Re:Smart thermostats inadvertently strain electric power grids
by bluGill on Thursday July 14, 2022 @06:33PM
(#32102200)
2x4 walls are allowed at all? That surprises me, up in the north they haven't been legal for decades now. Well it is more you can't meet the rvalue with them, but still even cheap houses don't get them
Re:Smart thermostats inadvertently strain electric power grids
by tguvot on Thursday July 14, 2022 @06:50PM
(#32102339)
no idea. Insulation levels are part of the code. It will be used at least for cases "deep remodels" when house is stripped down to skeleton
Re:Smart thermostats inadvertently strain electric power grids
by mulmen on Thursday July 14, 2022 @06:04PM
(#32102000)
> my room wall on the outside hits 170F i think
That seems unbelievable! Is that a typo?
Re:Smart thermostats inadvertently strain electric power grids
by tguvot on Thursday July 14, 2022 @06:32PM
(#32102195)
Nope. It's west facing stucco wall without shadow. It's on sun through most of the day. With IR camera i clocked it in range of 65C-75C multiple times (so it's maybe not 170, but 165. hate C<>F conversions in head) . I had inverter on this wall, and it simply died from overheating.
Same wall on the inside get's to 30C or more if I don't run AC that blows on it. Wall is triple layer stucco over plywood, R13 fiberglass and then drywall.
R-15 for 2x4 or R-21 for 2x6. Not highest numbers in USA I guess and after you buy house that already "exists", it's expensive to change it.
>I am keenly aware of how much thermal mass walls hold. My apartment is 3 external walls that are constructed pretty much only of a few inches of concrete, bare. The result is that after a full day of summer sun, even though it drops to 64 degrees outside at night, my air conditioner cannot keep it 76 degrees or lower inside. It's crazy. It's worse in the winter when I can feel the walls sucking heat out of my apartment.
Whole house fan is the way to go. If you can't install one, I think a couple of strategically placed window fans over night to create some air flow through the house might work better than AC
I did some research on preventing walls from getting too hot (my room wall on the outside hits 170F i think). Narrowed it to
- Transparent paint with some particles that reflect sun/reduce heat gain
- Awning
- Shade sail
- Trellis and grow some vine to cover the wall.