Controlling tank temps in the summer
 

Hi All,

After my recent experience with stuck heaters and broken LCD thermometers
I've just stuck internal thermometers on all of my tanks...and the temp
readings are getting worrying....way too high and we haven't even really
started the British summer (as much as we ever get)

This is all across the house not just where I would expect it to get hot....

A lot of you live in much hotter climates than I do....I'm just wondering
how you all cope and what effect it has on your fish....having just gone
through a bad experience with high water temps I want to avoid it...

Gill

.....I'm just wondering
how you all cope and what effect it has on your fish.


central air

(sorry just had to throw that in ;-}

Larry

"Gill Passman" gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote in message
.. .

"Larry" wrote in message
...
....I'm just wondering
how you all cope and what effect it has on your fish.


central air

(sorry just had to throw that in ;-}

Larry



Sorry don't understand....



I think he means air conditioning. My house isn't air conditioned and I am
quite lucky in my choice of fish as the fancy guppies should be able to
handle summer like they did last year and same with the white clouds. The
silver dollars did fine last year so this year should be o.k.. My bedroom
gets as hot as an oven during summer time and I try to keep it much cooler
for the fancy guppies in my bedroom by me opening up both windows in my
bedroom, fish seemed to do fine. I do get concerned once in a while for no
good reason other than for the health of my pets but they do fine. Good
luck, later!

"Larry" wrote in message
...
....I'm just wondering
how you all cope and what effect it has on your fish.


central air

(sorry just had to throw that in ;-}

Larry



Sorry don't understand....

Gill Passman wrote:

Hi All,

After my recent experience with stuck heaters and broken LCD thermometers
I've just stuck internal thermometers on all of my tanks...and the temp
readings are getting worrying....way too high and we haven't even really
started the British summer (as much as we ever get)

What are these temperatures? I'd like to compare. Maybe your thermometer
is inaccurate?

This is all across the house not just where I would expect it to get hot....

I presume in all these tanks that the heaters are rarely on, if ever? It
doesn't sound right.

A lot of you live in much hotter climates than I do....I'm just wondering
how you all cope and what effect it has on your fish....having just gone
through a bad experience with high water temps I want to avoid it...

I have my 330L aquarium in the hottest part of the house. Judging from
the maximum temperature recorded it reached 27.2 yesterday. Was that as
hot as your tanks? I also have 240 watts of fluorescent lighting
producing excess heat. I wonder how I'll cope if it does get hotter,
like we had 2 years ago. What has helped is leaving the wooden hood open
to allow the heat build-up escape. I also have a couple of computer fans
sucking out the hot air. But my aquarium does sound like a PC!

BTW, when I'm comparing tank temperatures, I take the same digital
thermometer with probe to each tank.

Nikki

Gill Passman wrote:
Hi All,

After my recent experience with stuck heaters and broken LCD thermometers
I've just stuck internal thermometers on all of my tanks...and the temp
readings are getting worrying....way too high and we haven't even really
started the British summer (as much as we ever get)

This is all across the house not just where I would expect it to get hot....

A lot of you live in much hotter climates than I do....I'm just wondering
how you all cope and what effect it has on your fish....having just gone
through a bad experience with high water temps I want to avoid it...

Gill


I let water evaporate to cool the tanks a few degrees. I prop canopies
open, use egg-crate style fluorescent lighting diffuser for part of the
hoods, and remove the tops from hang-on-back filters. That usually
keeps things down to around 82F or so during the day, a few degrees
cooler than the house.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

On Thu, 9 Jun 2005 22:51:25 +0100, "Gill Passman"
gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote:

Hi All,

After my recent experience with stuck heaters and broken LCD thermometers
I've just stuck internal thermometers on all of my tanks...and the temp
readings are getting worrying....way too high and we haven't even really
started the British summer (as much as we ever get)

This is all across the house not just where I would expect it to get hot....

A lot of you live in much hotter climates than I do....I'm just wondering
how you all cope and what effect it has on your fish....having just gone
through a bad experience with high water temps I want to avoid it...

Gill


There were a number of threads on this subject last summer. I am
lucky and installed central air conditioning before I took up the
hobby again. I just adjust the room temperature to a few degrees
below the tank temperatures. (lower for my comfort)

Evaporation is the key word. Several people rigged fans to blow
across the top of their tanks. Since the light hood, when on, only
adds heat, they took the hoods off thus increased the area of surface
water exposed to the moving air. Of course, you will need to add
water more often which will increase the ratio of solids to water
ration (see Old Tank Syndrome) which means a need to do more frequent
partial water changes.

If you do try the above, those that did said they needed to put a
screen over the top to avoid losing fish jumping out the open top.

Central air conditioning is expensive, but how about a window mounted
unit? The fan approach is cheaper, but what a hassle! g

dick

"Daniel Morrow" wrote in message
...

"Gill Passman" gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote in message
.. .

"Larry" wrote in message
...
....I'm just wondering
how you all cope and what effect it has on your fish.


central air

(sorry just had to throw that in ;-}

Larry



Sorry don't understand....



I think he means air conditioning. My house isn't air conditioned and I am
quite lucky in my choice of fish as the fancy guppies should be able to
handle summer like they did last year and same with the white clouds. The
silver dollars did fine last year so this year should be o.k.. My bedroom
gets as hot as an oven during summer time and I try to keep it much cooler
for the fancy guppies in my bedroom by me opening up both windows in my
bedroom, fish seemed to do fine. I do get concerned once in a while for no
good reason other than for the health of my pets but they do fine. Good
luck, later!


hmmm....air con would be nice but probably not an option. Like you with have
windows open and try to maintain a good airflow in the summer but it still
gets hot. Fish seem OK - maybe it is sudden shifts in temp that cause
problems
Gill

"Nikki Casali" wrote in message
...
Gill Passman wrote:

Hi All,

After my recent experience with stuck heaters and broken LCD
thermometers
I've just stuck internal thermometers on all of my tanks...and the temp
readings are getting worrying....way too high and we haven't even really
started the British summer (as much as we ever get)

What are these temperatures? I'd like to compare. Maybe your thermometer
is inaccurate?

This is all across the house not just where I would expect it to get
hot....

I presume in all these tanks that the heaters are rarely on, if ever? It
doesn't sound right.

A lot of you live in much hotter climates than I do....I'm just
wondering
how you all cope and what effect it has on your fish....having just gone
through a bad experience with high water temps I want to avoid it...

I have my 330L aquarium in the hottest part of the house. Judging from
the maximum temperature recorded it reached 27.2 yesterday. Was that as
hot as your tanks? I also have 240 watts of fluorescent lighting
producing excess heat. I wonder how I'll cope if it does get hotter,
like we had 2 years ago. What has helped is leaving the wooden hood open
to allow the heat build-up escape. I also have a couple of computer fans
sucking out the hot air. But my aquarium does sound like a PC!

BTW, when I'm comparing tank temperatures, I take the same digital
thermometer with probe to each tank.

Nikki

They were pretty much all up at 32C with two exceptions. The tank in the
conservatory which I would expect to get the hottest was around 28C but we
do make a concious effort to keep that room cool (fans, skylights, blinds,
windows on latches, doors open etc). The Kitchen tank was 35C - eek....but
we have worked out the mystery of that one - hubby installed new lights
under the cabinets....now have to figure out a new location for the tank -
the lights have been off all day and the temp is now down to 32C so
hopefully will fall a bit more. I've opened the lid of the tank and jarred
it open with a straw (quickest thing I could find) so hopefully this will
also help - I'd never thought of doing this - obvious when you think about
it - duh :-)

None of the heaters are coming on which is just as well after my recent
experience with the stuck thermostat.

Most of the tanks are now down to around 28C but it has been a bit cooler
today....

