Cool comfort in the summer.

We promised to add a review of the summer performance of our adobe home and here it is.  Although temperatures get up into the 90's during the hottest days of the summer the overnight temperatures drop down into the 50's on most nights.  Although refrigerated a/c or evaporative coolers (swamp coolers) are used almost universally in the area, we chose to have absolutely no assisted cooling in our adobe other than the beautiful characteristics of the thick adobe walls.


Opening the lower panes of the windows on the south and the upper panes of the windows on north, and with the help of prevailing breezes from the south, cool air flows in, warm air flows out, and the thermal mass inside the home (thick adobe walls and brick-on-sand floors) cools down overnight.  This cool interior combined with quality insulation, and a limited number of small windows on the north, east and west keeps the home comfortable throughout the heat of the day as the following graph covering two weeks in August, 2011 clearly illustrates.    

Outside temperatures (red) vary from a high of 98°F (37°C) to a low of 53ºF (12°C). Inside temperatures (green) stayed in a comfortable range from a high of 78°F (26°C) to a low of 68°F (20°C).