When I was researching for our wood stove, I learned a few things about "moving" (pushing) air. At the farm house, it was hard to get heat up from the basement ... so we turned the stairs around so it came up naturally. The previous owner had a big tall fan try to move the heat around a corner, twice, and then up the stairs. The first fix was to cut a air grate in the floor in the living room and a LOT of warm up came up on its own.
It also seemed that cool air was just blowing into the same room from the door that went to the garage. I mean, it was really blowing ... my hair gave it away.
(We put in new weather stripping and that helped tons.)
We used the storm door to bring cool air it at the bottom, and let hot air out at the top. I think Archie is correct that air flow has a lot to do with it. Rather than pushing the warm air into the room, we found if we pushed cool air onto the wood stove, it moved that warm air at the stove into other parts of the house.
In the summer, the farm house was 10 degrees cooler than the fields. We had great trees all around the house. The garage was nice a cool. John's shops, not so much -- only one set of buildings was shaded.
Now here, we don't have a wood stove here. No room for it plus no real need for it. This house is really small (800 sq ft). But for cooling, the house is fine (sometimes too cold even tho thermostat is set at 82 during the day
) but getting some cool air into the attached garage has been a challenge. The garage is on the west side of the house -- no window, no shade, concrete out the doors. We're pondering diverting a vent from the house (we have two to spare) into the garage and we'd only open it when we need it.
Those older homes knew about the value of cooking outside. We rarely "cook" in the hot months. No oven for sure. Quick cooking on the stove. Make extra and freeze. Microwave. Grille.
I learned a bunch from our Mennonite neighbors and how they tried to stay cool in the hot months. When it was super bad, many of them slept outside, or porches, packing houses, barn, etc. No one stayed upstairs to sleep that was for sure. Most of them had good shade trees around their home.
I hope folks are able to stay cool during all these heat advisories.
