The Beauty of Flowing Air

Reading Time: 4 minutes

People think that to be comfortable on a hot day you need to rush to an air conditioned room or building but that idea is wrong. When I worked on one building, for three years, I called it "air conditioned hell" for a simple reason. For the body to cool it needs air flow to help evaporate water. When there is no air flow it feels stuffy, and we interpret this as being too hot.

Well Designed Housing

When I lived in a 1980s house I knew that the basement and ground floor would be a pleasant 21°c up to 25 or so in summer if I opened the windows at the wrong time of day. The result is that if I was careful that building was comfortable, even in the hottest heatwaves.

The Insulated Box With Little Air Flow

In contrast living in a Minérgie building, designed for a cold climate is hell for two key reasons. The first is that the stairwell, and lift shaft have no way of venting outdoors, except if people on the top floor open their hallway doors.

The result is that in summer the core of the building heats, and heats, and heats. As it is minergie everything is designed to keep winter heat in, but there are no vents to evacuate summer heat. As I write this post it is 30°c in the room where I am sitting.

In the mornings the Outdoor air temperature (OAT) is in the twenties. It is 26°c outdoors now. If the heat exchanger worked properly, then, with closed windows, and doors, the building could bring cool air into the building, and vent warm air.

A few years ago, around 2003, we had a heat wave. I was living in an apartment that had windows on both sides. I would open the windows, and balcony door, and I would have a cooling breeze from sunrise until sunset. It was warm, but I was never uncomfortable.

When I worked in the Palais Wilson I was on the ground floor with tarmac right outside my window. I would be soaked due to the heat. Eventually I learned to open the door behind me, to the hallway, to get a breeze. As soon as I did that I felt more comfortable.

Another person, in the same room, a few weeks later did the thing normal people did. He turned on a fan, instead.

Since living in this apartment I have felt uncomfortable with the heat and I have had to adapt. I adapted by wearing shorts, for the first time in years. I adapted by opening the veluxes just enough to vent hot air outwards without allowing hot outdoor air back in. In so doing I get a chimney effect which helps create a draft that helps cool me. It’s a low tech solution that helps keep me cool, without using air conditioning.

Water and Shade

When I worked in another office I found that an open window and a carton of ice tea would help me stay cool in summer. I found that air flow and hydration are how we keep cool in summer.

The Fallacy of Air Conditioning

When I worked in the air conditioned building, despite the temperature being controlled it was still stifling because of the lack of air flow. For humans to stay cool, we don’t need to refrigerate them like machines. We need air flow that helps evaporate water. The human body is designed to keep cool, and so is nature.

Of Radiant Concrete Jungles and Cool Forests

When you hike, and when you cycle, you immediately feel the effect of cycling into a city and stopping at a traffic light. That cooling air flow that you felt when cycling is gone. You’re suffocated by an unbearable urban heat that makes you deeply uncomfortable. You become desperate for a fountain, to splash your head.

A few minutes later you’re out of the urban jungle and you’re riding into a cool forest. The shade keeps you cool, but so do the transpiring trees, and the river flowing nearby.

Nature keeps us cool, and villages had plenty of places where people could go for shade, and to cool down. Villages are becoming urban jungles. Cool trees and gardens are being replaced with apartment blocks and tarmac parkings.

The Hunt for Air Conditioning

Americanised people see the heat and they’re desperate for air conditioning to cool down. There are three flaws with air conditioning. The first of these is that it requires huge amounts of energy. That energy releases carbon dioxide and that carbon dioxide makes global warming worse.

One day, in July, I finished my morning shift and I stepped outdoors. I saw people in summer clothing, ready for a barbecue. I was in trousers and a fleece. In an air conditioned office it is Autumn all year long. You don’t acclimate to the heat. The result is that you go from being cold, to cooked, and back to being cold. In my eyes an open window, and a pleasant breeze achieve the same thing without the energy cost.

The third one is that people forget about environmentally sound solutions that have been in use for generations, centuries or even longer.

And Finally

Idealistically I want cooling to be natural, rather than powered by electricity. I want plants and natural phenomena to help cool. If I can open windows on two sides of a building then I will try that. If I can keep the shutters closed until after the sun has vanished I will do that.

I know that the veluxes get so hot that they can’t be touched in summer. That’s why I open them just enough for the heat to escape but not so wide as to allow hot air to rush in.

If I wake early enough in the morning I open the hallway door, and the balcony door, and I attempt to vent the hot air that has collected in the hallway. By trying to keep the core of the building cool I hope to keep the top two floors a little cooler.

Idealism

According to my idealism a Minérgie building should be designed to vent hot air in summer, not just to stay warm in winter. Idealistically it would take cool evening and morning air, and flood the building with it in the morning, to keep the building at 25°c or less, without increasing to over 30°c in the afternoon.

Conclusion

I would prefer to have open windows and flowing air than air conditioning. In my experience air conditioned environments can feel stuffy, and when you go back outdoors you are hit by a wall of heat. Las Vegas illustrates this well, as does Stovepipe Wells. A shaded park with trees and a river are comfortable during a heatwave.

Discalimer

My favourite place for air conditioning is a car, in summer. I spent two or more summers driving a car without AC and I called it "The Oven". I believe air conditioning in cars makes sense, when driving at speed, or on avery hot day.