There are a bunch of small things, everyday life type of things, that were done better (i.e. in a more clever and durable way, may be) by our predecessors. Today, when you go in poorer and hotter places, you see some really amazing stuff. Have you ever visited the village named Tataouine, in southeastern Tunisia, for instance ? That’s where they shot most of the indoor « Tatooine » sets in the first Star Wars movie (Episode IV now). The troglodyte habitations they used there are simply amazing. They are literally wells that were dug in the ground (something like 30 ft deep, and 20 ft wide) in the sides of which cavities are dug and used as rooms. Always in the shade, even at noon, and way fresher than outside. Simply amazing… Money/profit may be the issue. Throwing all our money into electricity for air conditioning and heating.
You are right Advikaz the house insulation is very effective in cold weather but my word the temperatures in our place have held very high during this heat wave and this morning even it’s taking a long time to get the temperatures down.
Depends of night time temperatures, obviously. Here (Beaujolais) we are living on hills that are 300-1000m above sea level. We get 15-19 degrees in early morning even if it goes up to 35+ by late afternoon. We’re lucky… So we sleep with all our windows opened to cool the house down. That works really well. Well, that’s certainly how they build their houses today. Probably because we told them to do so and sold them AC. Lot’s of it… They certainly did not do this before. They used to build houses with curtains in lieu of glassed windows to let air flow in at night and keep the shade during the day. They used tents before that. For Christ sake, we even built them a couple of artificial ski slopes in their malls, in the middle of the desert. Good grief…
I’m sure our illustrious government and various insulation firms would disagree. But I’ve experienced enough before and afters with insulation to come to my own conclusion that it’s a bitch in the summer. my parents house is insulated anyway but they had it all done again with the latest and greatest. It’s honestly the hottest house I’ve ever experienced. Especially upstairs. Never known anything like it.
Outside tempts last night dropped considerably as we had an inbound storm. Outside temps dropped to similar to yours but even with every window and door open on the house until 23:30 and then all the upstairs windows open all night… my bedroom was still 33 degrees this morning. Just cannot cool this house down! Once it gets hot. My kitchen was hideous when I came down this morning.
A lot of people are daft though. They open their windows and curtains all day, buy big fans and place them by an open window facing inwards and then moan it’s hot at night. If you want a cool house, close the doors, windows and blinds during the day, open one window and point the fan out the window, it’ll draw the hot air out of the room and not hot air from outside in. But is ok, panic over, temps dropped 10deg today, normal service resumed, nothing to see here, move along, move along……
Yeah I had my windows and all my blinds down. It does help by about 2 degrees I’ve found in my house.
Thing is with modern well insulated houses, it’s probably practices you should have started a week before the heatwave, once the house is hot it’s too late? Ours is a 60’s bungalow and I don’t think the cavities are insulated but we have a huge floor to ceiling lounge window that’s south facing, nice in the spring and autumn, the sun heats the room lovely but the blinds are kept closed a lot of the summer.
I was having this heat conversation with my Spanish teacher yesterday (I'm moving to Cadiz province later in the year). She said she really feels for us at the moment and that it would be the equivalent of her suffering -12 degrees in winter because of the way our houses and general way of living are not designed for the heat but for the cold. They have small windows with shutters to keep the heat out and the rooms dark and cool. In towns and cities the houses are closely packed by narrow alleys to give lots of shade and create funnels for any light breezes. Most buildings have A/C. There are lots of swimming pools. They siesta during the hottest hours. Etc, etc. She's been living in near 40 degree heat for a while and has only had the A/C on once so far.
What makes me laugh is the trend of flat roof extensions, huge lantern skylights and bi-fold doors for that open plan living/dining/cooking/outdoor in garbage. We must be the highest consumer of bi-fold doors in Europe, turning the house into a greenhouse and then moaning it gets hot inside I had a conservatory built across the back and down the side of my old place, open to the kitchen. Never again! Bloody boiling in the summer and freezing in the winter. The people that came around to view it when it was on the market thought it was amazing, “a real selling point” I wouldn’t buy a place with a conservatory now.
Ackers is correct. leaving windows wide open is a nonsense. It wasnt just the direct radiant that was hot (the sun), the bulk air temp was hot too. So you are just allowing hot air into your home. Drawing the curtains will help a bit, but not as much as you may think. What happens? The curtains/blinds warm up from the direct sun and then begin to radiate themselves. ie they turn into radiators. You need to stop the sun getting in in the first place. Once it is in, youre fooked. (unless you have ac) Modern highly insulated homes need very good ventilation. When natural doesnt work, due to the o/s air temp being high, you will need a good mechanical ventilation system. Preferrably with heat recovery. There are also some on the market today which use cleverness to cool the incoming a wee bit. Not like full ac, but enough to take off the highs. Ext shutters and small windows will become the norm. Try telling that to idiot architects though who insist on building glass boxes. Morons. My home is pretty well shaded by trees. But it still hit 26° inside. It was 38°C outside.
It's 10 degrees cooler outside inside it's like an oven got doors and windows open it's only 2 degrees cooler inside
midges don't like hot dry weather. i dont like midges. mostly cos it costs me around £50 pm for around 4-5 months of the year to control the feckers. it rained last night, still warm tho with zero wind. the front garden is now a now go area, more scortchio please.
If you scaled the little fuckers up to the size of a prehistoric great white, then the fim The Meg wouldve been called The Midge. They're voracious wee bastards. They hate the wind too.
On a recent bike ride I had an encounter with a very persistent horse fly, I swear this thing had an evolved IQ! 'Clever girl'. There's another creature we should all be grateful didn't evolve to be bigger, if they were the size of say a guinea pig, they'd easily remove a human limb with a single bite!
Probably people watering their precious lawns & flowers - urgh - more important than water available to drink. Correct - I think that keeping gardens 'pretty' is an extremely selfish and small-minded attitude. . . . . . . . . . I'll get my flack jacket on.....
That being said, plants, trees and bushes provide shade and relatively fresher air in the summer days… Horse flies are nasty buggers. Have you ever heard about « chiggers »? These can be found in North America, out in the wild. I personally had an interesting encounter while hiking in North Carolina hills… Their bites itch to the point it’ll drive you nuts! And embarrassingly enough, they mostly bite… your crotch. I literally spent 3 days scratching my crotch after being bitten. Thank goodness I was already very happily married! https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/prevent-treat-chigger-bites