Like you I'm not sure what will happen if it gets really hot again....we're
just not geared up to it in the UK - extremes of weather always take us by
suprise - lol

Gill

"Elaine T" wrote in message
. com...
Gill Passman wrote:
Hi All,

After my recent experience with stuck heaters and broken LCD
thermometers
I've just stuck internal thermometers on all of my tanks...and the temp
readings are getting worrying....way too high and we haven't even really
started the British summer (as much as we ever get)

This is all across the house not just where I would expect it to get
hot....

A lot of you live in much hotter climates than I do....I'm just
wondering
how you all cope and what effect it has on your fish....having just gone
through a bad experience with high water temps I want to avoid it...

Gill


I let water evaporate to cool the tanks a few degrees. I prop canopies
open, use egg-crate style fluorescent lighting diffuser for part of the
hoods, and remove the tops from hang-on-back filters. That usually
keeps things down to around 82F or so during the day, a few degrees
cooler than the house.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

82F is around the temp that my tanks are today (cooler weather). I will
definitely go for the leaving the lids open a bit....

Thanks
Gill

"Dick" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 9 Jun 2005 22:51:25 +0100, "Gill Passman"
gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote:

Hi All,

After my recent experience with stuck heaters and broken LCD thermometers
I've just stuck internal thermometers on all of my tanks...and the temp
readings are getting worrying....way too high and we haven't even really
started the British summer (as much as we ever get)

This is all across the house not just where I would expect it to get
hot....

A lot of you live in much hotter climates than I do....I'm just wondering
how you all cope and what effect it has on your fish....having just gone
through a bad experience with high water temps I want to avoid it...

Gill


There were a number of threads on this subject last summer. I am
lucky and installed central air conditioning before I took up the
hobby again. I just adjust the room temperature to a few degrees
below the tank temperatures. (lower for my comfort)

Evaporation is the key word. Several people rigged fans to blow
across the top of their tanks. Since the light hood, when on, only
adds heat, they took the hoods off thus increased the area of surface
water exposed to the moving air. Of course, you will need to add
water more often which will increase the ratio of solids to water
ration (see Old Tank Syndrome) which means a need to do more frequent
partial water changes.

If you do try the above, those that did said they needed to put a
screen over the top to avoid losing fish jumping out the open top.

Central air conditioning is expensive, but how about a window mounted
unit? The fan approach is cheaper, but what a hassle! g

dick

I'm going to go with leaving the lids open a little (but not too much) for
now and see how it pans out over the next week or so....I can't actually
take the lids off - not because I'm worried about the fish jumping out
(although that is a worry) but I'm more worried that the cat will jump in
even with a screen :-). He already treats all of the tanks like they are
"cat TV" - to be fair the novelty of jumping up at them has gone as he has
learnt he can't get in - he just sits in front of them watching until he
dozes off....not too unlike me in front of the TV - lol

We have been looking at one of these wall mounted air con units which will
mean going through the wall in the conservatory but that would just be one
room but as that is the one that gets the sun most of the day. I'm sure
it's the one that contributes to the heating up of the house. However,
strangely enough this had the coolest tank water....probably because we make
a lot of effort to keep the room cool because if we didn't it would be
unusable.

I've only added water to top up the tanks when we have been entertaining and
I've not had the time to do a full water change but just have done it to
make the tanks look good. The water change routine carries on regardless -
so I'm not too worried about too much of a build up....

I don't have air bricks in all of the tanks yet....I think that this has to
be a must if I am going to get higher temps in the tank (Oxygen depletion
etc) - both Matt and I learnt the hard way about overheating tanks.

All is well with the fish right now (even the poor Betta, Platy fry and Otos
in the hottest tank in the house) so maybe I'm worrying too much - just need
to monitor it and not let it get out of hand - or maybe I'm being too
optimistic.....

Gill

"Gill Passman" gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote in message
.. .

(although that is a worry) but I'm more worried that the cat will jump
in
even with a screen :-). He already treats all of the tanks like they
are
"cat TV" - to be fair the novelty of jumping up at them has gone as he
has
learnt he can't get in - he just sits in front of them watching until
he
dozes off....not too unlike me in front of the TV - lol

Thanks for that- it's the perfect (purrfect?) way to describe how our
felines have come to regard our tanks: "cat TV." They realize now that
they can't actually join the action, just as they've resigned themselves
to being unable to actually participate in the downhill skiing, motor
racing and hockey games that we all watch together with great interest
on the television.

Our cats (FIVE of them- don't ask) do get an added bonus from staring
our main cat TV tank, though: when one of our cats sits on the end table
next to the tank and stares into it, all the fish come rushing right
over to stare back. I guess that the fish are hoping that the face on
the other side of the glass is going to feed them. Little do they
realize that the face is thinking that they might feed him.

Regards,
Ian.

Our cats (FIVE of them- don't ask) do get an added bonus from staring our
main cat TV tank, though: when one of our cats sits on the end table next
to the tank and stares into it, all the fish come rushing right over to
stare back. I guess that the fish are hoping that the face on the other
side of the glass is going to feed them. Little do they realize that the
face is thinking that they might feed him.

Regards,
Ian.

Our two cats mostly ignore the tanks now (they're very old), but will eat
any floating fish sticks lying about.

Gill:
Like you, I'm in the UK.
As I'm in Scotland and further north, it's even more surprising that I can't
get the temp in any of my tanks below 27.
Today, they were all at 28.
This worries me as one of the tanks is MEANT to be coldwater and I'll have
to get the temp down before I can move back out to the pond.

Peter

Peter

"Ionizer" wrote in message
...
"Gill Passman" gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote in message
.. .

(although that is a worry) but I'm more worried that the cat will jump in
even with a screen :-). He already treats all of the tanks like they are
"cat TV" - to be fair the novelty of jumping up at them has gone as he
has
learnt he can't get in - he just sits in front of them watching until he
dozes off....not too unlike me in front of the TV - lol

Thanks for that- it's the perfect (purrfect?) way to describe how our
felines have come to regard our tanks: "cat TV." They realize now that
they can't actually join the action, just as they've resigned themselves
to being unable to actually participate in the downhill skiing, motor
racing and hockey games that we all watch together with great interest on
the television.

Our cats (FIVE of them- don't ask) do get an added bonus from staring our
main cat TV tank, though: when one of our cats sits on the end table next
to the tank and stares into it, all the fish come rushing right over to
stare back. I guess that the fish are hoping that the face on the other
side of the glass is going to feed them. Little do they realize that the
face is thinking that they might feed him.

Five cats! You should be over in the crazy cat lady group. (Just kidding I'm
a regular over there)

Our two cats don't care much about the fish in the large tanks, one is even
afraid of them. The young one however, does like to watch the Betta tank and
the Betta loves to stare back. One night I caught her standing on the glass
canopy for a birdseye view. Fortunately I got her down before I had wet cat.
I have a small piece of plywood covering the tank for now, until I get my
hood built.

As for the cooling question, I built a couple of those cheap temperature
controlled PC fans into my last hood. But since the tanks got moved to the
basement, I haven't had to use them so far.


Regards,
Ian.

I got 2 $49.95 LCD Digital Thermostats on clearance at my LFS for $13.95
each. My tank temps usually stay around 79 in the hottest part of the day
in my house which has central AC. My thermostats have an alarm set to go
off over 83F. I did get one that reached 83F the other day, but that was
with the AC off and all the windows open, trying to save on the electric
bill. When the alarms sounded I closed the windows, started the AC, open
the hoods, and add a few cubes of ice into the top of the hang on back
filters. After about 3 hours the temp is back down to 79.


This message was written on 100% recycled spam. SAM

"Gill Passman" gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote in message
.. .
Hi All,

After my recent experience with stuck heaters and broken LCD thermometers
I've just stuck internal thermometers on all of my tanks...and the temp
readings are getting worrying....way too high and we haven't even really
started the British summer (as much as we ever get)

This is all across the house not just where I would expect it to get
hot....

