Even before summer begins to torture our days and nights at home, many people tune up their air conditioners and fans to check that everything is working properly, since in the following months they will be the most coveted appliances in the house. However, not everyone can afford to have an air conditioner due to certain circumstances, including the economic factor. For this reason, There is also a solution.
One of the ways to cool the house without the need for air conditioning is natural ventilation, a remedy essential for achieving thermal well-being at homebeing able to refresh the structure of our house and guarantee good air quality by renewing it every x period of time.
Turning on the air conditioning does not help to renew the air in the house
Please note that when we use the air conditioning, the machine normally takes care of collecting the air from the house and cooling it. This means that if we do not have clean filters, The air can end up becoming stale and smelling bad.This smell is usually quite unpleasant when we have not used the air conditioning for a while and the filters are dirty.
In this way, in addition to turning on the air conditioning during the hottest moments, We must not forget to ventilate our home either. opening all the windows during the first few hours of the morning and in the last hours of the day, when the ambient temperature is usually lowest. This way, we can enjoy a pleasant flow of air throughout the house while the air inside is renewed.
Architect Rodrigo De Las Casas tells us on his YouTube channel how to naturally ventilate our home. To do this, he talks about the main concepts that we must take into account and The tricks we have at our disposal to cool our home as much as possible, something that can save us a lot of trouble if we don’t have air conditioning.
The importance of renewing the air and concepts that will help us do so
Rodrigo states that It is important to renew the air inside the housesespecially in terms of health. For this purpose, cross ventilation is one of the simplest systems available to us to cool the temperature of our home, achieving natural thermal comfort and eliminating heat from spaces.
Image: Gariay Thomas (Unsplash)
This concept allows cooling and ventilating a room by means of the creation of air currents that pass through the house from one side to the other. The difference in pressure between two openings (windows, doors or grilles) located on opposite or adjacent walls will reduce the temperature in the house. From the point of view of energy saving, it is also a very important gesture, since at certain times the need to use air conditioning or fans is reduced. In addition, we also improve the air quality by renewing the air inside.
Another concept that the architect points out is vertical convection ventilationa technique that takes advantage of differences in temperature and air density to create a vertical airflow. This method is based on the principle that warm air, being less dense, tends to rise, while cold air, being denser, sinks.
This principle is something that the vast majority of architects take into account when designing a building, since in buildings with sustainable or bioclimatic design, ventilation towers, interior patios or operable skylights are incorporated to maximize this effect.
In addition to this phenomenon, another method to ensure natural ventilation in a home is Take advantage of vertical suction ventilationas suggested by architect Rodrigo. This technique is based on the creation of an air flow through suction, generated by pressure differences between different heights in a building.
This phenomenon occurs when warm air, rising, creates a low pressure zone at the top of the building, which in turn generates a suction that draws cooler air from lower levelsThis is usually the reason why the temperature inside the entrances of flats and garages is generally lower than on upper floors.
In addition to properly ventilating the home through cross ventilation, it is also important Protect the interior of the home during the hottest hours. To do this, once the house has been well ventilated during the early hours of the morning, we can always lower the blinds to keep the interior temperature as cool as possible. Removing carpets and using cooler fabrics in the home (such as cotton or linen) are also some useful recommendations to keep our house cool.
Using a ceiling fan It is also an effective way to cope with the summer heat without having to turn on the air conditioning. Obviously, everything will depend on the ambient temperature at the time, the weather conditions, and the location. When the blades of this type of fan spin, they move the air rapidly, reducing the pressure of the air directly under the blades. This draws air from above to below, creating a downward air current and causing a pressure difference to develop.
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