Heat, windows, and a three year old...

Bill Lantry

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Inside the Beltway
Well, folks,

It's gonna be a hot one today in DC. We're talking 99 degrees, no big deal in Houston, but unusual for around here. Bodes for a hot summer, frankly. Since we can't really afford to run the air conditioner, that means open windows. Not a good idea with a curious, death defying 3 year old, and a three story drop in the back.

I'd thought of building sets of cage like "bars" to go into each window using a bunch of painted 1x2s, but the forecast means fans upstairs. So I guess I'll be building "fan frames" instead, to get them to block "thru access" to the window and hold up the box fans. Anyone gone through this one? Any design ideas? I did get a few of those side by side fans that fit in the window, but they're 25 bucks each, vs. 11.99 for box fans, and I've got 10 upstairs windows to do...

Thanks,

Bill
 
Open the windows at night and in the morning. Shut them tight at around 10am, and close the curtains on the south+west side also - heavy curtains if possible.
In that way you let the cool air in at night, and keep it OUT during the day.
(unless of course you have a nice breeze?)

Oh yeah, and you want to keep the upstairs doors CLOSED as much as possible, to keep the hot air from rising up the stairs and turning it into an oven, and ditto for keeping the cold air in -- this is still true if you have the AC turned on.

We also try to avoid turning on the AC, but we find that once the internal temperature passes 27c (81F) with heavy/high humidity, that tempers start to fray and get short. And so we turn on the AC then.

As for your 3 year old. Hmm, we also have a totally fearless 4.5 year old (He learned to ride a bike - no training wheels - in less than 2 days.) who has always been like that. We found him on top of the microwave stand when he was under 2.

Still, we've never really been worried about the windows -- none of the bedrooms have a chair, bed, or dresser directly in front of the window, which is something we did on purpose when arranging furniture, to keep kids away from the windows. Can you rearrange the rooms a bit to keep the windows a bit out of reach in the high-up rooms?

best,
...art

ps: evidence of our death defying son... (this was 2-3 years ago when he was 18-24months or so)
sir-edmund-theo-sm.jpg
 
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