Summer heat in the absence of air conditioning can create considerable discomfort. To cool off and feel good without air conditioning, you can use various tricks using water, fans, light clothing, cool drinks and food, psychological tricks, and so on. You can also naturally cool the whole house, preventing heat from stagnating in it. With the right approach, you will successfully escape the heat while saving money on air conditioning.

Steps

Use of water for cooling

Drink more water. The body will be cooler if its water balance is in order. Try to drink about 230 ml of water every hour. Adding mint leaves or orange, lemon or cucumber slices to your water will make it more refreshing. You may also find it easier to drink water if it has a slight flavor.

Spray yourself with cool water. Fill a spray bottle with cool water and set it to a fine mist. For an immediate cooling effect, irrigate bare skin with a spray bottle.

Chill a damp handkerchief in the freezer and apply it to your neck, forehead, arms, or legs. Applying a cold cloth to your skin will help you fight the heat. When the fabric is warm, simply rinse it and put it back in the freezer.

• You can also apply an ice pack to the back of your head.

1. Pour cold water over your wrists. Soak your wrists and other areas of the body with large blood vessels under the skin, such as the neck, inner crooks of the elbows and knees, in cold water for about 10 seconds. This will lower your body temperature slightly.

   Wet your head. Wet hair helps to cool the body, so try this step for an instant cool down. You can wet both the whole head and just the hairline. Evaporation of water will cool the head (however, it can make previously styled hair curl if it is naturally curly).

   • Put a water-soaked bandana on your head and walk around in it.

2. Fill the tub with cool water and soak in it. Once you get used to the water temperature, turn the water off a bit and add more cold water. Keep doing this until you're cool enough. When you get out of the bath, your body will remain cool for a long time.

   • If you want, you can take a cool shower instead of a bath.
   • You can also put your feet in a bucket of cold water. The body mainly radiates heat from the hands, feet, face and ears, so cooling any of these places will effectively cool the whole body. Shallow children's pools are also good for cooling the feet of adults.

3. Go for a swim. Visit the swimming pool, go to the river, lake or sea and unwind. Immersion in water will cool you down in an incredible way. When outdoors, be sure to use sunscreen to prevent sunburn, which can further heat up your body.

   Install a house fan. It will drive hot air towards the attic, where it will be blown out through the attic vents. To cool the house, open the door to the basement, make sure that all other internal doors between the basement and the room containing the fan are also open. Turn on the fan at night, while opening the windows of the lower floor, so that it can effectively cool the house. However, be sure to make sure the attic vents are working properly beforehand, otherwise the attic may not be able to handle the heat dissipation.

   • If you don't have attic vents, make them. You can’t even imagine how amazingly a cool attic affects the temperature of the whole house.

Fighting the heat

1. Avoid peak heat hours. Try not to go outside between 10:00 and 15:00, when the sun's rays are at their strongest. This way you avoid sunburn. Try running or exercising outdoors in the early morning or late evening. The early mornings and evenings are usually cool enough for you to enjoy walking, running, hiking, biking, gardening or yard work.

   Wear summer clothes made from natural fabrics. Wear low-density natural fabrics (cotton, silk, linen) rather than polyester, synthetic viscose, and other synthetic fabrics (with the possible exception of specially designed breathable sports fabrics).

   • Choose light-colored clothes. Dark-colored clothing absorbs heat better from the sun and stays warm longer than light-colored or white clothing, which reflects light and heat better.

2. Walk barefoot. Take off your shoes and socks, especially on days when the humidity is extremely high. Wearing boots with socks in these conditions will make your feet sweat, generally raising your body temperature. Try to walk barefoot as often as possible (if possible).

   Fill your freezer with frozen fruit treats. Use ice cream sticks (you can find them in the supermarket) or just grab a bag of frozen fruit wedges like watermelon, pineapple, or lemon. Refrigeration can be delicious!

3. Take advantage of mint. Mint refreshes the skin and leaves a feeling of pleasant coolness. Smear on mint lotion (avoid your face and eyes), shower with mint soap, do a mint foot bath, or soak with other mint-infused powders. In addition, there are some delicious mint recipes that you can also try:

   • smoothies made from watermelon yogurt and mint;
   • Irish chocolate drink with cream and mint;
   • mint truffles.
   • During peak heat, the municipalities of some cities organize "cooling centers" with working air conditioners, which can be visited by anyone. If you don't have air conditioning in your home (especially if you're old or have a medical condition), call your city's help desk to find out if cooling centers are available.
   • If you have a garage at the base of your house under the living quarters, leave your warmed up car outside to cool it down before putting it in the garage.

