jeez even the frogs are too hot! I just got joined by a very large one in the lounge! got him in a box after a bit of a chase and shifting the sofa. He must have been looking for somewhere cooler than the garden, hopped up 23 steps, in the conservatory through the open door, into the kitchen, out into the hall, straight down and into the lounge. I caught the movement out the corner of my eye and for a moment thought, f***, another mouse....but then nooo...its way too big and its...well...frog shaped, bl00dy hell! wife shrieks and then starts videoing me chasing it round the house!
and yes I try and do the 'shut the heat out' and then ventilate in the evening. I find it works very well but if the hot is intense like this, for over 3 days, well the house eventually levels out with outside. external shutters and external wall insulation would probably help massively, but although I think it is very wrong from a green point of view, a decent air conditioning system would be a fraction of the cost of that lot, quite possibly not more than just shutters. Daft.
UK housing stock is old, and of a generally poor standard, and not designed with this heat in mind at all.
Sitting in bed with our cold water bottles from the freezer.
You can get in-line extractor fans that have a pipe in and out,
I've been to some pretty hot places and in the absence of A/C that's pretty common. Whole house fans is one name. Either a big fan in a central spot on the ceiling of the uppermost floor, or a small powerful one in the loft with ducts to all the rooms on the upper floor. Leave upper windows closed and lower ones open, so you don't short circuit the stack effect.
You might be better putting the fan upstairs blowing out rather than downstairs blowing in, if you have downstairs windows open.
Solid walls give good thermal mass which helps the interior temperature maintain a flatter cure over the day/night cycle. Thermal mass is good.
Trying to eliminate some of the solar-gain through windows is your best bet IMHO. Preventing the sun hitting the glass is far better than blocking it once it's already in the room (i.e by using internal blinds or curtains).
UK housing stock is old, and of a generally poor standard, and not designed with this heat in mind at all.
I can only speak anecdotally but the 00's flat I used to live in was utter murder during hot summer days. I think the solar gain was to blame having windows on three sides. The insulated cavity walls and floor and ceiling insulation afforded little thermal mass so there was no dampening effect to offset.
My 1850's terrace performs far better in the summer IMHO although it's cold as **** in winter.
I have a 2.5kw Toshiba split ac unit in my bedroom. Cost me £900 including fitting. I’m as careful with bills as you can be but set at 21 degrees and running all night I hardly notice the cost.
Insulate as much as possible it works to keep the heat out too, white or reflective blinds they do make a difference, interior / exterior thermometer so when it's hotter outside close your doors and windows!
28c at 7am this morning in my living room (where I'm currently WFH home), it's going to be a fun day 🙁
I managed to install a simple one from B&Q a couple of years ago and my house hasn’t burnt down yet, so I’d say yes
Likewise 🙂
Our front door which has a window used to be the weak point so I made up a cover out of a doubled old sheet. You could make one for any window.
Our house gets too hot in the summer (in Manchester of all places) - two bedrooms are south facing and get the sun all day - curtains shut, but with the house being well insulated, the southern wall is like a heat sink. Downstairs is OK as only the kitchen window is south facing, and the lounge doesn't get direct sun. We've has a portable AC for at least 15 years.
It's loud, but you get used to the noise and we probably run it for 4 weeks during the summer, like now when it's over 20c. We have it upstairs with the exhaust pipe going out of the bathroom window. Touch wood, it's been incredibly reliable. Only ever had problems once and that was caused by build up of dust (had to strip the casing down to get at it).
Educator, what's the wall construction on houses Like yours in France? I'm guessing possibly thicker then here in UK, but around as that is just a guess.
Victorian house. Working from upstairs SW facing room with windows and doors open for slight breeze through the house (upstairs has better airflow). Blinds down once the sun passes but it was 34C outside and nearer 40C inside yesterday. I don't mind the heat to be honest.
I freeze small thermos flasks with 1/4 water then drink iced water all day. Then go for a swim with the dog in the Thames!
We also have a small AC unit in the loft room. It's 900W and used sparingly.
Well I briefly got it down to 28C in the girls bedroom last night, before the wife had a shower, shutting the bathroom window and like most women, having it far hotter than i could bear. Despite the bathroom fan that pushed the bedroom temp back up to 29.5 and it's taken until this morning to get it back down. Outside temps hit 29C an hour ago so windows are shut again now, I'm working in a different room with the fan blowing at me and currently feel comfortable, but it's 2-7pm ish that is the hottest here. Hoping the rain arrives and cools us properly!
Just sprayed the path and flower bed outside my home office window. Temperature is now down to 30.5 in the office...
This is with all the leaving windows open at night, using curtains to keep the heat out during the day (with windows open when in direct sunlight to allow the hot air to escape).
Mid 60s timber framed house with a brick skin, so f all thermal mass or insulation and external insulation only possibility to improve due to timber frame.
Does anyone have any real world experience of external skylight blinds.
One website stated the difference between internal and external blinds as being 37% heat transmission Vs 4-14%. They are trying to sell window blinds though so pinch of salt and all.
It seems obvious that stoping the heat on the outside of the house would be better than once it's already inside but how much better really?
It seems obvious that stoping the heat on the outside of the house would be better than once it’s already inside but how much better really?
Yes it's significant.
This is why a lot of commercial buildings have brise soleils and vertical fins now. Years ago they would just rely on blinds to keep the sun out in summer.
Ideally, you want a set-up which allows the exclusion of the sun during summer but takes advantage of solar gain in winter. This could even be a deciduous tree for example which gives the window/house shade in summer but when all the leaves fall off in winter the sun can provide solar gain.
Ideally, you want a set-up which allows the exclusion of the sun during summer but takes advantage of solar gain in winter. This could even be a deciduous tree for example which gives the window/house shade in summer but when all the leaves fall off in winter the sun can provide solar gain.
Yeah this is why reflective coatings aren't something I'm looking at.
I think I need to setup some data logging thermometers and then try covering the outside of the window and compare.
Educator, what’s the wall construction on houses Like yours in France? I’m guessing possibly thicker then here in UK, but around as that is just a guess.
I've seen houses being built in Southern France, they seem to favour hollow terracotta blocks which I think are designed to let the hot air rise through the bricks instead of transmitting. The roof tiles are similar I think, and of course they are whitewashed.
Plant a grape vine on the south facing wall. They can be very big plants and could be trained on a series of wires to give shade to the wall. Before the winter, prune it back to get maximum solar gain back onto the wall.
Added benefit is they look attractive and provide you/the birds with grapes or even wine!
Those walls are blocks lined with thin hollow bricks, no better than a UK cavity wall at R=.6 or thereabouts. I've added R=3.2 insulation to the inside so the wall is now about R=4.
The temperature indoors dropped from 28°C to 26°C overnight with a dawn minimum outside of 24°C. We shut up when we went out and have just got back to find 27°C indoors. It wasn't as hot out today, low 30s. If we time the opening up and shutting up right we can usually keep the indoor temperature to within 5° of the outside dawn minimum.
Closing curtains makes little or no difference, the important thing is to keep the sun off the glass. Once the sun's rays get through the glass the green house effect means the heat stays in.
Closing curtains makes little or no difference
Disagree with this - makes a big difference in our house, but they are thick and dark curtains with blackout fabric.
Plant a grape vine on the south facing wall. They can be very big plants and could be trained on a series of wires to give shade to the wall. Before the winter, prune it back to get maximum solar gain back onto the wall.
Or just go for Virginia Creeper which is deciduous and trains itself to the wall.