A lot of you live in much hotter climates than I do....I'm just wondering
how you all cope and what effect it has on your fish....having just gone
through a bad experience with high water temps I want to avoid it...

Gill

"2pods" wrote in message
...
Our cats (FIVE of them- don't ask) do get an added bonus from staring
our
main cat TV tank, though: when one of our cats sits on the end table
next
to the tank and stares into it, all the fish come rushing right over to
stare back. I guess that the fish are hoping that the face on the other
side of the glass is going to feed them. Little do they realize that
the
face is thinking that they might feed him.

Regards,
Ian.

Our two cats mostly ignore the tanks now (they're very old), but will eat
any floating fish sticks lying about.

Gill:
Like you, I'm in the UK.
As I'm in Scotland and further north, it's even more surprising that I
can't
get the temp in any of my tanks below 27.
Today, they were all at 28.
This worries me as one of the tanks is MEANT to be coldwater and I'll have
to get the temp down before I can move back out to the pond.

Peter

Peter


Opening the lids a little to vent them and of course the lower temps this
weekend have helped tremendously. Most of the tanks are now back to around
28...with the odd exception which is closer to 30.

Just worries me that summer has not even started yet and I've got problems.

Gill

"Bill Stock" wrote in message
...

"Ionizer" wrote in message
...
"Gill Passman" gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote in message
.. .

(although that is a worry) but I'm more worried that the cat will
jump in
even with a screen :-). He already treats all of the tanks like they
are
"cat TV" - to be fair the novelty of jumping up at them has gone as
he has
learnt he can't get in - he just sits in front of them watching until
he
dozes off....not too unlike me in front of the TV - lol

Thanks for that- it's the perfect (purrfect?) way to describe how our
felines have come to regard our tanks: "cat TV." They realize now
that they can't actually join the action, just as they've resigned
themselves to being unable to actually participate in the downhill
skiing, motor racing and hockey games that we all watch together with
great interest on the television.

Our cats (FIVE of them- don't ask) do get an added bonus from staring
our main cat TV tank, though: when one of our cats sits on the end
table next to the tank and stares into it, all the fish come rushing
right over to stare back. I guess that the fish are hoping that the
face on the other side of the glass is going to feed them. Little do
they realize that the face is thinking that they might feed him.

Five cats! You should be over in the crazy cat lady group. (Just
kidding I'm a regular over there)

Our two cats don't care much about the fish in the large tanks, one is
even afraid of them. The young one however, does like to watch the
Betta tank and the Betta loves to stare back. One night I caught her
standing on the glass canopy for a birdseye view. Fortunately I got her
down before I had wet cat. I have a small piece of plywood covering the
tank for now, until I get my hood built.

As for the cooling question, I built a couple of those cheap
temperature controlled PC fans into my last hood. But since the tanks
got moved to the basement, I haven't had to use them so far.


Regards,
Ian.


cats, I had one drop into a tank. The lid slipped in and as soon as
the cat's paws got wet, he started running to get off (basically running
in one spot). Eventually a claw caught the tank edge and he took off
like a rocket into the wall a few feet away. That ended his curiosity
about the tank.

hot tanks, leave the tank light off as much as possible (if a planted
tank, then place a wedge so the hot air escapes the canopy). Having said
all that, there are places you shouldn't have a tank in some climates,
such as the top floor of a townhouse without ac (I learned the hard way -
down to the basement with you).
--
www.NetMax.tk

"Gill Passman" gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote in message
.. .

"Elaine T" wrote in message
. com...
Gill Passman wrote:
Hi All,

After my recent experience with stuck heaters and broken LCD
thermometers
I've just stuck internal thermometers on all of my tanks...and the temp
readings are getting worrying....way too high and we haven't even
really
started the British summer (as much as we ever get)

This is all across the house not just where I would expect it to get
hot....

A lot of you live in much hotter climates than I do....I'm just
wondering
how you all cope and what effect it has on your fish....having just
gone
through a bad experience with high water temps I want to avoid it...

Gill


I let water evaporate to cool the tanks a few degrees. I prop canopies
open, use egg-crate style fluorescent lighting diffuser for part of the
hoods, and remove the tops from hang-on-back filters. That usually
keeps things down to around 82F or so during the day, a few degrees
cooler than the house.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

82F is around the temp that my tanks are today (cooler weather). I will
definitely go for the leaving the lids open a bit....

Thanks
Gill


Leaving the lids open and in a little more extreme circumstances, running a
fan blowing across the surface of the water to increase evaporation will
definitely help (unless the relative humidity is too high, then your
evaporation is negligible). Evaporation can easily lower the temperature
several degrees in the right circumstances. In a more extreme situation,
floating a plastic container of ice in the water can help. Just make sure
your circulation is up to par so you don't get really cold spots. That and
monitor your temp to make sure that you don't get things TOO cold... you
will have to mess with it to get things right if it gets that extreme.


---scott

We have been looking at one of these wall mounted air con units which will
mean going through the wall in the conservatory
Gill, do you mean a mini-split unit? If not, you should look into
those, just a 2 inch hole in the wall.
I got them two years ago and they are great. Not for me mind you, I
love it hot, humid, sweaty and sticky. But the cats have little fur
coats that they can't take off so what else could I do?...
Teri

"teri" wrote in message
...

We have been looking at one of these wall mounted air con units which
will
mean going through the wall in the conservatory
Gill, do you mean a mini-split unit? If not, you should look into
those, just a 2 inch hole in the wall.
I got them two years ago and they are great. Not for me mind you, I
love it hot, humid, sweaty and sticky. But the cats have little fur
coats that they can't take off so what else could I do?...
Teri

Yes, that's the type we are thinking of

It's only June! Just wait until the dog days of summer. Us Californians in the USA have learned that air conditioning is good. Floating ice and fans work as well. Also, if your house/apartment/whatever is insulated for the cold, it can help in a different way. Your over night lows are okay, right? Open the entire place at night, putting fans at windows or open doorways to circulate the air and cool down the house. The next morning, close it up before it gets warm. If you cut down on opening the doors and have the curtains closed, your place can stay cooler without air conditioning. I have lived in a house without a/c for over 10 years. As long as your overnight temps go at or below 70, the house stays cooler. One story, 3 bedroom, 2 bath. We also have a fan in the hall that is in the attic crawlspace door, and it is put in so that it will pull the hot air up out of the house.

"winddancir" wrote in message
. ..

It's only June! Just wait until the dog days of summer. Us Californians
in the USA have learned that air conditioning is good. Floating ice and
fans work as well. Also, if your house/apartment/whatever is insulated
for the cold, it can help in a different way. Your over night lows are
okay, right? Open the entire place at night, putting fans at windows or
open doorways to circulate the air and cool down the house. The next
morning, close it up before it gets warm. If you cut down on opening
the doors and have the curtains closed, your place can stay cooler
without air conditioning. I have lived in a house without a/c for over
10 years. As long as your overnight temps go at or below 70, the house
stays cooler. One story, 3 bedroom, 2 bath. We also have a fan in the
hall that is in the attic crawlspace door, and it is put in so that it
will pull the hot air up out of the house.


--
winddancir

"It's only June" is what is worrying me. The house does get hot even when
temps haven't got to extremes but we haven't started to see a summer yet. I
thought it would be best to do this posting so that I can plan for any
further problems when things really heat up. I've had some really great
hints and advice - thanks everyone :-)

We generally open everything up in the summer to bring down the temps to
make it bearable for us humans. This is my first year of having to do it for
fish as well. Air con would be wonderful but that would be a major
undertaking - the house and walls are extremely solid....I'm looking into
fans and at least one air con unit for the conservatory (where remarkably I
have the coolest tank).

