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Hey, We're back and today.
We're gonna talk about free air conditioning.
Well,
maybe not exactly free air conditioning, but maybe
how to take advantage of that cold air
in your basement. That's what we're gonna talk
about. So
before we do that, make sure you hit
that subscribe button, ding go on the bell
that we get notified next time,
we post a new video, and, of course,
leave us some comments down below because always
fun to see what you guys are thinking
about and
maybe help you out with, your particular situation.
So here we go. Alright. So
gonna start with a share so we can
share the screen here,
and then...
It's because the first thing we have to
do is a bit of a review.
Yes. So have we not beat this horse
to depth enough thermal,
more to less.
Right?
Yep. Wool dry air tends to fall
and warm moist air rises.
K Yes.
So when we're talking about using free air
conditioning the cooler air in your basement,
you have an effect going on in your
house called the stack effect. Any incoming air
to your home,
whether it's... It could be through crawl space
fence, it could be, you know, hose bib,
could be poorly sealed rim jo, that air
in your basement is going to feel cooler,
but as it warms, it will naturally
rise, go up through your roof or any
of your light fixtures that aren't sealed, things
like that, creates a stack effect. But when
you go from your set a floor down
to your first floor down to your basement.
You noticed that it feels cooler.
So you wanna know, how do I get
some of that cooler air?
Right.
But take advantage of that free air condition.
That's right.
So the first thing we're gonna wanna do
is figure out where is that error coming
from. Right?
So if it is duct leak kit or
if it's leakage from, like, rim joys or
poorly insulated windows or weather stripping around doors
in the in the basement.
You may not wanna just draw that arrow
up. Because if it's moisture laden, it could
actually lead to more problems.
Because as you bring that arrow up,
you're just increasing the humidity upstairs, which could
change your comfort. Right? Right.
And that and that's not comfortable. They...
The temperature is 1 thing, but the humidity
level is another issue. So you could have
70 degrees, but
hundred percent humidity and it's gonna feel nasty.
And you you could have 80 degree air
and 30 percent humidity, and that's gonna feel
comfortable. A... So what you just described, the
first 1 is our summer, The second 1
is our winter.
It... Yeah. Down there in Florida.
Yeah. It's exactly it. So So...
But if your basement tight enough, You know,
it depends on the age of your house
and if it was built in the nineties
or something it's probably. Semi tight, so not
gonna say great, you know, because we didn't
do a lot of ins insulating of the
rim jo, things like this. You could have
some air leakage there. But if the house
was built in the twenties, then
this may not be the best idea altogether.
So you may wanna
watch the whole thing here because I don't
think we wanna just do step number 1,
which might be to... Put a fan at
the top of the stairs.
Right. At yeah. Of the basement stairs.
Yeah. And just suck clear out.
Yeah. So that would actually cause it to
draw air up. Right? From the basement, start
pushing it around the house.
But it could also create an issue.
I having a problem going to next.
There we go.
Okay.
So
I'll let this so don't worry about it.
Okay. So if you have a fan at
the top of the stairs, you're just gonna
be trying to draw the air up from
the basement and pass it through your your
house or you might have a 2 story
on on top of that basement, and you're
gonna have another fan at the very top
of those stairs doing insane,
that's just moving error. Right? But it might
help.
So if you... If you were had that
at the top of the stairs, gonna have
all this negative air in the basement.
That's gonna be pulling in that cooler air,
but it's also gonna be drawn in outside
air
and blowing it into the... You're into the
second first and second floor then. Right. And
if your humid exterior outdoor humidity it's high.
You're not just pulling it... Feels to be
cooler air, you're gonna pull in moisture air
and it's just, like I said, you could
cause some issues with that. Right. Because then
all of a sudden start to condensate and
what You'll have... I mean, I just said,
if you're using a box fan at the
top of stairs, that's not gonna draw outside
air so strong.
But if we go to a whole house
fan, which is pretty common in the in
the Northern
climate,
All house fan is actually a a really
nice thing. You know, you get those nice
nights where it's half a decent outside, and
you wanna crank that whole house fan. It's
just gonna fully air up into the attic,
which should be properly.
And it's just gonna pull air in from
your windows of that. But again, if your
basement, lower level is not air sealed properly.
That may not come through those windows and
make pull it through other areas that maybe
you don't want it to pull it from.
And 1 of those key things might be
your water heater.
U.
Right. Yeah. You might have a fireplace or
something, course, if you're trying to get cool
air, Probably I don't have a fireplace.
No. But you could still draw all that
soot, you know, that that air negative pressure
is gonna come down through. If you have
an old ashes there from an old fire,
that's gonna get stirred up and get drawn
into the house. So, yeah. You wanna make
sure that the the fireplace is sealed up
if you're gonna do that. And these were
extremely popular in the fifties and sixties.
You just gotta make sure that the volume
of air you're pumping into your attic has
the same amount of room to get out.
