Cooling Down Apartments w/ Lots of Windows

Heh, I gotta leave the AC on all day and night as I'm under-powered for on-demand cooling. I don't think it was ever off for the full month of July.

The windows are only part of the problem. The real problem is that heat hits the sides of the building, and all that heat rises to the top. If it's been sunny all day and it's 11pm, and the top floor of our place is at 77 degrees, and outside is at 73 degrees, and we turn off the ACs, the temperature shoots up to something like 82 within an hour or two.

Blinds on the living room and dinette windows. I keep them closed. Sheers covered by short drapes in the bedroom. Works pretty good.

I can't keep the a/c on all day and/or night. I get the sniffles. So I run it for a while, until it's nice and cold. Then turn it off for a few hours.

My apartment faces the street, northern exposure. The units in the back are cooler, I hear, but they face the rear and the rear of the building around the corner.

Back in the day when I didn't have full a/c, I used to stick my head in the freezer for a couple of minutes.

I finally relented and built wooden doors for my skylights that I can open and close with a pole. I have 4 very big skylights that make us feel like we are living in a toaster oven sometimes. We also have 3 big 8' sliding doors to the terrace, two of which face south so I put up a retractable awning in the spring. Now at least I am able to control the amount of direct sunlight but living on a roof can be crazy hot. I work from home and keep the air off until late afternoon because I cringe being outside listening to the compressor on the roof run non stop, usually I'm outside under the awning and I find it's just fine in my underwear with an occasional spritz from the hose.

Love a good spritz from a hose, up on the terrace. Too bad I don't have one. You work from home, spinny?

Are you a comedy writer? Really what do you do? We think maybe a writer. A funny writer. A paperback writer?

Erotic thrillers, mostly.

Unpublished erotic thrillers.

So, I was right? Where'd you get the big gelt for that nice apartment?

I had 3M's solar film installed on all of my south-facing windows. Makes a 15-degree temperature difference.

In the meantime, the ACs are running 24/7. The ConEd bills are killer, but they're preferable to the alternative.

Spin - we're not getting much heat from the roof - the apartment was built as part of the original building so there's actually a fairly large space between the roof and our ceiling. Maybe this is what is helping. I understand that your apartment was built by the coop after the original building. Is there any way that additional insulation could be added to the roof? Might be a big job though, involving partial roof replacement? Have you asked your neighbors what they do to handle the problem?

Re: Windows - we have a lot of windows that get south, west, and eastern sun. Blinds really do help deflect the heat. I also have blackout shades on the terrace doors and windows, and will sometimes put them down when the sun is really strong. They roll all the way up, so are not distracting at all when they're not in use. And, as you said, keeping the awning out during the day definitely helps.

I must confess, however, that I do keep the A/C on all the time now. We're on a building water-cooled system so it's really just running a fan, which doesn't push up electric cost a lot. How is the rest of your building cooled? Is there a central system you could tie into?

ph41 - We have a 5' airspace above the ceiling and the roof is insulated per code. But the dead space gets far warmer than if we had another air conditioned apartment above us. Its just a thang, no big deal. I'm not about ripping up ceilings and roofs to save a few bucks in the summer. I don't like a/c much during the day anyway, I pretty much fire it up when the girls get home. Your water cooled system does sound interesting, need to googlize that.

Thruthy - My birdhouse is far more modest than I make it sound - I ain't no playa. Writing is the new career of my renaissance period (how many writers do you think this recession produced?) Another month and the manuscript should be in the bag. Then I'll paint the kitchen.

I set my through-wall AC timer to turn on an hour before I expect to get home, and it works like a charm. It doesn't hurt that my lanai shelters the Arcadia doors from the sun at this time of year.

I know some of you live in rentals, but ... low-E glass, anyone?

Hi-tech ceramics cool-roof coating? [I'm not so sure that's advisable for this climate -- it would shut out the warming rays of the sun in the winter. I just like to sound au courant, that's all.]

Low-E is used in most residential construction nowadays. Most glass plants that produce glass for insulated window units have "sputter" lines that are fed directly by the float glass lines.