Apart from the sad losses we had in my son's tank with the stuck on heater
all the other fish seem to be coping so far.....but I want to be prepared
for if it really warms up (doesn't happen often over here hence our lack of
methods of coping with it)

Thanks again
Gill

On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 19:31:12 +0100, winddancir
wrote:


It's only June! Just wait until the dog days of summer. Us Californians
in the USA have learned that air conditioning is good. Floating ice and
fans work as well. Also, if your house/apartment/whatever is insulated
for the cold, it can help in a different way. Your over night lows are
okay, right? Open the entire place at night, putting fans at windows or
open doorways to circulate the air and cool down the house. The next
morning, close it up before it gets warm. If you cut down on opening
the doors and have the curtains closed, your place can stay cooler
without air conditioning. I have lived in a house without a/c for over
10 years. As long as your overnight temps go at or below 70, the house
stays cooler. One story, 3 bedroom, 2 bath. We also have a fan in the
hall that is in the attic crawlspace door, and it is put in so that it
will pull the hot air up out of the house.


It helps if the temp goes below 70 F AND there is a wind. I live in
West Texas and I do have central A/C, but the electric bill is big!
So, I look for ways to reduce the A/C active time. It takes a while
for outside temps to go down, but I have an outside air temperature
monitor. When the temp goes down I open windows around the house and
go back to sleep. I find that if there is no wind, opening the
windows doesn't help.

I lived in California most of my life. In my last house I bought and
installed a "whole house fan." I mounted it in the kitchen ceiling.
It was about 3 feet in diameter. I joked the house would levitate
while the fan was on. Of course windows must be open, the fan drew
fresh air from the attic and exhausted through the open windows.

dick

On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 21:36:27 +0100, "Gill Passman"
gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote:


"winddancir" wrote in message
...

It's only June! Just wait until the dog days of summer. Us Californians
in the USA have learned that air conditioning is good. Floating ice and
fans work as well. Also, if your house/apartment/whatever is insulated
for the cold, it can help in a different way. Your over night lows are
okay, right? Open the entire place at night, putting fans at windows or
open doorways to circulate the air and cool down the house. The next
morning, close it up before it gets warm. If you cut down on opening
the doors and have the curtains closed, your place can stay cooler
without air conditioning. I have lived in a house without a/c for over
10 years. As long as your overnight temps go at or below 70, the house
stays cooler. One story, 3 bedroom, 2 bath. We also have a fan in the
hall that is in the attic crawlspace door, and it is put in so that it
will pull the hot air up out of the house.


--
winddancir

"It's only June" is what is worrying me. The house does get hot even when
temps haven't got to extremes but we haven't started to see a summer yet. I
thought it would be best to do this posting so that I can plan for any
further problems when things really heat up. I've had some really great
hints and advice - thanks everyone :-)

We generally open everything up in the summer to bring down the temps to
make it bearable for us humans. This is my first year of having to do it for
fish as well. Air con would be wonderful but that would be a major
undertaking - the house and walls are extremely solid....I'm looking into
fans and at least one air con unit for the conservatory (where remarkably I
have the coolest tank).

Apart from the sad losses we had in my son's tank with the stuck on heater
all the other fish seem to be coping so far.....but I want to be prepared
for if it really warms up (doesn't happen often over here hence our lack of
methods of coping with it)

Thanks again
Gill


"walls are extremely solid"? My house is build of adobe with concrete
covering the adobe bricks. Even the inner walls are adobe and
concrete. Are you talking that kind of "solid"?

Solid is good to slow temperature changes and solid is bad because it
slows temperature changes. That resistance to change is fine to
moderate, that is slow down, temperature changes, but for me it is a
disadvantage. Summer heat varies form an average low of 58F to an
average high of 91F. That high can go over 100 some days. So,
cooling is needed all day. In dry areas, low humidity, so called
"swamp coolers" or "evaporative coolers are adequate, but do little
good except provide moving air when humidity rises. I had a central
"swamp cooler" in Los Angeles, Ca. that worked pretty well. Just
moving air helps.

The whole house fan I mentioned in windancir's post, that I used in
San Jose, Calif. kept the air moving and was quite helpful. However,
I added window A/C units in my bedroom and living room later. I
didn't like the noise of the A/C units, but I felt much more
comfortable. Not to mention, the A/C noise "masked" the neighborhood
noises. Some families "beat the heat" by living out doors. I did not
like their living noises intruding on my low noise life. I did have
a 50 gal tank for a couple of years in San Jose, but, sorry to say, I
didn't pay much attention to its temperature. I guess keeping me
comfortable kept it livable for I had no problems.

One problem with all efforts to keep aquarium tempertures stable is
the dependence on stable electricity. Here the "solid walls" can help
to ride out an electrical outage for an hour or so, but no good for
long outages and it takes longer to pull the temperature back down
when the electricity comes back on.

Therer are risks to all of our efforts. Some methods are more
esthetic (look better). Thus the A/C leaves the tanks looking as they
always do, where as taking off the light hood and mounting a fan to
cool the tank by evaporation takes away the main point of having fish.
But, A/C is noisy and expensive.

Good luck to all of us! g

dick

"Dick" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 19:31:12 +0100, winddancir

I lived in California most of my life. In my last house I bought and
installed a "whole house fan." I mounted it in the kitchen ceiling.
It was about 3 feet in diameter. I joked the house would levitate
while the fan was on. Of course windows must be open, the fan drew
fresh air from the attic and exhausted through the open windows.

dick

Just like a big computer case :-)

Peter

"Dick" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 21:36:27 +0100, "Gill Passman"
gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote:


"winddancir" wrote in
message
...

It's only June! Just wait until the dog days of summer. Us Californians
in the USA have learned that air conditioning is good. Floating ice and
fans work as well. Also, if your house/apartment/whatever is insulated
for the cold, it can help in a different way. Your over night lows are
okay, right? Open the entire place at night, putting fans at windows or
open doorways to circulate the air and cool down the house. The next
morning, close it up before it gets warm. If you cut down on opening
the doors and have the curtains closed, your place can stay cooler
without air conditioning. I have lived in a house without a/c for over
10 years. As long as your overnight temps go at or below 70, the house
stays cooler. One story, 3 bedroom, 2 bath. We also have a fan in the
hall that is in the attic crawlspace door, and it is put in so that it
will pull the hot air up out of the house.


--
winddancir

"It's only June" is what is worrying me. The house does get hot even when
temps haven't got to extremes but we haven't started to see a summer yet.
I
thought it would be best to do this posting so that I can plan for any
further problems when things really heat up. I've had some really great
hints and advice - thanks everyone :-)

We generally open everything up in the summer to bring down the temps to
make it bearable for us humans. This is my first year of having to do it
for
fish as well. Air con would be wonderful but that would be a major
undertaking - the house and walls are extremely solid....I'm looking into
fans and at least one air con unit for the conservatory (where remarkably
I
have the coolest tank).

Apart from the sad losses we had in my son's tank with the stuck on
heater
all the other fish seem to be coping so far.....but I want to be prepared
for if it really warms up (doesn't happen often over here hence our lack
of
methods of coping with it)

Thanks again
Gill


"walls are extremely solid"? My house is build of adobe with concrete
covering the adobe bricks. Even the inner walls are adobe and
concrete. Are you talking that kind of "solid"?

Solid is good to slow temperature changes and solid is bad because it
slows temperature changes. That resistance to change is fine to
moderate, that is slow down, temperature changes, but for me it is a
disadvantage. Summer heat varies form an average low of 58F to an
average high of 91F. That high can go over 100 some days. So,
cooling is needed all day. In dry areas, low humidity, so called
"swamp coolers" or "evaporative coolers are adequate, but do little
good except provide moving air when humidity rises. I had a central
"swamp cooler" in Los Angeles, Ca. that worked pretty well. Just
moving air helps.

