4 ms·
I live in Tucson, Arizona, and I own a few houses built before A/C became common. I have one house (a rental) made of mud adobe, which is essentially mudbricks
by gregpilling 15y ago
I live in Tucson, Arizona, and I own a few houses built before A/C became common. I have one house (a rental) made of mud adobe, which is essentially mudbricks made into 14" thick walls. It was built in 1919 and has the interesting feature that it takes a few days to change temperature. There is always a week here that it changes from a nice spring to a hot summer and the house takes a long time to make the transition. It also stays cool pretty effectively with only a small window A/C unit. My current residence is a 50 yr old double brick wall house that doesn't do as well, but better than you might think for a house with zero insulation in the walls. Average bill in the summer was $300 before I put solar in this year (3300 ft house).
I definitely agree with the article - this city would look a lot different without A/C. But the mud adobe and high ceilings work surprisingly well. The heat isn't as bad as you might think either - as one of my wife's colleagues remarked "It is a city that you can eat at least one meal a day outside" which means breakfast or dinner in the summer and lunch in the winter.
- chopsueyar 15y agoIts a dry heat. I live in the Tampa, Florida area, and once it gets past 84 degrees, I feel quite miserable. My current dwelling is a 50s ranchette with concrete block walls. The orginal Jalousie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalousie_window http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalousie_window) windows have been replaced, but the house has no insulation in the attic. The house had several window A/Cs, one was from the early 80s. I replaced them with a 3-zone minisplit. I cannot recommend the minisplit enough. Of course, this house is less than 1,000 sqft of A/C'ed space. You're lucky, you can just use swampcoolers. We have to use electricity to keep cool. I've been to Arizona in the summer and prefer that kind of heat.
- ams6110 15y agoSo why don't you insulate the attic?
- chopsueyar 15y agoI am waiting to have spray-foam insulation installed. If I use traditional fiberglass and a radiant heat barrier, I will then have to pay to have it removed and disposed of, prior to the spray foam insulation. There is a soy-based spray foam insulation I plan on having installed. http://soythane.mybigcommerce.com/ http://soythane.mybigcommerce.com/ http://www.biobased.net/ http://www.biobased.net/ A bit more expensive, but I believe it is worth it.
- aristus 15y agoI grew up in a house like that, in El Paso. Old adobe houses are basically caves: dark, quiet, and much cooler than you expect.
- chopsueyar 15y agoYou mentioned caves and I found this... http://thecavehouse.com/ http://thecavehouse.com/