|
For many years I used to spend summers in central France where temps in the 40s were quite common. However it was a very dry heat. Its the humidity that does me in, West Wilts has been I guess high 30s but the humidity is unpleasant. I keep the doors, windows and curtains closed on the south-facing side of the house, this makes a big difference. Maybe if we continue to get these heatwaves then we will see more houses with shutters, same as in France.
|
|
Not too bad. My home office became unbearable about 4.30 so only put up with that till 5. My dog has been too hot. He's been laying down panting, I've been wetting him down with a wet flannel. That helps him. I'll be in the office Wed/Thursday where my desk is directly under the aircon outlet and ironically I'm compelled to wear a fleece to keep warm.
Edited by Ethan Edwards on 18/07/2022 at 20:22
|
|
|
For many years I used to spend summers in central France where temps in the 40s were quite common. However it was a very dry heat. Its the humidity that does me in, West Wilts has been I guess high 30s but the humidity is unpleasant. I keep the doors, windows and curtains closed on the south-facing side of the house, this makes a big difference. Maybe if we continue to get these heatwaves then we will see more houses with shutters, same as in France.
Indeed - and flyscreens might also be worth fitting to allow windows to be opened without letting the little critters in, who love this sort of weather and will breed like stink given a source of food and water - which includes used dinner plates soaking in the sink...
Working in construction, I would highly recommend homes getting blinds (mine has reflective roller blinds in the bedrooms), brise soleil / shades and/or continental-style shutters. Seems the less technologically-driven societies of 100+ years ago were quite on the ball. We in the UK build nice little (poorly insulated) ovens to live in.
|
|
Saw 40c here around 5pm! ( woking, surrey), I personally can handle the heat, loose clothing, 2 cold showers a day plus pints of cold water works for me, however our dog doesn't like it and I'm struggling to keep my marine tank cool enough...
|
|
I never really liked the heat much when I was working despite mostly being in air conditioned offices, but since retiring 7 years ago, I don't mind it. The difference is that I rarely have to do anything now that I don't want to. Today I've been lying in the garden on a lounger, in the shade and wearing very little. Garden hose by my side set to 'mist'. A short burst into the air is wonderful at cooling you down.
|
Garden hose by my side set to 'mist'. A short burst into the air is wonderful at cooling you down.
I use a pressure washer on it's stone setting to shoot a jet into the air. It evaporates before the wet hits the ground, but the 'latent heat of evaporation' causes a considerable cooling effect.
Can't recall if this is isothermal or adiabatic change. 'O' level phyisics/chemistry was nearly 60 years ago!
|
Garden hose by my side set to 'mist'. A short burst into the air is wonderful at cooling you down.
I use a pressure washer on it's stone setting to shoot a jet into the air. It evaporates before the wet hits the ground, but the 'latent heat of evaporation' causes a considerable cooling effect.
Can't recall if this is isothermal or adiabatic change. 'O' level phyisics/chemistry was nearly 60 years ago!
Yep. Unlike a desk fan, where the effect is only temporary and you feel worse (if there's nowhere for the hot moist air to go and no intake of cooler, drier air) because the ambient temperature and relative humidity has risen due to the sweat being evaporated off and the heat gain from the fan.
I did a similar thing in recent nights by wetting a kitchen sponge with cold water and wiping the hot sides of my freezer (oddly enough it emits heat there, not via fins on the rear), and using the through draught via the open windows to get rid of the hotter, moist air via evaporation. How much good it did, well...I had nothing better to do.
Some neighbours have got it all wrong - opening their windows wide 'for ventilation' and 'cooling' during the sun/heat of the day and closing them at nigh time when its significantly cooler and there's no solar load, which will be considerable at the moment. Oh well.
|
|
|
|
|
Damp the dog with a wet flannel hourly.
With the tank when we had tropical fish we kept a couple of small water bottles full of tank water. Sealed up tight. Freeze them solid in the deep freeze. Float one in the tank it'll bring the temp right down. You can alternate them every few hours.
You may already be doing these...
|
|
Thanks Ethan, I'm already doing the frozen bottle trick, does work its just keeping up with it!
|
|
Inside my old stone house with stone floors, wonderful. As for the three guys that installed a 450l tank in my garden....
|
Inside my old stone house with stone floors, wonderful. As for the three guys that installed a 450l tank in my garden....
(chuckle) I hope those guys put some suntan cream on! Not a day I'd like to be doing manual labour outside (or anywhere for that matter).
Also seems the medieval lot knew a thing or two about keeping the heat in or out as required.