Otherwise, you're just gonna press your attic and
correct problems.
Cc. Stops working so well. Correct. And a
lot of times what you do then, you
open all the windows on the first floor,
close all the windows on the second floor,
and now you're just sucking all that air,
and you're just gonna clean out the whole
house, and it'll change that air over pretty
fast.
And it it does really work quite well.
If you have a whole house space.
And good like, just gotta watch where the
the make air or the incoming errors is
coming from. It should be from Windows with
screens. It should be, you know,
otherwise, it's gonna suck through bath fans and,
like we said bad fans water heaters, You
know, any of your gas appliances or so.
Right. And during the winter, you gotta ins
seal then. Because now that's a huge heat
heat loss there too.
So you gotta think about that when you're
when you're,
putting 1 in.
So another suggestion I've seen out there is
to add a fan with some duct work,
Like, maybe just drop an 8 inch duct
into your basement,
and
just drop an 8 inch duct into your
basement, and it maybe connected to 1 of
these babies, which is just a cent fan.
And that you could run the duct work
up to say the first floor or the
second floor. So that way you're just sucking
that cool air out of the basement up
into the second floor or of the the
floor above. Right. But I don't recommend that
there's a few issues that really go along
this. 1 is obviously negatively pressure in the
basement again. Right? You're gonna dry her from
the wrong spot. The other thing I don't
like is there's no good way to control
this fan.
You know, you... It's not gonna work on
an.
You could possibly do a thermostat, but I
don't know how it's gonna shut off as
your basement not like a chiller. You're now
gonna do low seth point.
It and it's just kinda, you know, that
home it just drive you crazy. Just might
happen
Right. How it depends on how quiet that
fan is. Although, I get... It's probably quieter
than a than a box fan.
So... I would think so So you do
have that going for you. But and the
other issue that I actually think about is
we actually, when we frame a house, we
have to put it fire stops between all
the floors. And then I'm not gonna sit
here and tell you to just cut 8
inch holes in your floor from the second
floor down to the basement, run a duct
work in there to suck air because you've
just made it an easy path for fire
to go through your house. Right.
Success That's my big reason for saying. Don't
do that.
Yep. It can be done, but probably you
don't want to. Right here, you you would
put a box fan right up here,
and and then that would blow that air,
suck it out of the basement and blow
up into the first floor.
Yeah. And that's what you're talking about there.
Right.
So this 1 is is proper duct.
So in this model, we're talking about possibly...
If your if your air handler happens to
be in your basement.
This gets to be a lot easier because
you add that return. If you notice in
this drawing, they don't show a return in
the base. They show the duct work from
the first and second floor going into the
from the rooms. That's all the blue arrows
pointing in.
But there's nothing in the the lower level
in that basement area trying air in.
So you could open up,
on the back of that return Trunk, you
could put in a return,
and that would draw the air from there.
Again, we've worn
about your gas fired appliances and say, well,
heater in there. Right? I don't know looks
like gas by the piping?
Yes. Right here. You know, look in the
picture in the corner. So it looks like
all gas.
So you don't wanna suck
back
anything because if try to cool, I can
probably on the furnace on, just under conditioning.
Right.
Right. And if you have an electric water
heater, we don't need to worry about this.
Right Yep. If you have a gas fired
water heater
that's not a sealed combustion unit, then
this this becomes something to think about.
So The other thing I would do is
like, put a hole in the return on
that. Right there in the bay. Yep. Yep.
Use that. I would go on the first
floor and close those returns. Yep. Right here
here...
The air that you're cutting off on those,
you're gonna pick up on the lower level.
Right. I would leave the returns open.
On the second floor so that I could
draw that cold air out for that hot
air, excuse me.
You can see the red arrow on the
second floor drawing in that hot air.
So that... Your cycles so you're drawing the
hot air off the highest floor, and you're
gonna suck in the coolest air at the
lowest, and if not... It should lower the
temperature 4 or 5 degrees. We're not talking.
And about really, you know, chilling the house.
But by doing that, you're gonna stabilize the
temperature throughout.
Yeah. And you you can do something as
simple saran wrap over the over these things
to close a lot. And then that way,
you know, when the seasons changes go by
you just rip that back off, and you
can change it around. And now this also
is for Intern.
Okay. Our buddy's is open not. Yeah. Yeah.
I find I I find that whoever does
their drawings this thing on the same page
as me.
Yeah. That's good. So this is this is
actually... It it might be confused. You're not
looking straight down. It's not a floor plan.
It is actually...
Where it says Intern that is the floor,
the ceiling is there where this typical room.
You have a return, which is usually a...
Most returns are using the 2... The stud
space,
Yep. Right going down to the pan off
floor box, and enable a window there. So
they're talking about doing here is to depending
on the season. Now, this is showing winter.
Heating.
So in the in the winter, you had
block off the top and open the bottom.
Right. But we're talking about using basement air
to help cooling.
