- Thread starter jrf
- Start date
How to keep house cool
Roof Paint
One time after painting the interior I had some left over white paint. I thought about painting the roof above my room. So I washed it well with the hose and broom to remove any loose material, and a couple of hours later I painted what I could with the leftovers. Next day I went up on the roof and put my hand against the painted and non painted sections. The temperature difference was amazing. Very cool to the touch, coolest room in the house; bought another can of cheap white paint and did above the kids rooms. I know they sell special paint for this purpose, it all depends on if you rent or own, or plan on staying in the same place for a long period of time. And the Presidentes work well also.
Another great idea is to purchase or bring with you a good quality green or black rubber garden hose 75-100FT. and spread it out on the roof. Attach it to the intake before your tinaco, or where it comes into the house and bingo, you have hot water. If you really want to get technical you could paint a small section black to increase solar heating. Preferably on an off building; laundry area.
Campesino...
One time after painting the interior I had some left over white paint. I thought about painting the roof above my room. So I washed it well with the hose and broom to remove any loose material, and a couple of hours later I painted what I could with the leftovers. Next day I went up on the roof and put my hand against the painted and non painted sections. The temperature difference was amazing. Very cool to the touch, coolest room in the house; bought another can of cheap white paint and did above the kids rooms. I know they sell special paint for this purpose, it all depends on if you rent or own, or plan on staying in the same place for a long period of time. And the Presidentes work well also.
Another great idea is to purchase or bring with you a good quality green or black rubber garden hose 75-100FT. and spread it out on the roof. Attach it to the intake before your tinaco, or where it comes into the house and bingo, you have hot water. If you really want to get technical you could paint a small section black to increase solar heating. Preferably on an off building; laundry area.
Campesino...
Hillbilly has it right.
I'll add that you must only live in a house with high ceilings with peak vents, wall vents between rooms at the ceiling leading to the highest central peak in the house oriented to the day breeze to evacuate used/heated air, no glass in the windows, but use tablillos with screens. Have the living room on the day breeze side and have the bedroom on the night breeze (mountains) corner of the house.
If you have zinc or tejas roof and not concrete (shame on you), then have an even higher ceiling with good, even powered, ventilation in the space between ceiling and roof oriented from day breeze to the day breeze lee.
Don't have that? Sell out and get a house built for the tropics.
Or go back home to Nebraska.
I'll add that you must only live in a house with high ceilings with peak vents, wall vents between rooms at the ceiling leading to the highest central peak in the house oriented to the day breeze to evacuate used/heated air, no glass in the windows, but use tablillos with screens. Have the living room on the day breeze side and have the bedroom on the night breeze (mountains) corner of the house.
If you have zinc or tejas roof and not concrete (shame on you), then have an even higher ceiling with good, even powered, ventilation in the space between ceiling and roof oriented from day breeze to the day breeze lee.
Don't have that? Sell out and get a house built for the tropics.
Or go back home to Nebraska.
We did a two-part piece on cooling the DR home in the Green Team blog back in 2006:
Green Cooling the DR Home, Part I
Green Cooling the DR Home, Part II
Much of it still holds true, but perhaps it is time to do an update...
Green Cooling the DR Home, Part I
Green Cooling the DR Home, Part II
Much of it still holds true, but perhaps it is time to do an update...
Thank you - that was excellent information and a very informative read!
We have not built our house yet and we plan to build a one story home with a tile roof and I really want vaulted ceilings and I'm wondering if having high ceilings can help to cool the home since hot air rises? We could also put screened windows at the top of the vault as long as we have an overhang outside to cover that area in case of rain and then hot air could escape instead of being trapped at the top.
All of these types of threads are excellent reading so we can take in all of this information and work with our architect to build our house as "green" as possible and so that we can take advantage of the area's trade winds, etc. The note about making sure to to put windows on the appropriate sides to take advantage of the wind direction also makes so much sense.
Personally, I would rather not have air conditioning and I would like to build our house with shutters and fans to cool the house and have a covered porch and treed area as well as a pool to retreat to during the hottest times of day. The beach is another option
the rooms in our house with the higest ceiling are actually the hottest, the lower ones with no sun on the lower floor are coolest, these dont have a roof, so im guessing the roof is the main thing here - you need an outlet to let warm air out at night - you can also put foil insulation on the roof before tiles go down that might help reflecting heat.
has anyone seen fans that waft instead of twirling...i think they might work better
has anyone seen fans that waft instead of twirling...i think they might work better