   Warnings

   • Heat is often an essential companion of drought. If your area imposes water restrictions due to drought, be sure to check them out before using the water cooling tips mentioned in this article.
   • While drinking too much water is rarely a problem for healthy people, it can be dangerous for people with heart, liver, or kidney problems. If you have any of these serious conditions, be aware of how much water you drink, as your kidneys may not be able to properly process the excess water.
   • Babies, children, pregnant women and the elderly are more susceptible to overheating. Be sure to keep an eye on your family members, work colleagues and neighbors who are in this risk category.
   • If you notice symptoms of heatstroke or dehydration, call an ambulance or seek medical attention yourself to get qualified medical care. Body temperature above 40°C is life-threatening, but if it rises to 42.5°C, it will be fatal.

Cooling the air in the summer is one of the top priorities of a homeowner. How to use the energy that surrounds us for this purpose and make air conditioning practically free, this article will tell.

The importance of ventilation cannot be overestimated. We will not repeat what has been described many times and will focus on our own task - to cool and freshen the air in the house. Traditional ventilation systems can be quite expensive to install due to the cost of components and assemblies, as well as the cost of qualified installation work.

During operation, they consume a significant amount of electricity, especially for cooling the air mass, they emit a lot of heat and create noise. The system described in this article is easy to install, energy efficient, requires no special skills and is intuitive. It should be noted right away that due to its simplicity, it has limited functions, however, it provides for modernization at any site at any convenient time.

In our case, the term "recuperation" is a synonym for the word "heat exchange", therefore the concepts of "recuperator" and "heat exchanger" are interchangeable. At the physical level, the process consists in cooling / heating the air, changing its temperature due to the consumption of thermal energy, and then mixing. How and why this happens, we will consider further.

Stable energy source

Pursuing the goal of lowering the temperature in the room in the summer, it is reasonable to ask the question: “Where to give the energy of the heated atmospheric air? How to cool it down? Here the forces of nature come to our aid. The fact that at a certain depth the ground temperature is constant will be our main argument in justifying the energy efficiency of the system.

The soil is capable of endlessly exchanging energy - cooling and heating any carrier (air, water), but only up to its own temperature at a given depth, which remains constant due to the relative stability of the earth's core.

International practice

Of course, we are far from the first to decide to use the infinite and free energy of the Earth. In European countries, which are commonly called developed (Germany, Sweden, Belgium, etc.), this energy has been used since the beginning of the last century. The progress made in this area is impressive.

Systems for heat exchange of water below ground level are called "heat pumps". Such underground and underwater devices heat and cool the premises of the entire house. Standard projects have been developed for any building and it is possible to transfer a house from a traditional (gas, electric) air conditioning system to heat pumps. In a similar, but more primitive way, this energy is also used in our country, arranging underground food storage facilities (cellars).

What is a good natural heat exchanger

The operation of our heat exchanger is based on the same physical process as in heat pumps. Focusing on economy, we use this principle, bringing it to our own needs and local realities.

Tasks that an adapted autonomous recuperator can solve:

1. Constant natural ventilation with closed doors and windows.
2. Rapid replacement of indoor air with fresh air.
3. Cooling the air in the room.
4. Preparing the air mixture for the next steps.

Advantages:

1. Absolute environmental friendliness. During the installation and operation of the basic system, no toxic materials are used and no heat emissions into the atmosphere occur.
2. Safety. The recuperator does not use electric motors (power more than 100 W), chemical agents, high voltage.
3. Simplicity and cheapness. For forced ventilation, only low-power 100 W fans are used. Ventilation takes place naturally.
4. Oxygen is not burned during operation.
5. Low noise level.

Flaws:

• the basic system does not provide for filtration, humidity control, heating or other processing of the air mixture (but allows the possibility of installing the appropriate equipment later).

Simple and clear system

An autonomous heat exchanger for a country house is a system of ventilation ducts, partially laid underground, included in the supply and exhaust ventilation circuit. In order to create such an “air conditioner”, it is not necessary to understand the intricacies of physical phenomena. Just knowing that it works is enough. You can verify this by going down in the heat to any basement, well or subway.

The principle of operation is as follows:

1. Atmospheric air passes through pipes laid in the ground with a constant temperature (usually from +4 to +10 °C).
2. In the underground part, the cool soil absorbs the thermal energy of the heated air.
3. The cooled air is delivered through the ventilation ducts to the premises of the house.
4. At the same time, the exhaust fan removes the saturated and heated air mixture (“old air”) from the room.

According to the principle of construction, such systems are divided into two main types: pipe and bunker.

Pipe - consists entirely of pipes. The design can be varied depending on site conditions. Suitable in case of reconstruction of a house without a capacious basement, but a lot of earthwork will be required.

Bunker or stone - the heat exchanger is a bunker filled with large stones. It takes up less space than a pipe one (you can arrange it in the basement of a house). Requires a basement or underground space. The best option for new construction.

We create an internal system of ventilation ducts at home

In both cases, the ventilation ducts inside the house will be located approximately the same. Let's start with them.

