Tech / Special Interest → Home Improvement > [General] Do you sleep with your windows open?

[General] Re: Do you sleep with your windows open?

void go_to_bed()
{
    If (Outside.get_temperature() > 60 && Outside.get_temperature() < 70) 
    {
       Window.Open()
    } else {
       Window.Close()
    }
    Sleep();
}
 

If it is put in a central location it won't heat up that much - especially smaller places as they will not need to run as much. This is coming form someone who for several years ran a dehumidifier 24x7 in a central location in the house.
--
Brian

"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain

I have the windows open but have safety catches.

With regards to the spraying, clean it with water and white vinegar. You can get repellents to stop cats spraying in your house, they have pheromones in I think.

Our dehumidifier will raise the temp around 1.5 degrees running on high non-stop. The catch is by lowering the RH by 10-15% it feels the same even though it went up 1.5 degrees.

Open as much as possible, all seasons. Love the fresh air and the sounds. We have rather high humidity all year round, but I don't see a concern. The dehumidifier runs in the basement as required but the rest of the house is fine.
The only down side is that if a storm blows through, you have to run around closing windows and maybe wipe the window sill with a towel.

The best dehumidifier is an air conditioner. As opposed to a simple dehumidifier it also cools the house instead of warming it and does all this for a fraction of the cost.
A dehumidifier extracts some 1.2L of water for 1kWh of electricity, about 2500BTU worth of heat. The difference of about 900BTU (1kWh -> 3413BTU) is released as heat inside the room. A cheapo window AC (10EER) extracts 10,000BTU of heat for the same electricity used.

Got all that covered, it's not hard to do. One final issue to resolve is to complete filling in an old portion of basement that is about the same depth as my well. Sometimes you win the battle by avoiding the fight.
FWIW, stale air is unhealthy, you have to find your balance. Our building code mandates HRVs, which boggles my mind since I have windows, which do the job manually but more efficiently.

Open, since it's between 63 and 50*F here.

Never open windows. Right now 58° outside. Inside 73° with 53% RH. No need to let pollen, dirt, moisture, etc infiltrate our living space.

I live along the Long Island, NY shoreline. I keep a double window fan on exhaust in the LR, 24/7/365. I keep it in the top portion of the window with the bottom window always open, at least a crack.

I also have an exhaust fan in the bathroom window running 24/7/365.

I will turn the fans on high during inclement weather with winds that may be blowing toward the fans. I also keep a piece of Plexiglas, cut to the LR window length, that I wedge at an angle between the bottom window and the fan. This prevents rain or snow from coming into the room through the fan.

I can not live with windows closed any time of the year or at any temperature!

How so?

To reduce short-cycling on a window AC that has digital controls, you can remove the temp sensor from the evaporator, cut it's cord, splice on a connector on the cord going to the control board, and splice on a long cord to the sensor and a matching connector, so you can put the sensor over on the other side of the room, and still be able to disconnect it to remove the AC from the window for cleaning etc. This stops the AC from sensing it's own cold too early, and shutting back down prematurely.

To improve humidity removal a LOT, you can rewire the fan to receive power through the compressor relay. This way, the moisture still on the evaporator coil when the compressor shuts off will not be dried off the coil and released back into the room. And the newer high-efficiency coils can hold a LOT of moisture because they have so much fin area. Depending on how much trouble you go to, you may or may not retain the ability to change the fan speed or use fan only modes. The best way would usually be to cut the circuit board traces where line hot goes into each of the fan relays, then jumper from the fan relay inputs to the compressor relay output. To be really fancy, add a SPDT switch to toggle whether the fan relays get power directly from line (default behavior), or the switched line from the compressor relay (fan doesn't run unless compressor is running).

Obviously all of the fan power rewiring is not necessary if the built in controls already have the feature to cycle the fan along with the compressor, but this seems like a really rare feature on window units. Even when they allegedly have the feature (usually called 'energy saver'), it continues to run the fan for 1 or 2 minutes after the compressor stops, which defeats it's utility in preventing moisture return to the room.

Disclaimer: all this voids warranties, and also put life and property at risk if you don't really know what you're doing.

Re: [General] Do you sleep with your windows open?

I only have my window open when I sleep in the Summer time and in the fall when the night temps are not below 60(and when it rains as well of course!)
--
Matt Barlow Rules! Bring him back to Iced Earth! \m/

Re: [General] Re: Do you sleep with your windows open?

Opening windows will do nothing to alleviate any of those. Well maybe a fart will dissipate a little faster.

The electronic air filter takes care of anything the air return can pick up.

Re: [General] Do you sleep with your windows open?

Second floor windows can stay open. It would just be simpler to kick in the back door or force main floor windows open than climb to the 2nd floor.

But I keep them mostly closed in the bedrooms, because there is always the occasional douchebag that will pass in our quiet street and just go nuts on a super loud muffler. Also I am very sensitive to noise, people talking in the street as they take a walk can wake me up.

I open my windows as often as possible. Might have something to do with living in FL for 25 years (could never open) and moving to UT. I leave them open when outside temps are 78 - 60, which is usually from now until November. I don't worry at night as 1) crime rate is _extremely_ low and 2) if someone is going to break into a house at night (when people are usually home), they are going to break in regardless if a window is open or not. Would be the same during the day... I don't think a pane of glass is going to stop someone. I say in higher crime rate area an open window might look more like an invitation though.

I also don't need to worry about humidity.

The bedrooms are upstairs in my house. I also have a burglar alarm which has a keyfob that can arm and disarm the system and has a panic button that can send a distress signal to the alarm company. And I think the keyfob is the culprit behind a couple of false alarms where the cops have showed up.

I don't think the burglars want to mess with an 80 lb Alaskan Malamute. He is the friendliest dog but they are protective of their owners in general. The presence of a large dogs in general sends burglars elsewhere.

Grandma sleeps in the living room since she cannot get upstairs due to mobility. If it gets too hot I use the A/C.
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I've experienced ImOn (when they were McLeod USA), Mediacom, Comcast, and Time Warner and I currently have DirecTV. They are much better than broadcast TV.

I have not and will not cut the cord.