The difference between my recent Cornish holiday, staying in a park home/caravan made of plastic and low thermal mass vs a converted farm cottage 6 years ago with stone walls was striking, even before the current really hot spell - the former was cold overnight (needing the heating on for an hour in the morning), then rapidly warmed up and overheated to well above the outside temperature due to the direct heating effect of the sun; the latter stayed nice at a relatively constant temperature throughout my stay.
The other important issue often overlooked these days is of natural shading of buildings from trees. Its one of the reasons my flat stays at a reasonable temperature in hot spells and the two above do not (especially the second floor, which has almost not shade from them), because the trees are kept to a maximum height by pruning (apparently to avoid the canopy and roots encroaching on the building, foundations and incoming utility services).
|
|
|
|
|
Yeah being cool is damn hard work isn't it!
|
|
Interesting no-one at the met office mentioned the unusual amount of wind yesterday afternoon which, with the air temperature being above normal body temperature, made it very inadvisable to be outside. Bit like stepping into a fan oven.
|
Interesting no-one at the met office mentioned the unusual amount of wind yesterday afternoon which, with the air temperature being above normal body temperature, made it very inadvisable to be outside. Bit like stepping into a fan oven.
Indeed - I've been deliberately waking up early around 4-5am to try and take advanteg of the small window (pun not intended) of opportunity to open the windows and doors when it's the 'coolest' time of the day, but yesterday the temperature then was certainly NOT the 20degC the weather report said it would be/was. It was more like 24-25degC, as the temperature of my flat went up from 24 to 24.5degC within half an hour. Even then it felt like a slightly cooler oven being opened with that wind. As you say, much wors by about 4-5pm.
My mum said it was 35degC in their house yesteday. Not pleaseant at all.
Much cooler (an actual 19-20degC) this morning at the same time, still windy, though a lot higher humidity (the saving grace for the previous days), but I managed to cool my down from 26degC from last night to about 22degC after 4 hours of all the windows and door open. May be due some heavy showers later this afternoon in my neck-of-the-woods (nr Cambridge).
Also just heard about the bursh/gorse fires in Cornwall - including around Truro and on a stretch of coast area (Zennor), both where I was hiking when on my recent holiday. The local terrainaround Zennor isn't conducive to making a quick getaway when on foot!
I wonder how many BRers' car A/C systems have been ;coping' (or not) over recent days (if they were brave enough or had to venture out in their car)? Most A/C systems are only designed to maintain inside temperatures of 21-23degC for outside temperatures up to the low to mid 30s.
Similarly to commercial buildings, where the outdoor units will work fine up to around 40degC but indoor units will [demand-wise] only maintain that set point of 21-23 when its below 30degC outside, all that should happen is the inside temperature floats up, rather like fridges and freezers when they reach their maximum output in very hot conditions.
|
|
Tesco and Sainsbury's here in West Yorkshire had their 'chilled' aisle barricaded off as chillers had failed (or couldn't maintain target temperature) so had fabric shields over the shelves.
The nearby weather station at Emley Moor was claimed to record the highest night time temperature in the UK.
I was glad I had my car aircon re-gassed last year as it was noticeably less effective after 12 years.
|
Tesco and Sainsbury's here in West Yorkshire had their 'chilled' aisle barricaded off as chillers had failed (or couldn't maintain target temperature) so had fabric shields over the shelves.
The nearby weather station at Emley Moor was claimed to record the highest night time temperature in the UK.
I was glad I had my car aircon re-gassed last year as it was noticeably less effective after 12 years.
On that final issue - can we still get our older cars that don't have the 'new, improved' (not improved according to HJ) R1234yf refrigerant but R134a - and if so, has the price gone through the proverbial roof as supplies have lessened or they are 'phased out'?
This was supposed to be the case in industry with the more environmentally-unfriendly ones but I wasn't sure about the motor industry. My 2005 car's A/C worked well enough on holiday, but then only the first day there was really hot (tops 32degC).
I've never had mine topped up or replaced (I rigorously followed the tips on usage to hopefully prolong its lifespan), so was wondering what the chances of being able to do so and the cost, especially in the current 'climate' (both temperature and inflationary ones). Mine did struggle a bit when I last drove it during 35degC weather a few yeas ago.
|
|
Much fresher and cooler here in the West. Significantly more pleasant. Yesterday was awful but that was mainly due to the humidity.
I've had my old Focus re-gassed twice in its fifteen years although I remember reading threads on one of the forums that if it's working, leave alone.
|
Tesco and Sainsbury's here in West Yorkshire had their 'chilled' aisle barricaded off as chillers had failed (or couldn't maintain target temperature) so had fabric shields over the shelves.
The nearby weather station at Emley Moor was claimed to record the highest night time temperature in the UK.
I was glad I had my car aircon re-gassed last year as it was noticeably less effective after 12 years.