The primitive supply and exhaust ventilation system consists of external and internal ventilation ducts connected into one network. Air sockets are located in the upper diagonally opposite corners of the rooms. In one - inflow, in the other - exhaust. In a one-story building, the main air ducts can be located in the attic. In a two-story building, the supply and exhaust air ducts of the first floor will run in boxes fitted into the interior decoration, the second floor - in the attic. The location of the main air ducts should be determined for each house individually, taking into account the layout (location of walls and partitions).

Advice. Premises where supply and exhaust ventilation is recommended: living room, bedroom, children's room, kitchen, dining room, offices, pantry, rest rooms, gym. In bathrooms and toilets - only exhaust. It is not needed at all in corridors, vestibules, halls and loggias.

Rules for calculating the system of internal ventilation ducts:

1. Sewer pipe with a diameter of 250 mm for distributing inlet and combined outlet channels. Estimated consumption - two lengths of the house + height of the upper floor + 20%.
2. Pipe sewer (gray) with a diameter of 150 mm. Estimated consumption - three times the length of the house + 20%. For a two-story house with equal floor area + 50%.
3. Fasteners for the pipe (based on the material of the walls) at the rate of 1 pc. by 70 cm.
4. Insulation (rolled mineral wool) - 1 roll.
5. Foam, sealant, decorative grilles.
6. Elbows, revisions, couplings (1 piece per 70 cm).

Attention! Do not use 90° elbows as this will obstruct the passage of air and create noise. Combine 45° elbows (following the sewer example).

If it is supposed to arrange a pipe heat exchanger in a one-story building, the supply channel will come out of the ground into a heat-insulated box outside the building and enter the attic. In a two-story one, it is better to bring it into the building at the bottom of the first floor and install an internal vertical (distributing) channel, which will then be brought into the attic space.

When installing a bunker option in the basement of a building, a vertical distribution channel will exit the bunker immediately into the room. It is also possible to mount it outside.

An example of calculating the consumption of materials for the installation of internal channels at home

Take as an example a one-story house with a calculated ventilated area of ​​​​60 m 2, which will have approximately 100 m 2 of total area and approximate dimensions of 8x12 m:

1. Pipe 250 mm: 2 x 12 + 3 + 20% = 32 m.
2. Pipe 150 mm: 3 x 12 + 20% = 43 m.
3. Fasteners: 32 + 43 / 0.7 = 107 pcs.
4. Elbows, revisions, couplings - take for 1 piece per 3 m: 32 + 43 / 3 = 55/3 = 20 pcs.
5. Grids: 8 pcs. (2 for each room).
6. Switches: 4 pcs.
7. Foam, sealant.

Tube heat exchanger

In order not to complicate the calculations with mathematical calculations, we will provide the data of the tests already carried out in an averaged form, or rather their results.

The basic principle that must be observed when creating a system of pipes is that there must be at least one pipe of an underground channel per room. This will facilitate the operation of the fans due to atmospheric pressure. Now it remains to place the required number of pipes in the underground part of the site. They can be laid individually or combined into a common channel (250 mm).

In this description, we propose to take into account not the maximum load, when all rooms are forcibly ventilated at the same time, but the average load, which will be applied during regular periodic ventilation of different rooms (as happens in real life). This means that there is no need to display a separate channel for each room. It is enough to bring 150 mm air ducts from each room to one common 250 mm duct. The number of common channels is taken from the calculation of one channel per 60 m 2.

We create a recovery field

Scheme of the device of the pipe heat exchanger: 1 - fan; 2 - channel in the trench ∅250 mm; 3 - rows of pipes ∅250 mm; 4 - recovery field.

First you need to choose the location of the pipes (recuperation field). The greater the length of the laid pipes, the more efficient the air cooling will be. It should be noted that after the work is completed, this area can be used for planting plants, landscaping or a playground. Never plant trees on the recovery field:

1. We excavate the soil to a freezing depth of plus 0.4 m.
2. We lay pipes of 250 mm in increments of at least 700 mm along the axis.
3. We bring the air intakes to a height of 1 m. It is desirable that they be in a shaded, but well-ventilated place.
4. With the help of knees and adapters, we combine them into a common channel of 250 mm, which is connected to the ventilation system of the house (see above).

Attention! In the underground part, use special ground sewer pipes with a thick wall. They do not need to be thermally insulated, but simply covered with soil, spilling water. Only concreting is allowed if necessary.

