Texas log homes and cooling

[LouisKosanovich]

I understand a little about the insulating properties of a log home and the thermal mass business. The majority of the topics I have seen are related to keeping warm, I have property in N. Texas and the primary concerns are tornadoes and heat. I have seen some folks on here from Texas I was hoping to talk with some of them or people with experience in other hot areas with moderate humidity S. OK for example. Thank you and have a great day.

[Basil]

My home is in kentucky, where the summers are 100 degrees and the humidity is about 90%. It's hazy here from june to september. Our log home is exposed to the sun all day, as we have no trees within 1000 feet of the building. I have a wrap around porch and constant breezes as i'm on a ridgetop. My cieling is 25 feet at the peak in the greatroom. I have 11" of insulation in the upstairs because i knew it would get hot up there, but the beauty is that it's sealed from the rest of the house, so the upstairs maintains a cool temperature so long as the doors up there remain closed.

The top of the stairs, where things are open is generally hot, even with a whole-house fan in tha attic pulling the air out at the peak. The peak of the roof is the "heat sink" and the downstairs is quite comfortable, even on the hottest days.

More interestingly, my bedroom, which is sort of like a second log home attached to the big log home, is in the shade most of the day. The air rarely comes on in there. The wrap-around porch, which was built to keep rain off my logs, also keeps the sun off them and probably lowers my heating bills more than anything else i could have done.

these are just my experiences, YMMV

[LouisKosanovich]

Thank you for sharing your experience. What type of A/C do you have?

[Basil]

i have a unit in the attic and a second unit for the ground floor. house is about 2700 square feet, but don't remember the cubic feet, which is what's need for hvac requirements. It's a trane unit, but i subbed that out and don;t know a lot about it, plus it was done 3 years ago...i've slept since then and don't remember

[LouisKosanovich]

Thanks again for sharing.