds backwards. If the fan is blowing air downward you'll get a cooling effect by having the air blown directly at the people - so that's the proper setting for the summer time. In the winter you want the fan to push air up to the ceiling and eventually down the walls so you still get air circulation but without creating a draft and the air coming down the walls will be warmer since it's relatively hot air that rose to the ceiling.I agree that more information would be needed to recommend placement of the additional fans. But they're easy to move around so just get a couple and try out various spots. In general I'd start by putting them in a position where they'll blow air coming from the vents into the room. E.g. putting one in the corner marked 'A' facing into the room would be one spot.

[joatmon]

If that is a picuture of the living room with an attached kitchen, then there is a lot more floor plan to the house. There may be house-wide techniques to reduce A/C cost. If adding another ceiling fan is beyond the scope, then adding a whole house fan would be also. Is Tucson a dry climate? If so maybe one of those portable "swamp" coolers would be more effective than just more fans.You could try reversing the ceiling fan (if it has a switch to do that) and see if one direction is more effective than another. If you are still set on the pedestal fans, you could take some incense or something similar that puts out a little plume of smoke and use that to map out the air currents, and then use that information to decide where to place pedestal fans to alter the airflow, taking into account how the furniture is arranged and where you tend to be in the living room.

[Blueridge9]

This is a great topic for this hot time of year. These are all good ideas from everyone.We have a central air programmable thermostat timer that kicks the ac to a higher temp while we're working and then back down an hour before we get home and then up again when we go to bed. We also have a window unit for night time and just cool our bedroom.I have the honeycomb type blinds and they really keep the sun out but still let some filtered light into LR and Kitchen.If you are gonna live there awhile could you plant a tree or big bush on the southside of the house?Another good way to keep a house cool is if you have a porch - hang a outside woven blind outside to block the sun in addition to indoor blinds. Or add an awning or overhang on the southside to shade your house.Keep cool,

[zionzr2]

Better insulation in the walls and windows.There is a window film you can place on the inside of you windows that will reflect the suns energy back outside. Its kinda like a DIY window tint.