[zzsladies]

we have lived in WVA for 2 years, i dont remember it being this hot this soon in may... my mom has lived here for 30+ years, never have i heard her say anything about the heat..... this weekend... she said she had to sit out on the porch as the house is too hot.
it is currently 75 degrees with humidity of 72 degrees..... saturday and sunday were miserable, with sun out, today is cloudy.
the humidity was so bad this weekend the sheets felt damp when getting into bed. i hate that feeling....
i read the thread about the heat in the uk here and made some changes to the upstairs, and closed some windows in preparation of rain.
i am hoping it cools off soon.... i hate the heat and humidity...
stace

[ldavidcooke]

Howdy Stace,

Are you referring to the thread in FROUKS wrt how to keep your cool? If so I have found a number of alternatives for the water/gel mattress pads/toppers. At 2" thick and with little more then a light sheet covering and they defintely help you keep your cool at night. As for the keeping the sun out. In WV you have significant snow loads, hence, high peaked roofs, with good ventalation you will not get much incoming heat that way. Also, being in the "Snow Belt/Alley", the insulation in your area should exceed the SE US norm. of R-38.

It really matters if you are on the bottom land or the slopes wrt sun then. Bottom land with the deep porches it is not an issue. However, with most Federalist/Williamsburg style housing you don`t have much overhang.

There in the recommended blackout curtians help advert the solar gain. However, they also block out light and the beauty of the season. Hence, UV blocking window film from one off the big box home-ware stores can be a good alternative.

As for natural drafts, find the wind direction for your home and open the windows on the top floor on the down wind side. On the bottom floor, use a thermometer to find the coolest side and open those windows. Do this between 6-10am and 7-10pm local time and you will pre-cool and dump heat naturally. (The problem of course is bottom land homes do not get much breeze.)

In any case, a small portable AC unit, where you can run the warm waste air hose to the outside, certainly can help as opposed to a HVAC system, wrt operating costs.

(Technicaly Figure: 5000BTU/@150ft^2, 8000BTU/@300ft^2, 10,000BTU/@400ft^2, and I saw one 12000BTU 120VAC unit which can handle up to 500ft^2. Figure, 5k=0.6kw/hr for 30 min./hr=0.3kw/hr: 8k=0.85kw/hr at 30 min./hr=0.43kw/hr: 10k=1.2kw/hr at 30min./hr=0.6kw/hr and 12k=1.45kw/hr or at 30min./hr=0.75kw/hr. Given your local power rates in the $0.15 range/hr, at 6hrs peak heat the costs are roughly 5k=¢27/day, 8k=¢39/day, 10k=¢54/day and 12k=¢68/day. (For HVAC systems multiply those costs by 5/day and by 30 days to get your cost/month.) Note: With 4 200watt solar panels (@$500@ea installed and another $800 for an inverter/transfer switch), you could cool your home with your HVAC for free after @27 cooling months, @5yrs. Or simply employ the portable unit and pay off its cost and operation costs in 4 cooling months...)

[Dave K]

Geographically Greenland is part of North America though culturally Europe so I shall put this here

Quote

The record books for Greenland's climate were re-written on Tuesday (29th), when the mercury hit 24.8°C (76.6°F) at Narsarsuaq, Greenland, on the southern coast. This is the hottest temperature on record in Greenland for May, and is just 0.7°C (1.3°F) below the hottest temperature ever measured in Greenland.

http://www.wundergro...l?entrynum=2110