Window Venturi Effect

[Buck Turgidson]

I have heard that opening a basement window and some upstairs windows will
create a draft in the house to cool it. To increase the flow with a
"venturi" effect, would I keep the upstairs windows slightly cracked and the
basement window wide open, or the reverse?

[Art]

Cannot answer that question but if you have a double hung window, the best
way to us it is to have both the top and bottom window open a bit. Hot air
goes out the top and cool comes in the bottom.

"Buck Turgidson" <jc...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:6fe17cc111ecb859...@news.teranews.com...

[m Ransley]

Open them and see. But not truely. A truely effective design in a
southern home of one of the first Presidents had a dome open at the top
ringed at the bottom of the dome with gas pipe , when burned pulled air
up through the house. Gas was cheap then and no electric fans or AC

[Travis Jordan]

To get a true venturi effect you'd need a tapered (cone-shaped) exhaust
system. Otherwise, just open both windows the same amount and take
advantage of the simple "hot air rises" principle.

[Tom Baker]

"Buck Turgidson" <jc...@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<6fe17cc111ecb859...@news.teranews.com>...

The exhaust opening should be larger than the intake.
Design with Climate page 112 notes,
"However, the relatively low air speeds of normal rise are inadequate
to achieve relief from high termpratures or to amelorate the
discomfort caused by by vapor pressure conditons."
My experience in a house with central stair well about 30 feet tall is
negative.
I raise a skylight above the stair and get some air movement, but the
rooms connected to the vertical shaft don't benefit, unless windows
are raised in them as well.
Wind direction relative to the openings makes a big difference in the
amount of air moved.

Some uesful books:
Controlling Air Movement by Terry Boutet
Design with Climate by Olgyay
Wind in Architectural and Environmental Design by Melaragno

Tom Baker