Moving the Air
Like water or light, the air around us is often taken for granted. However, building a home in Merida means we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about three key areas of air; its movement, its temperature and the amount of moisture it contains… and it’s no longer taken for granted!
In the initial design stages, Architect Cecilia Sanchez started with the natural movement of air, capturing the afternoon and evening breezes and making them work throughout the house. With no windows on the side of the house, cutting a hole in the roof introduces two main breezes: the air flows down through the indoor garden area and towards the front of the house, exiting through the front door transom or front window transom. The second breeze goes through the main bedroom and out through the patio. Even in the early days of construction, everyone could immediately feel the difference to the house as the breeze was felt constantly throughout the day.
Air flow from the indoor garden.
If there is no natural breeze coming through the house, we have six overhead fans throughout the house. The Westinghouse Comet was chosen for its energy efficiency and placement of central light within the fan – reducing the cost of wiring ambient lighting and allowing us to control both the light and the fan speed with a remote control.
The Westinghouse Comet in action.
During the summer however, it may become necessary to use the air conditioners. We have installed two LG air conditioners. A 12,000 BTU cools the front bedroom while a second 24,000 BTU unit cools both the main bedroom and the kitchen.
An efficient air conditioner is just as much about drying the air as it is cooling the air. Moisture not only creates mildew and mould but over time can weaken wall surfaces and cause other structural problems. Natural breezes, fans and air conditioners help to keep the air moving and create a healthy home as well as a cool one.
Another stategy we have employed, is to create a space in the wall between the main bedroom and the kitchen. Normally this area will be closed off with doors, however in hot weather the doors can be opened to create an “airconditioning zone.” This “window” allows us to cool the kitchen using the bedroom’s air conditioner, saving on the cost of running another unit.
Air conditioning window between kitchen and bedroom (doors to be added).
Another issue with air is the number of mosquitos using it as the main highway to the house. We have a double layer of mosquito screens throughout the house. The terrace has a set of doors and if an intrepid “mosco” makes it past the first level of defence, they are once again faced with the dubious prospect of finding away around the doors pictured below. So in a way, you can think of these doors as giant “air filters,” keeping nasty critters at bay.
Installation of mosquito screens.
Kitchen to bedroom adjacency – definitely a one of a kind plan and a clever solution. Are the A/C units the ductless type? If so, you will be quite impressed with their performance. We installed one at the 3rd floor of our townhouse to augment the main central air system (we couldn’t get enough air flow to the 3rd floor). After it was installed and operating we found it performed well enough to service more than just the 3rd floor – to the point that we now don’t even use the central air ducted system. Our open staircase between all levels behaves like an air shaft to deliver a comfortable temperature to all levels as it drops down (cold air falls, hot air rises). You may want to study the capacity of your units to see if you can manage with one A/C units (depending on location).
Kitchen to bedroom adjacency – definitely a one of a kind plan and a clever solution. Are the A/C units the ductless type? If so, you will be quite impressed with their performance. We installed one at the 3rd floor of our townhouse to augment the main central air system (we couldn’t get enough air flow to the 3rd floor). After it was installed and operating we found it performed well enough to service more than just the 3rd floor – to the point that we now don’t even use the central air ducted system. Our open staircase between all levels behaves like an air shaft to deliver a comfortable temperature to all levels as it drops down (cold air falls, hot air rises). You may want to study the capacity of your units to see if you can manage with one A/C units (depending on location).