As I was experiencing the recent heat wave on the East Coast, I was
thinking about the most efficient ways to cool a house. If you just had
fans (no AC), and you wanted to keep your house the coolest, what
configuration of fans and open/closed windows would be best?
If you assume that the nighttime temperature dips below the house
temperature, but that the house warms up during the day, it would seem
that an initial solution is windows open during the night and closed in
the day. If you add fans, is it better to try to blow in the cool night
air or blow out the warm house air at night? Is it better to have some
blowing in and some blowing out? Empirically, it seems that blowing out
works better than blowing in, although I am not sure why.