07-08-2011, 04:00 AM
Ceiling fans are great too but they must be used in the right way. Despite the fact that most houses are not designed to maximize thermal mass in the sense that it is often referred to on the internet like stone walls or earth ships, nevertheless there is some thermal mass in every house, and if you are building or remodeling the house you can add an extra layer of sheet rock. It will give you more mass and better sound attenuation and possibly better fire resistance. Anyhoo, run the fan in the evening as soon as the outdoor air is cooler than the indoor air. You will notice a benefit right away, but continue running the fan all night. If you get cold put another blanket on the bed but welcome that cold as it saturates the house. In the morning as the sun rises, turn off the fan. The relative coolness will last a few hours.
I don't think that condensation would form on pipes in Hawaii. I can't recall seeing it happen. The water temp is not that cold particularly if the water has been sitting in an above ground catchment tank and is therefor the same temp as the average air temp. If you are going to that much trouble, put the pipes on the roof not in the attic. That way they will get first crack at the solar heat. Also, add some insulation between the pipes and the roof, maybe flatten the pipes so they catch more sun, and put a clear cover over the pipes so that the rain doesn't cool them off easily. In other words a solar collector. As the solar collector intercepts the sun and heats the water it is shading the roof. The pipe in the attic is a spectacularly inefficient collector having as it does an opaque insulated cover between the sun and the pipe.
I don't think that condensation would form on pipes in Hawaii. I can't recall seeing it happen. The water temp is not that cold particularly if the water has been sitting in an above ground catchment tank and is therefor the same temp as the average air temp. If you are going to that much trouble, put the pipes on the roof not in the attic. That way they will get first crack at the solar heat. Also, add some insulation between the pipes and the roof, maybe flatten the pipes so they catch more sun, and put a clear cover over the pipes so that the rain doesn't cool them off easily. In other words a solar collector. As the solar collector intercepts the sun and heats the water it is shading the roof. The pipe in the attic is a spectacularly inefficient collector having as it does an opaque insulated cover between the sun and the pipe.