Hot Day House Temp Logging...

[AC_Hacker]

I have long wondered what the daily temp profile looks like in my house over the course of a hot day... well I got my chance this week. Temps have been near 100 most of the week, so I turned off the AC and went to work...

All readings were done with AC turned off, and all windows closed, starting at about 8 am.

• air temp = temperature measured at the nearest 'official' weather station
• out F = temp measured on front porch (NE facing)
• out R = temp measured on rear porch (SW facing)
• bmt = uninsulated basement temp
• LR = living room temp (NE side)
• BkR = 1st floor back room temp (SW side)
• uBR = 2nd floor bedroom (NE side)

First off, compared to the 'official temp' the house's outside temp is about 7 degrees cooler due to it being in a neighborhood with an abundance of shade trees.

The early morning 'bump' on the 'out F' line is somewhat anomalous because the front porch is inset a bit relative to the front of the house and early morning sun really warms up that little front porch corner area. This does tell me that external window shades there in that little corner will be very effective at countering morning heat build up.

Next thing is that the temp inside the house is about 7 degrees cooler than the outside temperature, due to the still unfinished efforts I have been making at installing much better than required insulation.

After that, clearly the temperatures on the first floor is much more bearable than upstairs, no surprise there. I should add that I did run a living room ceiling fan during this test, and it had no measurable effect on temperature (it even may have raised it a tad), but it had a remarkable effect on comfort.

The basement certainly appears to be coolest & most inviting area on hot days, which in fact is quite true.

Before I did this graph, I was thinking that it would clearly show that there was a large temperature difference between the front yard and back yard, and that differentially controlled fans could exploit that advantage. The temperature chart shows the advantage to be quite small, and also indicates that my efforts would be better rewarded by trying to exploit the coolness down cellar.

So I snapped into action and moved a comfortable chair to sit in, and a handy table to set a cool drink on, and a proper reading light all down cellar... oh, and also have a small fan running on 'low'.

Low initial investment, high comfort return.

Best,

-AC