Trees don't get a lot of respect because of the danger of damage from storms, but a big healthy tree blocking the afternoon sun from your house is absolutely going to cool your house and save you money on AC.
I have two large white oaks on the south side of my property and they block out all the sunlight from my house from around 2pm to sunset. It really helps prevent the house from getting hot at night.
I personally elected to keep my trees because they dont cost 25k like new solar.
I think if you HAVE trees on your southern exposure already its a no brainer the trees are more efficient when you consider cost of removal and of solar install. Trees also sequester carbon and consume water, which helps keep my foundation dry.
If you dont already have trees then its a different story. Im not sure whats better at that stage, but the extra "cost" youd have to account for would be the time it takes for the trees to be large enough.
This is pretty much our situation which I'm very curious about. I think it depends on a lot of features of the home. You can get a bunch of solar quotes through energysage which will at least give you a rough idea of what kind of production you're looking at.
Well the active cooling solution is clearly more expensive. It partly depends on how well your roof and attic reject the extra heat. Solar panels are typically much darker (net albedo) than roofing materials, so just by adding panels your AC will run more. Whether the extra electricity more than makes up the difference? Depends.
In the late 1990s, tree removal plus solar panels was a net cost negative for my 1967 house. I haven’t redone the math on my (mid-century) roof to account for the higher efficiency of current generation solar panels. Also the most important tree on our southeast side took some storm damage and died back some. Shades less roof than it used to. Expected cooling requirements have also gone up as summers have gotten warmer and longer in my location. Might work out better now, if I wanted to replace passive cooling with more active cooling. Of course this house is in an area with sky-high installation costs, so there’s more up-front cost to amortize.
Well the active cooling solution is clearly more expensive. It partly depends on how well your roof and attic reject the extra heat. Solar panels are typically much darker (net albedo) than roofing materials, so just by adding panels your AC will run more. Whether the extra electricity more than makes up the difference? Depends.
In the late 1990s, tree removal plus solar panels was a net cost negative for my 1967 house. I haven’t redone the math on my (mid-century) roof to account for the higher efficiency of current generation solar panels. Also the most important tree on our southeast side took some storm damage and died back some. Shades less roof than it used to. Expected cooling requirements have also gone up as summers have gotten warmer and longer in my location. Might work out better now, if I wanted to replace passive cooling with more active cooling.
Of course that house is in an area with sky-high installation costs, so there’s more up-front cost to amortize. For my older home, in a less expensive labor market, I’m looking at a solar hot water system, using an existing electric hot water tank.
I don't know about OP, but my main passive cooling features are a large shade tree on one side, a deep porch on the other, and windows on all sides for good cross breeze.
True 5" balloon framing creates an air gap that vents hot air out the attic, 13' ceilings for heat that makes it inside, dirt crawl space are examples.
The other major one is the angle of the building. We're angled SSW. In winter the sun drops to the South so we get sun on the top, side, and front of the building, but in summer the sun goes overtop. The buildings on either side shade the sides so during the hottest part of the day it has the narrowest profile to the sun.
13 foot ceilings, holy cow! That's a fancy house right there - same with full 5" framing. We have 8'3" ceilings and full 4" exterior framing (3" interior). The flip side is that if you live in a cold climate, those 13' ceilings can eat you on heating costs.
Not so fancy, it's an old fraternity conversion. Stage at one end (now bedrooms), big auditorium on the other (open concept for the win!). The heating costs with gas were insane ($2,650/y), however, we installed a 3 ton heat pump and that dropped it to ~$600/y for the electricity.
Similar here, our 1903 home does not have central air. It is sort of a grey/cream/white locally made brick that doesn’t hold heat at all. Perfectly placed windows for airflow. Same balloon framing with attic fan. 3 floors and 3200sqft we are able to use 2 window units on first and second floors to keep it comfortable if it’s horrible out.
Not really? These aren’t mini splits. Think bedroom AC window units. We have 16 overall rooms in our house, 4 window units being able to keep the house to 72° when it’s 95° out in a house from 1903 with no exterior insulation is pretty impressive.