Must be a Tesco/Sainsburys thing as same happened in South Yorkshire!
|
Tesco and Sainsbury's here in West Yorkshire had their 'chilled' aisle barricaded off as chillers had failed (or couldn't maintain target temperature) so had fabric shields over the shelves.
The nearby weather station at Emley Moor was claimed to record the highest night time temperature in the UK.
I was glad I had my car aircon re-gassed last year as it was noticeably less effective after 12 years.
Must be a Tesco/Sainsburys thing as same happened in South Yorkshire!
Just back from my local Tesco and about 80% of the chilled meet section was completely empty - more likely because the cooling system for it had broken down than a complete lack of products to sell.
Speaking of re-gassing/leakages, my under-the-counter fridges always seem to struggle - I've lived in my flat for 16 years now, and bought my third fridge last Authum after the second one leaked its refrigerant, as did the first. Not down to it being knocked AFAIK, more likely being overworked.
The 23yo free-standing freezer (same size) is still going!
A shame (at least most) fridges/freezers can't be economically re-gassed like cars.
|
|
|
|
|
We only reached 37° here in Cheshire. Although we occupy a large bungalow, and everything is just below the roof, I added several inches of insulation in the loft about 12 years ago, so even after several days of heat the living room got no warmer than 28°, which I can live with, especially with a small oscillating fan to stir it round.
Trouble with air-con is that by pumping the heat outside it adds marginally to the outside temperature, which also rises (somewhere else) because of the need for power. If things are going to get steadily worse, we shall all have to decide how to travel and do other energy-consuming things less. So far we mostly assume that there is a workaround which lets us continue as before. And meanwhile Liz Truss keeps banging on about Economic Growth ....
Edited by Andrew-T on 21/07/2022 at 09:57
|
|
I suppose she would argue that the economic growth is needed to fund the green transition. Putin's antics won't be helping - all that extra pollution in destruction and carbon involved in reconstruction.
|
|
Monday of this week was peak heat here in south central Brittany following 2 to 3 weeks of hot weather. Monday's forecast temperature was high 30's to early 40's after a few weeks of early to mid 30's, so this old stone house had absorbed and stored that heat, which was making our normally cool bedroom increasingly uncomfortable.
We spotted that Lidl had an offer on a portable air con unit on the previous Friday, not their own rubbish Silver Crest brand but a widely available brand called "Comfee", so took the plunge and bought one.
www.archyde.com/lidl-comfee-air-conditioner-cheap-.../ -
That price is a tad out of date, we paid €200
Went out next day and bought a sheet of 15 mm plywood and a sheet of polyglass to made an insert for our inward opening casement bedroom window for the warm air exhaust from the air con unit.
The maximum daytime temperature on Monday outside our kitchen door was 44 C !
We ran the air-con for about 18 - 20 hours in total including for 12 hours overnight on the monday as the bedroom was 35 C - really cooled it down to around 23 C. We also used a fan in the room to circulate the cool air to cool down quicker.
This morning the outside temperature is 19 C and I'm sitting here wearing a jumper!
|
Monday of this week was peak heat here in south central Brittany following 2 to 3 weeks of hot weather. Monday's forecast temperature was high 30's to early 40's after a few weeks of early to mid 30's, so this old stone house had absorbed and stored that heat, which was making our normally cool bedroom increasingly uncomfortable.
We spotted that Lidl had an offer on a portable air con unit on the previous Friday, not their own rubbish Silver Crest brand but a widely available brand called "Comfee", so took the plunge and bought one.
www.archyde.com/lidl-comfee-air-conditioner-cheap-.../ -
That price is a tad out of date, we paid €200
Went out next day and bought a sheet of 15 mm plywood and a sheet of polyglass to made an insert for our inward opening casement bedroom window for the warm air exhaust from the air con unit.
The maximum daytime temperature on Monday outside our kitchen door was 44 C !
We ran the air-con for about 18 - 20 hours in total including for 12 hours overnight on the monday as the bedroom was 35 C - really cooled it down to around 23 C. We also used a fan in the room to circulate the cool air to cool down quicker.
This morning the outside temperature is 19 C and I'm sitting here wearing a jumper!
Glad it worked - the key with them always is how to get rid of the hot air and not let it be re-drawn inside, which I recall always was a big problem at a former office I worked at.
I got up (again) at 4 ish this morning to 'take advantage' of the cooler air to over-cool my flat. 17degC outside - I too was rather chilly! The minute I shut the doors and windows (a few hours later), the warm walls, furnishings etc re-radiated the heat back to the rooms, warming it back up from about 19-20degC to about 21 or so. Hopefully I won't need to keep doing this for much longer.
Not to bad now at around 22degC indoors, though its definitely more humid than before. Looks like after another hot-ish Sunday, we could be back to reasonable temperatures again.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
