As I outlined in a post a few weeks ago, I designed my house with lots of thermal mass and insulation. I managed to go through September and October without using heat or A/C by selectively opening up the house to bring in air when the outside temperature pushed the house temp the way I wanted. In my climate that mostly means cooling the house at night. I probably could have gotten through a fair bit of November by opening up in the warm part of the day but I work in the daytime so I ended up heating with wood starting in November. To facilitate airflow through the house last year, I used a fan on my sun porch to pull air out of the house. A few days ago I realized that by opening the door to my stove I allow the hot air to draft right up the chimney and I don't need to use an electrically powered fan to exhaust hot air out of my house. So far it is working well for me. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to go on this plan before the humidity kicks up, but it is looking like I can keep the house at a comfortable temperature and humidity for at least 8 months out of the year without needing electricity at all: 3 months selective ventilation and 5 months wood stove.
Good idea, I'll try that. You are cooling your house at night already? I'm still building 2-3 fires a week, most are burning full tilt.
We've had days in the 80s already. I'm trying to cool down the thermal mass in anticipation of summer. I misjudged last how cold it would be when I opened the house up last night. It got down to 38! The house was 61 this morning but it will be up to the high 68 or 70 by the time I get home. It takes a lot longer than overnight to make a significant change to the mass. The air and first inch or two cooled off but the deeper stuff takes a lot longer to equilibrate.