Calculation of the scope of work and material consumption:

1. For the recuperation field we take a plot of 15x6 m with an area of ​​90 m 2.
2. The volume of soil of the pit at a freezing depth of 0.8 m will be: V cat \u003d (0.8 + 0.4) x 60 \u003d 72 m 3.
3. The volume of the trench 40 cm wide (10 m from the house): V tr \u003d 1.2 x 0.4 x 10 \u003d 4.8 m 3.
4. The total volume of earthworks: V total \u003d V cat + V tr \u003d 72 + 4.8 \u003d 77 m 3.
5. Sections of 15 m: N neg \u003d a / 0.7 \u003d 6 / 0.7 \u003d 9 pcs., where a is the field width.
6. Total pipe length: L \u003d N neg x 15 + 10 \u003d 9 x 15 + 10 \u003d 145 linear meters m.
7. We accept consumption of elbows, couplings, adapters 2 pcs. x 15 m = 30 pcs.

Advice. The deeper the heat exchanger is laid, the more efficient its operation will be. More than one tier is allowed.

Bunker heat exchanger

If the house has unoccupied basements, they can also be used to build a bunker (air or heat exchange tank) for a stone heat exchanger. Its action is based on the energy intensity of the stone - it gradually picks up the ambient temperature and balances the flow of passing air. In the absence of free space in the basement, the bunker can be arranged on a plot outside the house.

Scheme of the device of the bunker heat exchanger: 1 - fan; 2 - pipe Ø250 mm; 3 - protection; 4 - stone Ø200-450 mm; 5 - brick walls; 6 - cover

At a certain place, a pit is dug, approximately 2x3x3 m in size. From the exit point of the common channel of the ventilation system of the house to the pit of the future tank, a trench is made, a 250 mm pipe is laid into it to a depth of 140 cm, through which cooled air will be discharged from the bunker. Along the wall to which the trench approached, a vertical strobe is laid to the bottom under a pipe with a diameter of 250 mm. Then the bottom is laid out with bricks or concreted. The bottom of the air reservoir must be at least 1 meter deeper than the ground freezing level.

Attention! After the device of the bottom of the bunker, a 250 mm outlet pipe should be laid.

The beginning of the outlet pipe protrudes from the wall by 1/3 of the distance to the opposite wall and is lined with brick protection. A protective grid is installed on the inlet.

Filling the tank

It is better to lay out the walls from brick or cast from concrete (without slag!), since these materials conduct temperature better than others. The cinder block is not suitable because of its thermal insulation properties. The walls and bottom must be carefully waterproofed (roofing material) from the outside and plastered from the inside to prevent the penetration of organic matter or moisture. The height of the walls is up to ground level minus 20 cm. An inlet hole is arranged at the top of any wall and air intake pipes are installed. To facilitate the operation of fans, we recommend installing 3 pcs.

After the mortar hardens, the hopper must be filled with a large pebble stone. Size from 200 to 450 mm in diameter. The stone must be clean from organics, washed.

The tank is covered with a "lid" of a continuous boardwalk on wooden beams, covered with waterproofing materials. Sod is laid on top. Then the outlet pipe is connected to the ventilation system of the house (to the common ventilation duct) and backfilled.

Calculation of the scope of work and consumption of materials:

1. With an air tank size of 2x3 m and a depth of 3 m, the volume of soil (earthworks and stone for filling) will be: V \u003d 2x3x3 \u003d 18 m 3 + V tr \u003d 22.8 m 3.
2. Volume of brickwork: V treasure \u003d S walls + S bottom x 0.125 \u003d ((2x3) x 2 + (3x3) x 2 + 2x3) x 0.065 \u003d 36 x 0.065 \u003d 2.34 m 3.
3. The total length of the pipe (10 m from the house): L = (10 + 3) + 10% = 15 m.
4. Number of knees - 6 pcs.

The cost of stone to fill the tank may vary depending on the region of construction.

As can be seen from the calculations, the final cost of air conditioning 1 m 2 for both options is different. The main factor of choice is the level of groundwater occurrence. If it is high, less than 3 m, then it will not work to build a bunker heat exchanger. The pipe is suitable even with a 1.5 meter UGV.

Installing fans

The system presented here provides for the synchronous operation of two duct fans - supply and exhaust - installed in each air outlet of the room. This makes it possible to quickly deliver cool fresh air into the room and remove heated air. For effective ventilation, the fan power of 100 W each is sufficient. When choosing a fan, pay attention to the noise level during its operation.

Approximate cost of operation

If you ventilate each room three times during the day for 20 minutes, then we get 1 hour of operation of 8 fans of 0.1 kW each. This is less than 1 kWh per day. Per month - 30 kW. At a price of 5 rubles / kW, this will be 150 rubles / month.

The service life of recuperators and ventilation ducts at home is limited by the service life of the material. For underground elements - from 50 years, for internal - unlimited.

The system does not require maintenance (except for fans - once every 5 years).

prospects

The described scheme can become the basis of a more complex air conditioning system. It can gradually include additional elements - filters, heating and cooling coils, more powerful fans, automatic control units and others. The air mixture prepared underground has a stable temperature not only in summer but also in winter, so it can also be used for heating.

Vitaly Dolbinov, rmnt.ru