The whole house fan I mentioned in windancir's post, that I used in
San Jose, Calif. kept the air moving and was quite helpful. However,
I added window A/C units in my bedroom and living room later. I
didn't like the noise of the A/C units, but I felt much more
comfortable. Not to mention, the A/C noise "masked" the neighborhood
noises. Some families "beat the heat" by living out doors. I did not
like their living noises intruding on my low noise life. I did have
a 50 gal tank for a couple of years in San Jose, but, sorry to say, I
didn't pay much attention to its temperature. I guess keeping me
comfortable kept it livable for I had no problems.

One problem with all efforts to keep aquarium tempertures stable is
the dependence on stable electricity. Here the "solid walls" can help
to ride out an electrical outage for an hour or so, but no good for
long outages and it takes longer to pull the temperature back down
when the electricity comes back on.

Therer are risks to all of our efforts. Some methods are more
esthetic (look better). Thus the A/C leaves the tanks looking as they
always do, where as taking off the light hood and mounting a fan to
cool the tank by evaporation takes away the main point of having fish.
But, A/C is noisy and expensive.

Good luck to all of us! g

dick

House is brick, cavity wall insulation and then breeze blocks which are then
plastered. Very few of the interior walls are plaster board as we discovered
when we were chanelling out for cables and again when we had some
re-modelling work done - they are breeze block as well which is then
plastered. So it holds in the heat - great in winter but not the best in
summer.

I have really appreciated the ideas.....BTW I don't think aircon would be a
patch on all the computers we have running in here - lol

Thanks again
Gill

Gill Passman wrote:
"Dick" wrote in message
...

On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 21:36:27 +0100, "Gill Passman"
gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote:


"winddancir" wrote in

message

om...

It's only June! Just wait until the dog days of summer. Us Californians
in the USA have learned that air conditioning is good. Floating ice and
fans work as well. Also, if your house/apartment/whatever is insulated
for the cold, it can help in a different way. Your over night lows are
okay, right? Open the entire place at night, putting fans at windows or
open doorways to circulate the air and cool down the house. The next
morning, close it up before it gets warm. If you cut down on opening
the doors and have the curtains closed, your place can stay cooler
without air conditioning. I have lived in a house without a/c for over
10 years. As long as your overnight temps go at or below 70, the house
stays cooler. One story, 3 bedroom, 2 bath. We also have a fan in the
hall that is in the attic crawlspace door, and it is put in so that it
will pull the hot air up out of the house.


--
winddancir

"It's only June" is what is worrying me. The house does get hot even when
temps haven't got to extremes but we haven't started to see a summer yet.

I

thought it would be best to do this posting so that I can plan for any
further problems when things really heat up. I've had some really great
hints and advice - thanks everyone :-)

We generally open everything up in the summer to bring down the temps to
make it bearable for us humans. This is my first year of having to do it

for

fish as well. Air con would be wonderful but that would be a major
undertaking - the house and walls are extremely solid....I'm looking into
fans and at least one air con unit for the conservatory (where remarkably

I

have the coolest tank).

Apart from the sad losses we had in my son's tank with the stuck on

heater

all the other fish seem to be coping so far.....but I want to be prepared
for if it really warms up (doesn't happen often over here hence our lack

of

methods of coping with it)

Thanks again
Gill



"walls are extremely solid"? My house is build of adobe with concrete
covering the adobe bricks. Even the inner walls are adobe and
concrete. Are you talking that kind of "solid"?

Solid is good to slow temperature changes and solid is bad because it
slows temperature changes. That resistance to change is fine to
moderate, that is slow down, temperature changes, but for me it is a
disadvantage. Summer heat varies form an average low of 58F to an
average high of 91F. That high can go over 100 some days. So,
cooling is needed all day. In dry areas, low humidity, so called
"swamp coolers" or "evaporative coolers are adequate, but do little
good except provide moving air when humidity rises. I had a central
"swamp cooler" in Los Angeles, Ca. that worked pretty well. Just
moving air helps.

The whole house fan I mentioned in windancir's post, that I used in
San Jose, Calif. kept the air moving and was quite helpful. However,
I added window A/C units in my bedroom and living room later. I
didn't like the noise of the A/C units, but I felt much more
comfortable. Not to mention, the A/C noise "masked" the neighborhood
noises. Some families "beat the heat" by living out doors. I did not
like their living noises intruding on my low noise life. I did have
a 50 gal tank for a couple of years in San Jose, but, sorry to say, I
didn't pay much attention to its temperature. I guess keeping me
comfortable kept it livable for I had no problems.

One problem with all efforts to keep aquarium tempertures stable is
the dependence on stable electricity. Here the "solid walls" can help
to ride out an electrical outage for an hour or so, but no good for
long outages and it takes longer to pull the temperature back down
when the electricity comes back on.

Therer are risks to all of our efforts. Some methods are more
esthetic (look better). Thus the A/C leaves the tanks looking as they
always do, where as taking off the light hood and mounting a fan to
cool the tank by evaporation takes away the main point of having fish.
But, A/C is noisy and expensive.

Good luck to all of us! g

dick


House is brick, cavity wall insulation and then breeze blocks which are then
plastered. Very few of the interior walls are plaster board as we discovered
when we were chanelling out for cables and again when we had some
re-modelling work done - they are breeze block as well which is then
plastered. So it holds in the heat - great in winter but not the best in
summer.

Were you thinking of cutting the hole for the aircon yourselves? I have
a twin split unit installed upstairs for my bedroom and office. I had
the units installed by a "professional", and he used a seriously big
drill bit to cut out the holes for the tubes.

I have really appreciated the ideas.....BTW I don't think aircon would be a
patch on all the computers we have running in here - lol

Yes, the computers in my office really add to the heat in summer. It
used to be a nightmare trying to work in a sauna. But now I get a blast
from an oven when exiting the office.

Unfortunately, all my aquariums are on the ground floor. But I'm sure I
wouldn't go to the expense solely for the aquariums if I could help it.
But then again, I'd probably consider one of those thermoelectric
aquarium chillers if it got bad.

BTW, have you seen the explosion in aircon units in DIY stores? I
thought I was unique.

Nikki

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 22:07:21 +0100, "Gill Passman"
gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote:


"Dick" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 21:36:27 +0100, "Gill Passman"
gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote:


"winddancir" wrote in
message
...

It's only June! Just wait until the dog days of summer. Us Californians
in the USA have learned that air conditioning is good. Floating ice and
fans work as well. Also, if your house/apartment/whatever is insulated
for the cold, it can help in a different way. Your over night lows are
okay, right? Open the entire place at night, putting fans at windows or
open doorways to circulate the air and cool down the house. The next
morning, close it up before it gets warm. If you cut down on opening
the doors and have the curtains closed, your place can stay cooler
without air conditioning. I have lived in a house without a/c for over
10 years. As long as your overnight temps go at or below 70, the house
stays cooler. One story, 3 bedroom, 2 bath. We also have a fan in the
hall that is in the attic crawlspace door, and it is put in so that it
will pull the hot air up out of the house.


--
winddancir

"It's only June" is what is worrying me. The house does get hot even when
temps haven't got to extremes but we haven't started to see a summer yet.
I
thought it would be best to do this posting so that I can plan for any
further problems when things really heat up. I've had some really great
hints and advice - thanks everyone :-)

We generally open everything up in the summer to bring down the temps to
make it bearable for us humans. This is my first year of having to do it
for
fish as well. Air con would be wonderful but that would be a major
undertaking - the house and walls are extremely solid....I'm looking into
fans and at least one air con unit for the conservatory (where remarkably
I
have the coolest tank).

