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We have been taught to regard the temperature of the air as the key to our comfort. But air temperature is only part of how we feel. We are also affected by the temperature of the solid things around us, ( walls, ceilings, floors, window glass, etc. ). Also vital to our comfort is the amount of humidity and speed of air movement.
You may turn off the central system when you go to town but turn it back on when you come back. In air conditioning the heat has started to absorb in those solids, bed, rug, chair, walls, and etc. The central system can cool the air rather quickly but to remove heat from those solids takes longer. You may not save in you electric bill but possibly increase it due to this on and off. Even though it feels cool when you sit in a chair or lie on the bed the heat radiates from those solids making you uncomfortable.
It takes a central system 24 hours to get the ultimate temperature, of course depending on those outside temperatures .
Your body is a heat machine and your problem of keeping comfortable is always a cooling problem, in summer and winter. The deep body temperature way inside where it matters is about 98.6 degrees. This is the most basic fact and perhaps the most surprising, You are always being cooled. Where does all this heat come from? Bread, steaks, candy, etc., You are a heat machine. Power to keep your internal machinery operating, power to hold yourself erect, keep your eye-lids open, keep the mind on track, power to walk, dance, in short power to live.
The average person, awake and puttering around throws of as much heat as a 100-watt light bulb. It does not matter whether it's summer or winter, whether the room is chilly or hot, whether you feel hot or cold. Your heat depends on the work you do. Sleeping, just keep your heart running, your brain dreaming, your lungs pumping, your heat output is like that of a 50 watt bulb. Light work is a 200 watt bulb, and walking up a flight of stairs a 1,000 watt light bulb.
Heat always flows from a warmer to a cooler body. When your body is warmer than the surrounding air, even though you are clothed, you lose heat to the air. Air exhaled from your lungs is normally at 98.6 degrees.
The heat your body must lose for you to live is of two types. One is the heat you lose because it flows from your warmer body to the cooler air and objects around you. It is cooling done without the evaporation of body moisture. We call this sensible or dry heat. When the surroundings are cooler than your body, which maybe confirmed by the ordinary thermometer. Not so the loss of heat resulting from evaporation, as moisture from your body disappears into the surrounding air. This is called latent or wet heat. How much of your heat loss is sensible, how much is latent, depends on the temperature, humidity, and the surrounding air.
The total cooling power of your house must be just right. The house must keep you in fit condition to meet the out door weather without a shock.
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