Cooling Homes in the Hot, Humid Tropics
From Appropedia
The cooling of homes in hot, humid climates is a problem. Let's say that electric powered air conditioning is not an accepted possibility. Evaporative cooling is not really feasible because of the humidity of the air; little evaporation will take place. This leaves the removal of the hot air, especially near the ceiling and forced air circulation.
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[edit] Creating a breeze
Temperature differences created by the sun can be used to create a breeze, which gives a cooler feeling. A solar chimneyWP is a proven way of doing this, which has the advantage of being most effective on days of strong sunshine, when it is most needed.
There is an article entitled Natural Cooling of Malaysian Urban Homes by Free Wind which deals with this question. First it uses standard, unpowered turbine ventilators to remove hot air in the building. Then it suggests an, as yet untried, system to circulate the air in the home using a wind powered rotating fan. On a hot day the air may well be dead still at ground level but only a few meters above the building, there is often a light breeze. The concept involves building a simple tower on the roof with an anemometer device on the top. This turns a shaft going straight down, through the roof to a standard ceiling fan in the house. See an overly simple diagram in the article itself at the link given below. An imaginative worker could better this design considerably.
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[edit] External Links
- http://users.adelphia.net/~dbk2/ - broken link - no permission to access.