Apart from the sad losses we had in my son's tank with the stuck on
heater
all the other fish seem to be coping so far.....but I want to be prepared
for if it really warms up (doesn't happen often over here hence our lack
of
methods of coping with it)

Thanks again
Gill


"walls are extremely solid"? My house is build of adobe with concrete
covering the adobe bricks. Even the inner walls are adobe and
concrete. Are you talking that kind of "solid"?

Solid is good to slow temperature changes and solid is bad because it
slows temperature changes. That resistance to change is fine to
moderate, that is slow down, temperature changes, but for me it is a
disadvantage. Summer heat varies form an average low of 58F to an
average high of 91F. That high can go over 100 some days. So,
cooling is needed all day. In dry areas, low humidity, so called
"swamp coolers" or "evaporative coolers are adequate, but do little
good except provide moving air when humidity rises. I had a central
"swamp cooler" in Los Angeles, Ca. that worked pretty well. Just
moving air helps.

The whole house fan I mentioned in windancir's post, that I used in
San Jose, Calif. kept the air moving and was quite helpful. However,
I added window A/C units in my bedroom and living room later. I
didn't like the noise of the A/C units, but I felt much more
comfortable. Not to mention, the A/C noise "masked" the neighborhood
noises. Some families "beat the heat" by living out doors. I did not
like their living noises intruding on my low noise life. I did have
a 50 gal tank for a couple of years in San Jose, but, sorry to say, I
didn't pay much attention to its temperature. I guess keeping me
comfortable kept it livable for I had no problems.

One problem with all efforts to keep aquarium tempertures stable is
the dependence on stable electricity. Here the "solid walls" can help
to ride out an electrical outage for an hour or so, but no good for
long outages and it takes longer to pull the temperature back down
when the electricity comes back on.

Therer are risks to all of our efforts. Some methods are more
esthetic (look better). Thus the A/C leaves the tanks looking as they
always do, where as taking off the light hood and mounting a fan to
cool the tank by evaporation takes away the main point of having fish.
But, A/C is noisy and expensive.

Good luck to all of us! g

dick

House is brick, cavity wall insulation and then breeze blocks which are then
plastered. Very few of the interior walls are plaster board as we discovered
when we were chanelling out for cables and again when we had some
re-modelling work done - they are breeze block as well which is then
plastered. So it holds in the heat - great in winter but not the best in
summer.

I have really appreciated the ideas.....BTW I don't think aircon would be a
patch on all the computers we have running in here - lol

Thanks again
Gill


Sounds like your house was built by the third little piggy! g

I am not familiar with how you are using the word "patch," but my best
guess is you have a commercial operation with lots of "servers." If
so I am really surprised the building has no A/C. Computer generate
lots of heat. I have 2 computers I run all day, those plus the five
tanks of fish and 2 dogs and my small house stay fairly warm on winter
days with little need for heat. However, computers don't consume much
energy compared to the A/C for a whole house. Most are run on 220
volts to cut the amperage down.

I sure understand the difficulties of running cables. My walls are
over a foot thick and no plaster board. My cables are run on the
outside then holes drilled where the cable was needed on the inside.
Inner walls were channeled during the remodeling for 120 AC, rear
speaker wires, thermostat controls for heater and A/C, cable, and
other assorted wires. Gives "set in stone" a fresh meaning doesn't
it?

dick

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 13:19:40 +0100, "2pods" wrote:


"Dick" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 19:31:12 +0100, winddancir

I lived in California most of my life. In my last house I bought and
installed a "whole house fan." I mounted it in the kitchen ceiling.
It was about 3 feet in diameter. I joked the house would levitate
while the fan was on. Of course windows must be open, the fan drew
fresh air from the attic and exhausted through the open windows.

dick

Just like a big computer case :-)

Peter

Yeah! And I was the processor. g

"Dick" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 22:07:21 +0100, "Gill Passman"
gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote:


"Dick" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 21:36:27 +0100, "Gill Passman"
gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote:


"winddancir" wrote in
message
...

It's only June! Just wait until the dog days of summer. Us
Californians
in the USA have learned that air conditioning is good. Floating ice
and
fans work as well. Also, if your house/apartment/whatever is
insulated
for the cold, it can help in a different way. Your over night lows
are
okay, right? Open the entire place at night, putting fans at windows
or
open doorways to circulate the air and cool down the house. The next
morning, close it up before it gets warm. If you cut down on opening
the doors and have the curtains closed, your place can stay cooler
without air conditioning. I have lived in a house without a/c for
over
10 years. As long as your overnight temps go at or below 70, the
house
stays cooler. One story, 3 bedroom, 2 bath. We also have a fan in
the
hall that is in the attic crawlspace door, and it is put in so that
it
will pull the hot air up out of the house.


--
winddancir

"It's only June" is what is worrying me. The house does get hot even
when
temps haven't got to extremes but we haven't started to see a summer
yet.
I
thought it would be best to do this posting so that I can plan for any
further problems when things really heat up. I've had some really
great
hints and advice - thanks everyone :-)

We generally open everything up in the summer to bring down the temps
to
make it bearable for us humans. This is my first year of having to do
it
for
fish as well. Air con would be wonderful but that would be a major
undertaking - the house and walls are extremely solid....I'm looking
into
fans and at least one air con unit for the conservatory (where
remarkably
I
have the coolest tank).

Apart from the sad losses we had in my son's tank with the stuck on
heater
all the other fish seem to be coping so far.....but I want to be
prepared
for if it really warms up (doesn't happen often over here hence our
lack
of
methods of coping with it)

Thanks again
Gill


"walls are extremely solid"? My house is build of adobe with concrete
covering the adobe bricks. Even the inner walls are adobe and
concrete. Are you talking that kind of "solid"?

Solid is good to slow temperature changes and solid is bad because it
slows temperature changes. That resistance to change is fine to
moderate, that is slow down, temperature changes, but for me it is a
disadvantage. Summer heat varies form an average low of 58F to an
average high of 91F. That high can go over 100 some days. So,
cooling is needed all day. In dry areas, low humidity, so called
"swamp coolers" or "evaporative coolers are adequate, but do little
good except provide moving air when humidity rises. I had a central
"swamp cooler" in Los Angeles, Ca. that worked pretty well. Just
moving air helps.

The whole house fan I mentioned in windancir's post, that I used in
San Jose, Calif. kept the air moving and was quite helpful. However,
I added window A/C units in my bedroom and living room later. I
didn't like the noise of the A/C units, but I felt much more
comfortable. Not to mention, the A/C noise "masked" the neighborhood
noises. Some families "beat the heat" by living out doors. I did not
like their living noises intruding on my low noise life. I did have
a 50 gal tank for a couple of years in San Jose, but, sorry to say, I
didn't pay much attention to its temperature. I guess keeping me
comfortable kept it livable for I had no problems.

One problem with all efforts to keep aquarium tempertures stable is
the dependence on stable electricity. Here the "solid walls" can help
to ride out an electrical outage for an hour or so, but no good for
long outages and it takes longer to pull the temperature back down
when the electricity comes back on.

Therer are risks to all of our efforts. Some methods are more
esthetic (look better). Thus the A/C leaves the tanks looking as they
always do, where as taking off the light hood and mounting a fan to
cool the tank by evaporation takes away the main point of having fish.
But, A/C is noisy and expensive.

Good luck to all of us! g

dick

House is brick, cavity wall insulation and then breeze blocks which are
then
plastered. Very few of the interior walls are plaster board as we
discovered
when we were chanelling out for cables and again when we had some
re-modelling work done - they are breeze block as well which is then
plastered. So it holds in the heat - great in winter but not the best in
summer.

I have really appreciated the ideas.....BTW I don't think aircon would be
a
patch on all the computers we have running in here - lol

Thanks again
Gill


Sounds like your house was built by the third little piggy! g

I am not familiar with how you are using the word "patch," but my best
guess is you have a commercial operation with lots of "servers." If
so I am really surprised the building has no A/C. Computer generate
lots of heat. I have 2 computers I run all day, those plus the five
tanks of fish and 2 dogs and my small house stay fairly warm on winter
days with little need for heat. However, computers don't consume much
energy compared to the A/C for a whole house. Most are run on 220
volts to cut the amperage down.

