Dude.

[merlinofchaos]

There's some really interesting material in my house that has these insane heat properties.

So the pattern of temperature in the house goes like this. It's quite cool in the mornings (in fact, starting about 3am, it's usually downright cold), and it stays quite comfortable all the way into afternoon. Starting about 3pm (or later, depending on the heat of the day) the house starts to heat up.

Now, here's the thing. Once the sun goes down, you'd expect things to level off, right?

Well. Wrong.

The house will continue to warm up even though it's cooling off outside.

It takes, on a normal hot day, until about 1am to get back to tolerable -- and that's assuming we're doing everything we can to bring outside air in, use the wimpy little a/c we have, etc.

I want to know what material it is that is absorbing all that heat, and then releasing it later. I want to sell it--all of it--because I'm sure it'd be very valuable in materials research. And then once it's sold it wouldn't make my house suck.

Well. Today it's forecast to get to 102 here. The record for today in San Jose is 102 and the NWS report is confident that record will be broken today. The only place that will be tolerable today is on the very coast.

Sigh. I want real AC.

Comments

[tersa.livejournal.com]

But it's still not the 111 of three years ago.

[torquemada.livejournal.com]

It's probably the (two to three inches of) stucco. I had the same problem (except more heat) in the front half of the building. That stucco was still hot to the touch in some places at two to three in the morning.

[jakeaidan.livejournal.com]

If I recall my materials thermodynamics correctly, what you are experiencing is called radiated heat accumulation. When the sun heats your house, it heats components to their heat tolerance. Conductors like metals tend to get hot and cool quickly, however, the insulation tends to get hot and stay hot. Hotter, in fact, then your house air. So, let's say your house is at 100 degrees inside. The temperature of your insulation is probably around 140. So, by the time the sun goes down, your house is still insulated from the outside cooling air by 140 degree insulation and wood. That heat is still being emitted, and until it finally reaches equilibrium (which I'm guessing is around 1 am) with the outside air, your house will continue to increase in temperature, even with the outside cooling.

[torquemada.livejournal.com]

...insulation? I don't think that duplex has any. Besides, of course, the stucco, which is made with alien technology salvaged from Tunguska.

[merlinofchaos]

Clearly we need to convince the insulation to radiate in the other damn direction.

I suppose that's why modern houses have layered insulation.

[jakeaidan.livejournal.com]

Well, stucco is insulatory...if not officially producted as insulation. All amorphous ceramics are.
Most modern house insulation has a silver side that is used to reflect the radiation away from the inside (or back inside, as the case may be).

Our place is like that, too.

[evilmagnus]

I'm going with the 'radiated heat' theory. The wood of our apartment soaks up the heat during the day, then offgasses it at night. Plus we're on the top floor, so we get all the rising heat from below. Grr.

Co-incidently, our house in the UK is of double-layed brick construction. Doesn't need AC, even on 90F days, except for one room at the top front of the house which has greenhouse-like properties.

Anyway, silicon-laytex paints are an answer - they'll reflect heat either in or out, depending on your circumstances. Pretty nifty stuff.