Hydronic cold storage?

[AdeV]

Most British houses have no air-con: not central air anyway - some might have portable units for single-room cooling. Other than a portable cooler, I've never lived in a house with a/c.

[bschwartz]

Water cooling the roof can sure help, but as mentioned you would loose most of the water due to evaporation if the humidity isn't too high.
This would actually work to your advantage, as evaporative cooing is very efficient.
Here in the desert southwest (USA), we use what are called swamp coolers (evaporative coolers) which blow air through water soaked pads.  As the water evaporates from the pads they draw a huge amount of heat away, and do a surprisingly good job of cooling the air.

[LowGear]

The whole house fan and attic vents are also a great idea.  Especially the solar powered attic fans.

If your house is more than 15 years old and if its built to minimum code (it is a minimum stardard kind of book) then you most likely don't have enough of the old fashioned roof (ridge) vents.  These guys are not $300 a piece and too many is probably a good place to start.  If they aren't sufficient to meet your needs then they can easily be converted to the powered ones.  Most houses that have insufficient ridge venting usually don't have sufficient eve venting to properly support lots of retrofitted ridge venting. 

Aluminum foil just laid over the existing ceiling insulation and lightly tacked into place might really surprise you as far as cooling bang for the buck goes.  Allowing the moisture escape from the existing insulation is really important.  That's the double whammy of good attic space venting.

Casey

[BioHazard]

If your house is more than 15 years old and if its built to minimum code (it is a minimum stardard kind of book) then you most likely don't have enough of the old fashioned roof (ridge) vents.  These guys are not $300 a piece and too many is probably a good place to start.  If they aren't sufficient to meet your needs then they can easily be converted to the powered ones.  Most houses that have insufficient ridge venting usually don't have sufficient eve venting to properly support lots of retrofitted ridge venting.

That's probably about right. Whoever did the roof did it cheaply and incorrectly. Apparently on one side the shingles are overlapped too far apart, we've had a leak coming in the kitchen for years now that no roofer has been able to fix. Wouldn't surprise me if they did a half assed job on the venting too...

wow, never ?

then again I remember no one had A/C when I lived in Hillsboro OR early 80's.  Everyone was dying when it hit 100F summer of 1981.

It is kinda funny, less than 20 years ago almost no houses came with air conditioning in this area. Now people wonder why you don't have it when you're trying to sell. At about $100 a pop for window units it's hard for me to just sit back and overheat.

We don't have a very long hot season here, but during those few months I really suffer without the A/C. Various health issues make me sweat like I'm in the jungle almost 24/7...

[rl71459]

I think A/C is addictive!  As a kid my dad refused to have it! And the houses I have owned never had A/C.

Then when I was remodeling an old place I bought my plumber told me He could give me a great deal on central air since he was redoing all of the heating system. I was planning on reselling the place later on and figured it would help the resale value, so I had him install it!

Well since then Ive grown to love A/C... When we built the house we are now in we had central air installed... would not have it any other way! My kids tease me about how my house is always like a refridgerator! and they are right, it usually is!

Hell, My Shop has A/C! I hate sweating when I am playing in my shop!

Rob

[mike90045]

I think at most of the solar boards I'm on, the passive ridge roof vents win.   The solar fans have too much plastic in them to last.

[LowGear]

I can't take it anymore.  Please stop what you're doing and replace the roof that leaks.  While you're up there put in a bunch of roof or ridge (my favorite too) vents.  The roof is simply the single most important system in the house.  Its also letting your insulation get wet or damp in the winter.  Wet insulation does not insulate.  Roofs have a value of around 10 and AC in Western Oregon can't get above a 4.

Whew!  I feel so much better now.  I've saved a house.

Casey

[Carlb]

Casey,  you sound like you're full of hot air 

[BioHazard]

Roofs have a value of around 10 and AC in Western Oregon can't get above a 4.

Says you. I've had 3 different roofers out and none can find the specific problem. Let me know if you want to pay for an entire new roof...

[LowGear]

This might be a two front war.

1.)  The next rainy day or evening get your butt up in the attic with a really good flashlight.

2.)  Put a tarp over the ridge of the offending section.  Is it still leaking? 

My only leak in the last 10 years was a gutter what was back-feeding a soffit into the kitchen five feet from the exterior wall.  Bigger downspout hole and my life is now easier.  KISS saved me hundreds.  Had it frozen while all that moisture was up there in the insulation and pipes I would have had a real *&$$^ing problem.  Removing sheet-rock sucks!

Since we moved from the house with skylights life has been much nicer.  (This is a hint.)

And Carlb!  That's warm tropical air to you sir.  About 73 degrees at 71% humidity this morning.  But I don't get those MWH checks - life is not perfect in paradise.

Casey

[bschwartz]

71% humidity!!! 

I haven't seen that much moisture in the air in a long time.

17% is more like it here.

[LowGear]

I hate to digress but where is it 17% without electric heat?  Does your throat speak to you in the morning?

Casey

[deeiche]

rm /

[mike90045]

So Calif in Santa Anna season, 5% humidity.   That's lower than Mars.  No wonder we have brush fires on day 2.

[BioHazard]

Hell, it's 85% humidity here, that's down from yesterday. It was about 75% inside my shop today. I keep another window air conditioner over my sink as a dehumidifier, I moved the t'stat probe from the cold side to the hot side and drilled a hole in the bottom for the water to come out. I have to run it at least 10-12 hours a day to keep it down to around 50%. 

Thank god the humidity goes away in the summer....

This might be a two front war.

1.)  The next rainy day or evening get your butt up in the attic with a really good flashlight.

2.)  Put a tarp over the ridge of the offending section.  Is it still leaking? 

Two places my big ass doesn't go -the roof or the attic.  I've had more than one "pro" look at it while it was raining, they can't figure it out, if they can't I highly doubt I can. They just tell me there are all sorts of little issues and it was mostly done wrong in the first place, so in the end, I'll need a new roof in the next few years.