I sure understand the difficulties of running cables. My walls are
over a foot thick and no plaster board. My cables are run on the
outside then holes drilled where the cable was needed on the inside.
Inner walls were channeled during the remodeling for 120 AC, rear
speaker wires, thermostat controls for heater and A/C, cable, and
other assorted wires. Gives "set in stone" a fresh meaning doesn't
it?

dick

Another example of being "separated by a common language" - G....."not a
patch" means "would not compete" or "gets nowhere near" - in this case the
computer fans are louder than anything else - including my air bricks!!!
Actually at the moment we only have two computers running
downstairs....Believe me if you want to hear real noise (and I don't know
that you haven't) a Server Room is something else entirely - and I have been
in a number of these in my time working in the "industry" (but not for much
longer - he, he and very big g) - most Server Rooms also have the aircon
noise as well.....actually thinking about it maybe a Server Room is the best
place for a tank - lol

Gill

On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 21:25:54 +0100, "Gill Passman"
gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote:


"Dick" wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 22:07:21 +0100, "Gill Passman"
gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote:


"Dick" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 21:36:27 +0100, "Gill Passman"
gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote:


"winddancir" wrote in
message
...

It's only June! Just wait until the dog days of summer. Us
Californians
in the USA have learned that air conditioning is good. Floating ice
and
fans work as well. Also, if your house/apartment/whatever is
insulated
for the cold, it can help in a different way. Your over night lows
are
okay, right? Open the entire place at night, putting fans at windows
or
open doorways to circulate the air and cool down the house. The next
morning, close it up before it gets warm. If you cut down on opening
the doors and have the curtains closed, your place can stay cooler
without air conditioning. I have lived in a house without a/c for
over
10 years. As long as your overnight temps go at or below 70, the
house
stays cooler. One story, 3 bedroom, 2 bath. We also have a fan in
the
hall that is in the attic crawlspace door, and it is put in so that
it
will pull the hot air up out of the house.


--
winddancir

"It's only June" is what is worrying me. The house does get hot even
when
temps haven't got to extremes but we haven't started to see a summer
yet.
I
thought it would be best to do this posting so that I can plan for any
further problems when things really heat up. I've had some really
great
hints and advice - thanks everyone :-)

We generally open everything up in the summer to bring down the temps
to
make it bearable for us humans. This is my first year of having to do
it
for
fish as well. Air con would be wonderful but that would be a major
undertaking - the house and walls are extremely solid....I'm looking
into
fans and at least one air con unit for the conservatory (where
remarkably
I
have the coolest tank).

Apart from the sad losses we had in my son's tank with the stuck on
heater
all the other fish seem to be coping so far.....but I want to be
prepared
for if it really warms up (doesn't happen often over here hence our
lack
of
methods of coping with it)

Thanks again
Gill


"walls are extremely solid"? My house is build of adobe with concrete
covering the adobe bricks. Even the inner walls are adobe and
concrete. Are you talking that kind of "solid"?

Solid is good to slow temperature changes and solid is bad because it
slows temperature changes. That resistance to change is fine to
moderate, that is slow down, temperature changes, but for me it is a
disadvantage. Summer heat varies form an average low of 58F to an
average high of 91F. That high can go over 100 some days. So,
cooling is needed all day. In dry areas, low humidity, so called
"swamp coolers" or "evaporative coolers are adequate, but do little
good except provide moving air when humidity rises. I had a central
"swamp cooler" in Los Angeles, Ca. that worked pretty well. Just
moving air helps.

The whole house fan I mentioned in windancir's post, that I used in
San Jose, Calif. kept the air moving and was quite helpful. However,
I added window A/C units in my bedroom and living room later. I
didn't like the noise of the A/C units, but I felt much more
comfortable. Not to mention, the A/C noise "masked" the neighborhood
noises. Some families "beat the heat" by living out doors. I did not
like their living noises intruding on my low noise life. I did have
a 50 gal tank for a couple of years in San Jose, but, sorry to say, I
didn't pay much attention to its temperature. I guess keeping me
comfortable kept it livable for I had no problems.

One problem with all efforts to keep aquarium tempertures stable is
the dependence on stable electricity. Here the "solid walls" can help
to ride out an electrical outage for an hour or so, but no good for
long outages and it takes longer to pull the temperature back down
when the electricity comes back on.

Therer are risks to all of our efforts. Some methods are more
esthetic (look better). Thus the A/C leaves the tanks looking as they
always do, where as taking off the light hood and mounting a fan to
cool the tank by evaporation takes away the main point of having fish.
But, A/C is noisy and expensive.

Good luck to all of us! g

dick

House is brick, cavity wall insulation and then breeze blocks which are
then
plastered. Very few of the interior walls are plaster board as we
discovered
when we were chanelling out for cables and again when we had some
re-modelling work done - they are breeze block as well which is then
plastered. So it holds in the heat - great in winter but not the best in
summer.

I have really appreciated the ideas.....BTW I don't think aircon would be
a
patch on all the computers we have running in here - lol

Thanks again
Gill


Sounds like your house was built by the third little piggy! g

I am not familiar with how you are using the word "patch," but my best
guess is you have a commercial operation with lots of "servers." If
so I am really surprised the building has no A/C. Computer generate
lots of heat. I have 2 computers I run all day, those plus the five
tanks of fish and 2 dogs and my small house stay fairly warm on winter
days with little need for heat. However, computers don't consume much
energy compared to the A/C for a whole house. Most are run on 220
volts to cut the amperage down.

I sure understand the difficulties of running cables. My walls are
over a foot thick and no plaster board. My cables are run on the
outside then holes drilled where the cable was needed on the inside.
Inner walls were channeled during the remodeling for 120 AC, rear
speaker wires, thermostat controls for heater and A/C, cable, and
other assorted wires. Gives "set in stone" a fresh meaning doesn't
it?

dick

Another example of being "separated by a common language" - G....."not a
patch" means "would not compete" or "gets nowhere near" - in this case the
computer fans are louder than anything else - including my air bricks!!!
Actually at the moment we only have two computers running
downstairs....Believe me if you want to hear real noise (and I don't know
that you haven't) a Server Room is something else entirely - and I have been
in a number of these in my time working in the "industry" (but not for much
longer - he, he and very big g) - most Server Rooms also have the aircon
noise as well.....actually thinking about it maybe a Server Room is the best
place for a tank - lol

Gill


The Server Room might be fine for the fish, but between server fans,
air pumps, power filters and air conditioning, you wouldn't want to
stay long! g

I have 3 tower PCs. I only run 2 except Sundays when I add the third
to do backups of the regular 2. The fan noise, tank noise,
refrigerator noise and my own Tintinitis create a real racket. Then
the A/C kicks in. I love quiet. I used to take my vacations "back
packing" in the High Sierra mountains of California. I looked forward
to many things, but the absolute silence interrupted by bird calls or
brook was one of the great pleasures. I still enjoy the quiet.
Fortunately Marfa is a small, quiet ranch town. Early mornings are
very quiet until the town wakes up. It makes the freight train's
passage monumental, but as in removing any pain, the relief after it
passes is accentuated.

We sure got out of subject, but it has been fun wandering. g

dick

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 23:53:07 +0100, Nikki Casali
wrote:


House is brick, cavity wall insulation and then breeze blocks which are then
plastered. Very few of the interior walls are plaster board as we discovered
when we were chanelling out for cables and again when we had some
re-modelling work done - they are breeze block as well which is then
plastered. So it holds in the heat - great in winter but not the best in
summer.