So if that's the case, we wanna open.
This net top 1.
Yep. And close the bottom 1. So we're
drawing the warm air from the top. So
So during the summer, you wanna suck the
hot air off the ceiling and have it
go down.
And then during the winter, you wanna suck
the cold air off the floor and keep
the heat in the room.
So that's that's that's why they're doing it.
Right.
Yeah. I just... I find a little saran
rep just works wonders.
So... Right
So... But bottom line is the, their best
way of doing this or, I think the
ultimate best way is actually by visiting your
duct work and, you know, having somebody balance
the system with the return in the lower
level
in the basement,
but there are products out there. If we're
worried about makeup pair. Remember we're talking, We
don't wanna suck it out of the basement.
So you're looking for either an E or
an Hr via, e and cover ventilator or
an energy recovery in ventilator.
So again, depending on the season, what these
do, these are basically mixing boxes,
come So they're gonna draw air from outside.
It could be hot warm humid air
coming in as fresh air. It's gonna mix
in this box. And it's gonna kinda cool
it down. It's gonna d dehumidifier it, which
right. There's gonna make it feel cooler. And
then it's gonna also take that stale air
from your house, pushing shit it out. In
this site you get air changes in your
house in a controlled manner.
Right.
Now the downside to these is cost, they
tend to run, you know, 3000 dollars or
so, but very effective, if you have space
in your lower level.
This is not just for cooling. You can
do a heating or pool in 3 you
put 1 of these in to break in
your... A fresh air in your home. It
connects to your return air side, and it
just pumps household of fresh air.
That the key is it's d
prior to putting in your system.
Right.
Your air conditioner basically is a d file.
Right? I mean, you that boils in narrowing
it collects moisture the water goes into the
drip and off the drain. So it's dehumidifier.
But if we're taking...
Outside air where a high humidity,
you're gonna over work that, and you could
end up with the mold or the sludge
in the you know, in the unit, it
can actually have frees up because of too
much moisture.
Yeah an repair movement. So
it's really important to kind of balance this
out
So
hopefully Could you some idea how to get
the air out of your basement and use
it, but...
Right. So... And I think if if you
don't have that return in the basement, and
you go around on the first floor and
you close all those returns.
And then you go to the second floor,
make sure all those returns are open.
You're also choking off half the air,
that should be going through that that Air
exchange. So you could fe
freeze up your a coil
if you don't have enough volume of air
going through it. So whatever you're closing off
on the first floor, you wanna make sure
you're making up that amount of air,
coming in if you're gonna drop from the
basement or somewhere else. You just don't wanna
start closing things off because that can actually
choke off the whole Ac unit, make it
even worse.
So,
balancing that error is fairly important.
So... Yeah. I mean, you can measure the
openings that you're closing off.
So do the math. You know what I
mean? If if it's 4, and they're 4
by 12.
Right? That's 16 by 12. Right. That's what
size return you need on the bottom on
the the air handler or you know, on
the return side. Yep. You put a 16
by 12 on there and you've now done
the math. It's... It
that might be overs, but it still actually
works. No. That... You know, that's that's down
and dirty.
You don't have to worry about freezing up
your a coil. And having a service call
and the guy's going where you're an idiot,
Why'd did you do that? Well, I saw
these guys on Youtube, say, told me to
do it. So let's talk real quick. Let's
talk about these people that maybe live in
a in a an a condo or, you
know, a smaller home where they just throw
1 main return in.
Now what... You know, they don't have this
this option here.
So now when you have central return, it's
it's very difficult to do anything. I mean,
that's when you start using the box fan
at the top of the stairs,
it's just no good way to get the
you know, in this particular drawing we have
up here is if you notice the duct
works not connected to the basement all the
way on the second floor because they're you're
talking about 2 different climates.
Yeah. So this 1 here is a
so... That's what we do. We put our
air handlers in our attic. U. But at
least this attic is insulated like mine so
that that is now inside conditioned space. Right.
But now we're... And I mean, a cooling
environment.
So we dropped the cold air out, and
then we suck the hot air up.
Yep.
But the 1 at the bottom is actually
talking about... Heating climate, and that's why you
noticed the arrows are reversed and all that.
So... Right.
And,
this is the right way to do it,
But there are a lot of production homes
where they just... They throw in
the air handler 1 big return.
And they they run some,
you know, not even duct work. They just
run the the flexible tubing
around the house and and blow it in
there and call it done. So Yep.
You know, depending on how the... This is
constructed in your home, we'll determine whether or
not you can even do such a thing.
So
Just... If you look into your system real
quick, you'll be able to tell.
Yeah. We'll just give you a few ideas,
hopefully some something or a modified system some
of this will work. We're just trying to
fill you in on what to watch for
and what not to do as well as
what might you might be able to do.
Right.
Some Exactly.
I'm gonna say at this point,
keep it square level.
Until next time. You go. Until next time.
Start rolling that music right now.