Cooling my hot house.......

[anawanahuanana]

Melbourne is not for me. I just spent the last 7 years living in Scotland, so I've done my fair share of cold winters!

However, I did a bit more feeling around today whilst the sun shone brightly. All of the internal sides on the outside walls, if that makes any sense, are cool to the touch when the house is roasting. The vast majority of the ceilings are also cool, no doubt owing to our R3.0 insulation. However, the heat is not only coming in through the cathedral ceiling in the family room, but also through the ceiling just inside the perimeter of the house. Like the guys that installed the insulation didn't go all the way to the edges.

So, next chance I get, I'm gonna have to shoehorn myself around my roofspace to check all the edges to see if I can make then a bit better. I'm also going to add a whirlybird at the top of the roof directly by the cathedral ceiling to try and remove some of the heat in that area. To finish it off, I'll buy me some pink batts or something, and secure these to the "walls" of the cathedral ceiling in the loft, if you know what I mean. Obviously in the loft there are 3 walls which form the cathedral, and there is some amount of heat coming in through those.

Hopefully, this may be enought, along with the shadecloth outside the bedroom sliding door, to take the edge off it. If not, I'll have to investigate the more advanced methods as advised above.

I realise that living in QLD is hot in the summer, and we do use the aircon when we're in and its too much to bear, but I'd like to get the house to the stage where we didn't walk through the door after being out for a couple of hours and have to sprint to the aircon controller before dehydration sets in........

Thanks again guys

[drummelars]

dude ad a feww whirly birds they really make a big difference.

thing is have all the guards in place like wirley birds, insulation, good air circulation and vetilation and then your air con wont run anywhere near as hard to cool that same space.

Also Tin roofs and even tiles roof cavity hold #### loads of heat. As the other said get vents in your eaves otherwise the wirley birds wont do ####!!!!!

I was in my roof a few weeks back around lunch time fixing the tv anntenna and runing new cables for it. I had a thermometer with me and it got up as hgh at 63 celcious. I could onlt spend 10 mins up there and i was dead almost because it was so hot and sticky. nex time ill wait until winter to do any renovations.

[SilentButDeadly]

Your house alignment sux but oh well.....

Silver foil reflective batts or glass fibre roofing blanket or something like Aircell under the Colorbond in the loft would be very useful especially if there is no sarking.

And it sounds like you don't have anything insulation wise between the roof and ceiling in the cathedral section........which'd be the first thing I'd fix if you don't. Pull the roof and go for those silver foil batts (double or triple layer) again.

There are also heat reflective paints available.

Insulation in the walls would be nice but a mongrel to do when the walls are lined!!

For an insulation overview try www.insulationsuperstore.com.au

Reverse cycle AC is a crutch for unimaginative people with no social concience who are happy to eke out an existence in poorly designed and built boxes. But what the heck........it's only an opinion.

[anawanahuanana]

I tend to agree with you regarding aircon, which is why I'm trying to sort it out in a more energy efficient manner. Can't see the point in burning up even more fossil fuels to cool my house. Seems ironic at best.

Anyway, the gap between the cathedral ceiling and the roof is only a few inches, so as mentioned earlier, I guess I'd have to pull the roof off there to put something in. Now, this may be easy to do, but having had no experience of a metal roof in the past, sounds likle a big job to me! I'd be happy to be corrected though.....

As for vents in the eaves, I'm intending on putting some of these in on my next days off. Is it simply a matter of the more the better, or can there be too much of a good thing?

The walls I intend to insulate are not lined as such. If you imaging looking in my loft, there is what appears to be a 3 sided room with no door, if you like. As these "walls" form the walls that are in the upper part of the family room, the loft sides consist of just the studs. So, I'm going to throw some batts up agains this on the roofspace side and gyprock over them to make an insulated cavity. This seems to be where the majority of the heat is coming in.

It's such a sod though. Sitting in the garden you get a fantastic, almost constant, breeze. Just can't seem to get it in the house........

[dazzler]

Move to Melbourne

But the anti depressants would cost more than the aircon

[rod1949]

Don't know if you have these on the east coast. These may assist but you will need vents in the eaves to create flow through.

http://www.combinedmetalind.com.au/Brochure/eventr.pdf

I have a couple on my roof. They are very neat and unobtrusive on the ridge line.

When I'm near one of the eaves vent I can feel the suction draft being created.

[rsser]

It's worth doing your research on insulation.

Fibreglass or polyester batts have been criticised as acting as heat sinks and some folk advocate double sided foil or foil concertina batts stapled between the rafters or studs. Most downward heat passage is radiant and is best dealt with using reflective foil.