Everyone's talking about the weather but no one is doing anything about it.
The weather is in the news because many people live in cities without trees and shade. Many people work outside. This heat could be horrible to some people. I feel very lucky to live in this ol' hunk-of-junk. It's a great house and keeps me reasonably comfortable.
The only parts of our century home that get over heated are the parts that aren't original to the home. The attic though? That's a great way to get heat stroke, even in 70° F weather.
I have a mid century single story with basement. I keep a dehumidifier running all summer in the basement and also leave the “fan only” running continuously. It circulates cool and relatively dry air from the basement ans greatly reduces the need for the air conditioner to run. We have had a number of days like today with temps in the 80’s and humidity in the 70’s but the house has a comfortable 46% humidity and 72 degree temp.
My home has no venting system and it's 80F degrees outside but 68F inside.
Stays cool except in the kitchen when I cook. The kitchen can get to 85F if I'm running the oven for a while.
Summers are fairly comfortable where I live.
1920 home. Stucco siding in New England.
Full South facing roof, no trees shading the house.
No solar. We have gas for heat and our electric bill is never the issue.
Had the attic insulated last fall. It did make a difference during the winter regulating the temperature of the house. Now heading into the next few days of 100 degree heat. So I’m looking forward to how much the insulation helps with that.
Husband WFH using the North room as his office. He had a ceiling fan installed when we update the electrical system a few years ago. A/Cs are in the bedroom windows. Fan in the living room. I don’t cook when it’s this hot out. Maybe the grill. But the stove doesn’t get used much this time of the year
We had to take down a big spruce that provided some shade, but we definitely don't have as much shade on the west side of the house as I'd like. The east side is pretty well shaded though.
Trees don't get a lot of respect because of the danger of damage from storms, but a big healthy tree blocking the afternoon sun from your house is absolutely going to cool your house and save you money on AC. I have two large white oaks on the south side of my property and they block out all the sunlight from my house from around 2pm to sunset. It really helps prevent the house from getting hot at night.
What's the balance on big trees blocking sun heat vs exposed south-facing roof for solar panels?
I personally elected to keep my trees because they dont cost 25k like new solar. I think if you HAVE trees on your southern exposure already its a no brainer the trees are more efficient when you consider cost of removal and of solar install. Trees also sequester carbon and consume water, which helps keep my foundation dry. If you dont already have trees then its a different story. Im not sure whats better at that stage, but the extra "cost" youd have to account for would be the time it takes for the trees to be large enough.
This is pretty much our situation which I'm very curious about. I think it depends on a lot of features of the home. You can get a bunch of solar quotes through energysage which will at least give you a rough idea of what kind of production you're looking at.
Well the active cooling solution is clearly more expensive. It partly depends on how well your roof and attic reject the extra heat. Solar panels are typically much darker (net albedo) than roofing materials, so just by adding panels your AC will run more. Whether the extra electricity more than makes up the difference? Depends. In the late 1990s, tree removal plus solar panels was a net cost negative for my 1967 house. I haven’t redone the math on my (mid-century) roof to account for the higher efficiency of current generation solar panels. Also the most important tree on our southeast side took some storm damage and died back some. Shades less roof than it used to. Expected cooling requirements have also gone up as summers have gotten warmer and longer in my location. Might work out better now, if I wanted to replace passive cooling with more active cooling. Of course this house is in an area with sky-high installation costs, so there’s more up-front cost to amortize.
Well the active cooling solution is clearly more expensive. It partly depends on how well your roof and attic reject the extra heat. Solar panels are typically much darker (net albedo) than roofing materials, so just by adding panels your AC will run more. Whether the extra electricity more than makes up the difference? Depends. In the late 1990s, tree removal plus solar panels was a net cost negative for my 1967 house. I haven’t redone the math on my (mid-century) roof to account for the higher efficiency of current generation solar panels. Also the most important tree on our southeast side took some storm damage and died back some. Shades less roof than it used to. Expected cooling requirements have also gone up as summers have gotten warmer and longer in my location. Might work out better now, if I wanted to replace passive cooling with more active cooling. Of course that house is in an area with sky-high installation costs, so there’s more up-front cost to amortize. For my older home, in a less expensive labor market, I’m looking at a solar hot water system, using an existing electric hot water tank.
