[Greenbuilding] [BULK] Re: Air Conditioning for Phoenix

[Lawrence Lile]

Some good ideas, Rob!  

>If one didn't know better, one could be excused for thinking that "GB  
List" stands for "Gizmo Boinking List".

Yeah, hardware! Hardware! More! More! Green Gizmos! It can be a similar
addiction to affluenza, only with a Green Patina.  Definitely a disease
to watch out for.  

All I need for my house now is a solar-powered, stone-slinging, organic,
self-propelled, SEER 28, robotic lawn mower and tick remover. With
bamboo wheels. 

>But going Green also often involves a shift in expectations too.

I'm going to push the limits of what he can handle as it is.  A metal
roof makes a lot of sense in Phoenix, and that is the second part of
this project that I didn't mention.  Living roofs are great, but involve
structural mods that I'm not willing to consider on someone else's
house.  

You climb up on a hill surrounding Phoenix and look out over a sea of
black asphalt shingles, shimmering in the heat waves.  The whole town
would be 5F cooler if they all had heat-reflecting white metal roofs,
and everyone's air conditioning bill would go down.  The first hurdle is
the local neighborhood association, staffed with people who just woke up
in a long sleep from the 1950's.  They tend to meddle in everything and
reject anything new.  

A little reflectix on the underside of the attic roof would be a very
doable envelope mod, I might see if we can get that done at the same
time.  Blowing insulation in the attic would also be a good idea, except
he's got it stuffed with junk.  Maybe the junk will provide him with
some R-value.  What is the R-value of a set of broken Russian nesting
dolls in a suitcase also containing clothes that don't fit anyone who is
still living?  

 
Lawrence Lile, P.E., LEED AP

-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Rob Tom
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 4:55 PM
To: GB REPP
Subject: [BULK] Re: [Greenbuilding] Air Conditioning for Phoenix
Importance: Low

Oy yoy yoy.

Air conditioners, swamp coolers, stone slingers, solenoid-operated  
watering hoses...

If one didn't know better, one could be excused for thinking that "GB  
List" stands for "Gizmo Boinking List".

But since this *is* the Green building list, perhaps LL-man recommends
to  
his BIT (bother-in-law (sic))in Phoenix that he consider some envelope  
improvements first to lower the space cooling load before even thinking

about this or that gizmo.

But going Green also often involves a shift in expectations too.

Perhaps one doesn't really need to expect steady interior temperatures
of  
65 degrees F temperatures in the the middle of the day, in the middle of

the summer, in the middle of the desert ... stereotype of the  
shivering-sweater-clad-in-the-middle-of-the-day-in-the-middle-of-summer-
Phoenician-senior-citizen-with-central-A/C  
notwithstanding.

Rather than an AC unit or a mechanical swamp cooler, perhaps BIT thinks

about installing a rainwater harvesting system and a Green roof.

There is reliable data (Google "Green Roofs NRC Liu" and it should  
materialise) that shows even as little as a 150mm thickness of
lightweight  
growing medium , even in the absence of any vegetation can reduce the  
space-cooling energy load by 75% and up to about 95% reduction if  
vegetation is in place. (Note that the above numbers are for Ottawa,  
Canada, not Phoenix USA but still, good enough for this discussion).

That'd be a good start I think.

Another passive strategy that might be worth considering might be a  
cooling tower that takes advantage of the stack effect to induce air  
movement past the bodies to provide the sensation of cooling without  
having to chill a whole houseful of air.

Perhaps the cooling tower structure may already exist in the form of a  
fireplace chimney and just needs some minor modifications ?


=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
<A r c h i L o g i c   at  c h a f f y a h o o   dot   c a >
winnow the chaff from my edress in your reply