Were you thinking of cutting the hole for the aircon yourselves? I have
a twin split unit installed upstairs for my bedroom and office. I had
the units installed by a "professional", and he used a seriously big
drill bit to cut out the holes for the tubes.

My A/C unit is mounted on the roof. The fan and compressor are above
the roof, only the cool air and the return go through the roof (and
the 220v and thermostat wires of course), then the ducting goes
through the roof to the ceiling ducts. This is the place for ducts as
cool air drops and the hotter air is picked up at the ceiling where it
rises. Much easier than the outside units.

My only caviat would be the unit weight, plus the added noise since
the roof structure vibrates with the compressor vibrations.

dick

"Dick" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 23:53:07 +0100, Nikki Casali
wrote:


House is brick, cavity wall insulation and then breeze blocks which are
then
plastered. Very few of the interior walls are plaster board as we
discovered
when we were chanelling out for cables and again when we had some
re-modelling work done - they are breeze block as well which is then
plastered. So it holds in the heat - great in winter but not the best
in
summer.

Were you thinking of cutting the hole for the aircon yourselves? I have
a twin split unit installed upstairs for my bedroom and office. I had
the units installed by a "professional", and he used a seriously big
drill bit to cut out the holes for the tubes.

My A/C unit is mounted on the roof. The fan and compressor are above
the roof, only the cool air and the return go through the roof (and
the 220v and thermostat wires of course), then the ducting goes
through the roof to the ceiling ducts. This is the place for ducts as
cool air drops and the hotter air is picked up at the ceiling where it
rises. Much easier than the outside units.

My only caviat would be the unit weight, plus the added noise since
the roof structure vibrates with the compressor vibrations.

dick

My only problem with that would be that we would need to remodel the house
again....In the UK we get maybe 4 -5 weeks of hot weather if we are lucky
g

Dick wrote:

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 23:53:07 +0100, Nikki Casali
wrote:


House is brick, cavity wall insulation and then breeze blocks which are then
plastered. Very few of the interior walls are plaster board as we discovered
when we were chanelling out for cables and again when we had some
re-modelling work done - they are breeze block as well which is then
plastered. So it holds in the heat - great in winter but not the best in
summer.

Were you thinking of cutting the hole for the aircon yourselves? I have
a twin split unit installed upstairs for my bedroom and office. I had
the units installed by a "professional", and he used a seriously big
drill bit to cut out the holes for the tubes.


My A/C unit is mounted on the roof. The fan and compressor are above
the roof, only the cool air and the return go through the roof (and
the 220v and thermostat wires of course), then the ducting goes
through the roof to the ceiling ducts. This is the place for ducts as
cool air drops and the hotter air is picked up at the ceiling where it
rises. Much easier than the outside units.

My only caviat would be the unit weight, plus the added noise since
the roof structure vibrates with the compressor vibrations.

My installer butchered my house to get the things installed. If I knew
exactly what he had in mind I would have told him to take a hi..to take
the refrigerant lines straight up into the loft and across to the wall
where the condenser is attached, to outside. Instead, I have all the
refrigerant lines following the outside guttering from each unit,
instead of inside the loft, which isn't exactly aesthetically pleasing.

Having the whole house ducted sounds less fiddly to me.

My condenser is an inverter type so it doesn't produce so much noise.
It's also a heat pump so I use the thing to warm the house in winter,
otherwise it wouldn't be used much of the year.

Strange though, my cats always seem to lay out, exhausted, in the
hottest parts of the house, rather than keep cool in the air-conditioned
rooms. They just haven't worked it out.

But it's such a luxury being able to get a good night's sleep with a
mountain breeze blowing across you while it's baking outside. And
tonight is one of those rare nights in the UK. Good night!

Nikki

"Nikki Casali" wrote in message
...
Dick wrote:

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 23:53:07 +0100, Nikki Casali
wrote:


House is brick, cavity wall insulation and then breeze blocks which are
then
plastered. Very few of the interior walls are plaster board as we
discovered
when we were chanelling out for cables and again when we had some
re-modelling work done - they are breeze block as well which is then
plastered. So it holds in the heat - great in winter but not the best
in
summer.

Were you thinking of cutting the hole for the aircon yourselves? I have
a twin split unit installed upstairs for my bedroom and office. I had
the units installed by a "professional", and he used a seriously big
drill bit to cut out the holes for the tubes.


My A/C unit is mounted on the roof. The fan and compressor are above
the roof, only the cool air and the return go through the roof (and
the 220v and thermostat wires of course), then the ducting goes
through the roof to the ceiling ducts. This is the place for ducts as
cool air drops and the hotter air is picked up at the ceiling where it
rises. Much easier than the outside units.

My only caviat would be the unit weight, plus the added noise since
the roof structure vibrates with the compressor vibrations.

My installer butchered my house to get the things installed. If I knew
exactly what he had in mind I would have told him to take a hi..to take
the refrigerant lines straight up into the loft and across to the wall
where the condenser is attached, to outside. Instead, I have all the
refrigerant lines following the outside guttering from each unit,
instead of inside the loft, which isn't exactly aesthetically pleasing.

Having the whole house ducted sounds less fiddly to me.

My condenser is an inverter type so it doesn't produce so much noise.
It's also a heat pump so I use the thing to warm the house in winter,
otherwise it wouldn't be used much of the year.

Strange though, my cats always seem to lay out, exhausted, in the
hottest parts of the house, rather than keep cool in the air-conditioned
rooms. They just haven't worked it out.

But it's such a luxury being able to get a good night's sleep with a
mountain breeze blowing across you while it's baking outside. And
tonight is one of those rare nights in the UK. Good night!

Nikki

And it is set to continue over the next few nights.....all windows open and
ice cubes at the ready....too late for the aircon....

BTW slightly off topic but for our Californian friends (with great
compassion) - what the hell do you do during earthquakes??????

"Nikki Casali" wrote in message
...
Dick wrote:

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 23:53:07 +0100, Nikki Casali
wrote:


House is brick, cavity wall insulation and then breeze blocks which are
then
plastered. Very few of the interior walls are plaster board as we
discovered
when we were chanelling out for cables and again when we had some
re-modelling work done - they are breeze block as well which is then
plastered. So it holds in the heat - great in winter but not the best
in
summer.

Were you thinking of cutting the hole for the aircon yourselves? I have
a twin split unit installed upstairs for my bedroom and office. I had
the units installed by a "professional", and he used a seriously big
drill bit to cut out the holes for the tubes.


My A/C unit is mounted on the roof. The fan and compressor are above
the roof, only the cool air and the return go through the roof (and
the 220v and thermostat wires of course), then the ducting goes
through the roof to the ceiling ducts. This is the place for ducts as
cool air drops and the hotter air is picked up at the ceiling where it
rises. Much easier than the outside units.

My only caviat would be the unit weight, plus the added noise since
the roof structure vibrates with the compressor vibrations.

My installer butchered my house to get the things installed. If I knew
exactly what he had in mind I would have told him to take a hi..to take
the refrigerant lines straight up into the loft and across to the wall
where the condenser is attached, to outside. Instead, I have all the
refrigerant lines following the outside guttering from each unit,
instead of inside the loft, which isn't exactly aesthetically pleasing.

Having the whole house ducted sounds less fiddly to me.

My condenser is an inverter type so it doesn't produce so much noise.
It's also a heat pump so I use the thing to warm the house in winter,
otherwise it wouldn't be used much of the year.

Strange though, my cats always seem to lay out, exhausted, in the
hottest parts of the house, rather than keep cool in the air-conditioned
rooms. They just haven't worked it out.

But it's such a luxury being able to get a good night's sleep with a
mountain breeze blowing across you while it's baking outside. And
tonight is one of those rare nights in the UK. Good night!

Nikki


Is your heating airduct....ours is all radiator....makes it a bit harder to
install any aircon....