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This article isn't so much "cooling a house without air conditioning" - it's more "here's some designs for houses that can be cooled without air conditioning".

This article isn't so much "cooling a house without air conditioning" - it's more "here's some designs for houses that can be cooled without air conditioning". This has very little to no help for existing homes unless you have a large budget to demo your existing home/yard/surrounding-infrastructure. For a perpetual renter such as myself (bay area lifestyle), this is useless information. Where I live in the bay area - we live in a greenhouse of an in-law unit. Only solution to cool it without AC would be to tear it down and build something different. I can't even keep the top room below 80F on quite a few days with a window unit I installed. That unit is rated to do over 2x the size of the room too but it can't keep up. On days we know it'll be 95+, we leave the AC on all day. Otherwise, the heat soaks into the walls so much that we can't cool the house down after we get home and it'll still be 85+ in our bedroom past midnight. Opening windows has no effect since we can't get an effective cross-breeze. I feel bad about it but I don't have much of an option if I want to be somewhat content. I get quite unbearable to be around if I am suffering in the heat.

novok 7y ago
I feel like the climate is so mild or hot & dry in the bay that houses can get away with being badly made and old here way more than other places of the world.
Johnny555 7y ago
As a renter you can look for a more energy efficient space. If your in-law unit was built without permits (which seems likely since it's apparently below-standard for insulation), you can probably get out of your lease early if you wanted to. Putting in more insulation doesn't require a full teardown, but it's not cheap if you had to, say, build false walls to add insulation.
- bradlys 7y ago
  More energy efficient space -> remodeled recently -> $$$$$. I'm not able to afford such a thing. Most apartments/in-laws in my price range (<$2500/month) were remodeled no later than 1970. Putting in insulation means you have to take down the dry wall (if it is even drywall - might not be). That's pretty extensive for most people.
  - Johnny555 7y ago
    Depending on what's inside the walls, it may be possible to spray in foam insulation by drilling holes behind the baseboard.
  - kyriakos 7y ago
    In most European countries building energy efficiency is required by law and anything under a certain rating cannot be rented forcing owners to renovate with energy efficiency in mind

novok 7y ago

I feel like the climate is so mild or hot & dry in the bay that houses can get away with being badly made and old here way more than other places of the world.

Johnny555 7y ago

As a renter you can look for a more energy efficient space. If your in-law unit was built without permits (which seems likely since it's apparently below-standard for insulation), you can probably get out of your lease early if you wanted to. Putting in more insulation doesn't require a full teardown, but it's not cheap if you had to, say, build false walls to add insulation.

bradlys 7y ago
More energy efficient space -> remodeled recently -> $$$$$. I'm not able to afford such a thing. Most apartments/in-laws in my price range (<$2500/month) were remodeled no later than 1970. Putting in insulation means you have to take down the dry wall (if it is even drywall - might not be). That's pretty extensive for most people.
- Johnny555 7y ago
  Depending on what's inside the walls, it may be possible to spray in foam insulation by drilling holes behind the baseboard.
- kyriakos 7y ago
  In most European countries building energy efficiency is required by law and anything under a certain rating cannot be rented forcing owners to renovate with energy efficiency in mind