Depending on the situation it can save quite a bit on energy costs. And is almost unheard of in NYC where the heating costs (usually born by the LL, or the sponsor prior to conversion) are not strongly affected and the LL doesn't care about heat when they put in any newer insulated units since the LL doesn't bear the costs of cooling. (besides, cooling takes about 3x the BTUs that heating does.)

A lanai in NY? Alan is blanche. I thought so. How's lance bass?

@ NYC Matt: How much did that run you if you don't mind me asking. I have some south facing windows that are huge and amazing, but let in entirely too much sun/heat.

This will actually be a big problem for all those new buildings being built with all glass. Unless you face North -but who wants to? it will be very hot or you need to get insulating blinds or shades. They will also help keep the heat in in the winter.

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Window_Film/Solutions/Markets-Products/Residential/

This is great stuff....

swe, that extra 10-20 degrees can be brutal in hotter months (obviously). I just keep my curtains closed during the day when I'm not home - they seem to insulate better than plain old blinds. It is hot by the time I get home, but not unbearable to the point that the AC kicking in doesn't return the apt to normal temperatures fairly quickly. I've seen it up to 83-84 on the thermostat, but I'm sure other apts get even hotter. On the plus side, I rarely have to kick on the heat in the winter.

My guess is that most of the new all-glass buildings already have low-e in their windows. Low-E is the cheapest of the coatings. If you see that they are dark/mirrored (a la Ariel East) then that glass is even more expensive. The problem is that you can't keep all the radiant heat out if you have that much glass. SOME will always get in, even if it is just from the visible light range, and even if they used triple glazed units (as opposed to the usual double pane).

I'm with bjw. Apt. faces south and west; we keep the shades down all day and then run the A/C as we walk in. It takes 20 minutes to go from sweltering to tolerable. But it doesn't seem green to keep the A/C running all day if no one's home.

ali

Unless you face North -but who wants to?

I'd take a northern exposure with a pretty view any day precisely because direct sun is a nuisance for controlling temperatures. My windows facing east have the blinds closed most of the time, either for privacy, or to avoid fading the upholstery or to manage heat. It's nice to be able to cool down the apartment in 15 to 20 minutes, and its easier on the con ed bill.

We've been very lucky. Living room faces south and east, windowed kitchen faces east, all floor-ceiling. Bedroom is south. The temperature difference between the 2 room is ~2 degree but on average is around 78F so we rarely turn on the AC. We close the curtain on east-facing window during the day, south-side is open. In our previous rental that faced North (and not floor/ceiling), the AC was on 24/7. Very strange.

We have huge north-facing windows, and I love the "artist's light" we get -- even if neither of us has an artistic bone in our body. Whenever the sun is out, our place is consistently light but never hot.

A good rule of thumb (which we practice) is to set the a/c seven degrees higher when you're at work. Cooling a difference of any more than that is a strain on the system and your electric bills.

thanks for all the good perspective

"I must confess, however, that I do keep the A/C on all the time now. We're on a building water-cooled system so it's really just running a fan, which doesn't push up electric cost a lot. How is the rest of your building cooled? Is there a central system you could tie into?"

I've got those "combo units" a lot of new buildings have with an electronic thermostat on the other walls (unfortunately, no timers)

I know the heat is just fan distribution, but AC units have their own compressors.

But it sounds like facing south and east is a big deal, and I need to look for north-west.

> A good rule of thumb (which we practice) is to set the a/c seven degrees higher when you're at work

7 degrees higher than what? Temperature when home?

Somewhereelse - Our AC units do NOT have a compressor - the fan is blowing cool air from the coils within that circulate cooled water from the building system. That is why in July, with nine a/c units, our electric bill in july was $450, which, all things considered, I think it fairly low.

Usually, A/C units ith compressors are aircooled. The advantage is that they can usually be turned on at will throughout the year. Building water-cooled systems are uwually turned on by the building in summer months only - winter the system is used for heat.

yeah, we're definitely not water-cooled. Only the heat is central.

I'm looking into the films. Look like the good ones are sorta permanent. And the temps look a little nutty.

What's good for a rental? Don't mind paying to install them only for summers. Definitely don't want mirror.

here is a question... are the films for the inside or outside of the windows?

Inside the windows.