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Author Re: Cooling attic (and home) by spraying water on roof (shingles) - good/bad?
Phil Scott

2005-06-26, 4:25 am


"Robert Bonomi" <bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com> wrote in message
news:11bs1lfok861n40@corp.supernews.com...
quote:

> In article <42BDB7E5.456E1146@Guy.com>, Some Guy

<Some@Guy.com> wrote:
quote:

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>
> Back in the days before ubiquitous A/C, and when 'skimpy'

insulation was
quote:

> commonplace, "watering the roof" was a _common_ method of

making things
quote:

> inside a bit more livable.
>
> The idea being to just wet down the roof, and have the water

_evaporate_
quote:

> to carry off the heat. evaporating water pulls off

hundreds of times as
quote:

> much heat energy as does just warming the water up does.
>
> 'Evaporative cooling' is one of the most energy efficient

cooling methods
quote:

> known. However, there are a whole bunch of limits as to how

much cooling
quote:

> you can get that way. The higher the ambient 'relative

humidity', the
quote:

> less cooling you can produce. The lower the temperature,

the less cooling
quote:

> you can produce. And, of course, you have to have a means

to 'discard'
quote:

> the 'used up' air.
>
> As a practical matter, you "don't care" how hot the attic

air is _near_the_
quote:

> _roof_, if the temperature just above the insulation to the

inhabited space
quote:

> stays rational. Decent 'convection' air-flow, possibly with

power-assist
quote:

> does a good job of _that_.
>
> Also, if you have 'good' insulation between the inhabited

space, and the
quote:

> attic, a 'spike down' in the attic temperatures will -not-

make a noticable
quote:

> difference in the inhabited space thermal load -- takes too

long for the
quote:

> change to 'penetrate' all that insulation.
>
>
> I'd try putting some temprature sensors at, or even a little

ways _into_
quote:

> the top of the insulation at the attic *floor*, and see how

bad the
quote:

> temperatures get there. And then try to optimize the

air-flow to get
quote:

> those readings close to 'in the shade' outdoor temperatures.


Thats good advice

Phil Scott
quote:

>



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