#566 Prostration

So when the heat wave hit I knew I was in trouble.
The house I live in is circa 1979, with that era’s heavy at the time but light by today’s standards insulation.
But it’s had improvements.
A previous overheated tenant went on a ceiling fan installation binge in one his frenzied, possibly meth-inspired work sessions. So every room in the house sports a “Kareem Flat-top Maker 2000” many-bladed decorative monstrosity.
The problem is, which way to turn the fans when it gets hot. Some say in winter you should set them so they rotate counter-clockwise. That’s if you’re looking up at the ceiling underneath the fan.
This pushes warm air down. As it’s 95 degrees in the house, I’m thinking a couple of degrees warmer on the ceiling is not what I want at gut level.
So I tried switching the fan’s direction to clockwise, which is supposed to suck colder air up, and I hoped either blow the hot air out the windows or suck cold air in from outside.
Neither one of which appeared to happen.
And the colder air on the floor, which was, oh, I don’t know, 93 degrees, did little to ease my suffering.
All that did appear to happen was that some air was moving around. Which wasn’t entirely bad, as my skimpily-clad body was coated with a layer of mansweat that acted as a fine evaporative cooling interface when the blowing air wafted across it.
Great, I’m a walking swamp cooler.
Talk about a self-esteem builder.
I did notice when I had the fans set to draw air up that there was not as much sideways current. Perhaps the key is to leave the air blowing down, but turn it to high speed in the summer.
Because really, drawing the air up has limited utility. Where is it to go? It’s not like an exhaust fan in a bathroom. It doesn’t vent to the open air.
So it only ends up circulating the hot air that’s already there. And as my friend Rick pointed out, pretty much making my house function like a convection oven.
Which may explain why I’m feeling cooked quicker.
America ya gotta love it