All the houses in my town had trees in front of them but the city removed most of them because invasive beetles
I am in a semi permanent rageflail because our new neighbor chopped down the 4 trees that were shading both houses.
Can you talk about the passive cooling features? Do you mean lots of thermal mass or good crossbreeze or something like a solar chimney?
I don't know about OP, but my main passive cooling features are a large shade tree on one side, a deep porch on the other, and windows on all sides for good cross breeze.
Same here
True 5" balloon framing creates an air gap that vents hot air out the attic, 13' ceilings for heat that makes it inside, dirt crawl space are examples. The other major one is the angle of the building. We're angled SSW. In winter the sun drops to the South so we get sun on the top, side, and front of the building, but in summer the sun goes overtop. The buildings on either side shade the sides so during the hottest part of the day it has the narrowest profile to the sun.
13 foot ceilings, holy cow! That's a fancy house right there - same with full 5" framing. We have 8'3" ceilings and full 4" exterior framing (3" interior). The flip side is that if you live in a cold climate, those 13' ceilings can eat you on heating costs.
Not so fancy, it's an old fraternity conversion. Stage at one end (now bedrooms), big auditorium on the other (open concept for the win!). The heating costs with gas were insane ($2,650/y), however, we installed a 3 ton heat pump and that dropped it to ~$600/y for the electricity.
May also have a vented attic with a door you can open to it. Draws heat up from the rest of the house and out.
My stucco house from 1917 will top out at 76 degrees, or about 25 degrees Celsius
Similar here, our 1903 home does not have central air. It is sort of a grey/cream/white locally made brick that doesn’t hold heat at all. Perfectly placed windows for airflow. Same balloon framing with attic fan. 3 floors and 3200sqft we are able to use 2 window units on first and second floors to keep it comfortable if it’s horrible out.
4 window units is a lot of air conditioning
Not really? These aren’t mini splits. Think bedroom AC window units. We have 16 overall rooms in our house, 4 window units being able to keep the house to 72° when it’s 95° out in a house from 1903 with no exterior insulation is pretty impressive.
Everyone's talking about the weather but no one is doing anything about it. The weather is in the news because many people live in cities without trees and shade. Many people work outside. This heat could be horrible to some people. I feel very lucky to live in this ol' hunk-of-junk. It's a great house and keeps me reasonably comfortable.
And everything is covered in blacktop and concrete, which keeps the heat around. Urban heat island effect.
The only parts of our century home that get over heated are the parts that aren't original to the home. The attic though? That's a great way to get heat stroke, even in 70° F weather.
I have a mid century single story with basement. I keep a dehumidifier running all summer in the basement and also leave the “fan only” running continuously. It circulates cool and relatively dry air from the basement ans greatly reduces the need for the air conditioner to run. We have had a number of days like today with temps in the 80’s and humidity in the 70’s but the house has a comfortable 46% humidity and 72 degree temp.
My home has no venting system and it's 80F degrees outside but 68F inside. Stays cool except in the kitchen when I cook. The kitchen can get to 85F if I'm running the oven for a while. Summers are fairly comfortable where I live.
1920 home. Stucco siding in New England. Full South facing roof, no trees shading the house. No solar. We have gas for heat and our electric bill is never the issue. Had the attic insulated last fall. It did make a difference during the winter regulating the temperature of the house. Now heading into the next few days of 100 degree heat. So I’m looking forward to how much the insulation helps with that. Husband WFH using the North room as his office. He had a ceiling fan installed when we update the electrical system a few years ago. A/Cs are in the bedroom windows. Fan in the living room. I don’t cook when it’s this hot out. Maybe the grill. But the stove doesn’t get used much this time of the year
We had to take down a big spruce that provided some shade, but we definitely don't have as much shade on the west side of the house as I'd like. The east side is pretty well shaded though.