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Keeping cool at night
Last night was the hottest night of the year, but we actually got a good night's sleep.
How?
The following won't work for everyone, because it depends on the type of building you live in, what country you live in, and what times of day you are at home, but hopefully there will be something you can take away.
There are two basic principles.
Recognising that buildings have a heat capacity and the walls act as a reservoir of heat/cool.
Air flow reduces the temperature that you feel.
1. Plan well in advance. Think about how the sun moves round your house during the day.
2. In the morning, as soon as I got up, I checked to see if it was cooler inside or outside. If it's cooler inside, keep windows closed to retain that thermal mass temperature as long as possible.
When that initial cool had worn off, I opened every window and door on the cooler side, and closed all curtains on the hotter side (I left the windows open a little so that building up behind the curtains would be able to escape through the window).
Once the sun mover round, I reversed the curtains and windows. However, I didn't open the windows (apart from a gap as before) on the new 'cooler' side until the temperature in the house was the same as that outside. (because it was still cooler inside at that point.)
3. When the temperatures were close (as measured by the cheerfully unscientific method of sticking an arm out of the window), I changed tactic and set the house up to have a flow of air through it.
4. Curtains still closed on the hot side to keep out direct sunlight, but windows now opened about half way on this side to allow air to flow through (our curtains aren't fixed at the wall end, so it's easy to slide them open a little at the wall end to let air flow past)
5. Front and back door now held open with a pair of old flat irons. They're nice and heavy and will hold any door. Kitchen door, which is directly between front and back door is closed (as it will slam shut if both other doors are open, and besides, I want to direct the air flow through the lounge, where were are sitting)
6. Lounge doors held open with heavy weights - gentle breeze now going through lounge. All upstairs curtains and windows following same rules as downstairs. ie. curtains open if outside is cooler, closed if outside is hotter. All windows on cooler side are open to encourage air flow, and windows on hotter side open a little to avoid heat build up behind windows.
7. Remember that thick curtains with lining make good insulation - I haven't tried solar reflective linings yet, but I gather they can help.
8. Part of this approach is that I'm actively working to cool the bedrooms all during the daytime, long before I need them. If you have upstairs and downstairs windows open at the same time, you get a 'chimney' effect, where the hot air flowing out of the bedroom window will suck up cooler air from below.
9. As soon as the sun is sensibly low in the sky and it's actually getting bearable outside, open pretty much everything that you can and try to get air currents flowing through the bedroom before you go to bed.
10. When you want go to bed, leave open everything that you are able to leave open, (I'm lucky in that I have one downstairs window that would be very hard for a burglar to reach -if you don't have this advantage, consider fitting wire mesh or bars across a window that you would like to leave open. Upstairs/downstairs air flow can make a real difference, wedge the connecting doors open to allow the air to flow.
I went to bed later than normal, partly so that I could leave the back door open as long as possible.
when I finally went to bed, the temperature was bearable and stayed so all night.
However, if it gets much hotter than this....
How?
The following won't work for everyone, because it depends on the type of building you live in, what country you live in, and what times of day you are at home, but hopefully there will be something you can take away.
There are two basic principles.
Recognising that buildings have a heat capacity and the walls act as a reservoir of heat/cool.
Air flow reduces the temperature that you feel.
1. Plan well in advance. Think about how the sun moves round your house during the day.
2. In the morning, as soon as I got up, I checked to see if it was cooler inside or outside. If it's cooler inside, keep windows closed to retain that thermal mass temperature as long as possible.
When that initial cool had worn off, I opened every window and door on the cooler side, and closed all curtains on the hotter side (I left the windows open a little so that building up behind the curtains would be able to escape through the window).
Once the sun mover round, I reversed the curtains and windows. However, I didn't open the windows (apart from a gap as before) on the new 'cooler' side until the temperature in the house was the same as that outside. (because it was still cooler inside at that point.)
3. When the temperatures were close (as measured by the cheerfully unscientific method of sticking an arm out of the window), I changed tactic and set the house up to have a flow of air through it.
4. Curtains still closed on the hot side to keep out direct sunlight, but windows now opened about half way on this side to allow air to flow through (our curtains aren't fixed at the wall end, so it's easy to slide them open a little at the wall end to let air flow past)
5. Front and back door now held open with a pair of old flat irons. They're nice and heavy and will hold any door. Kitchen door, which is directly between front and back door is closed (as it will slam shut if both other doors are open, and besides, I want to direct the air flow through the lounge, where were are sitting)
6. Lounge doors held open with heavy weights - gentle breeze now going through lounge. All upstairs curtains and windows following same rules as downstairs. ie. curtains open if outside is cooler, closed if outside is hotter. All windows on cooler side are open to encourage air flow, and windows on hotter side open a little to avoid heat build up behind windows.
7. Remember that thick curtains with lining make good insulation - I haven't tried solar reflective linings yet, but I gather they can help.
8. Part of this approach is that I'm actively working to cool the bedrooms all during the daytime, long before I need them. If you have upstairs and downstairs windows open at the same time, you get a 'chimney' effect, where the hot air flowing out of the bedroom window will suck up cooler air from below.
9. As soon as the sun is sensibly low in the sky and it's actually getting bearable outside, open pretty much everything that you can and try to get air currents flowing through the bedroom before you go to bed.
10. When you want go to bed, leave open everything that you are able to leave open, (I'm lucky in that I have one downstairs window that would be very hard for a burglar to reach -if you don't have this advantage, consider fitting wire mesh or bars across a window that you would like to leave open. Upstairs/downstairs air flow can make a real difference, wedge the connecting doors open to allow the air to flow.
I went to bed later than normal, partly so that I could leave the back door open as long as possible.
when I finally went to bed, the temperature was bearable and stayed so all night.
However, if it gets much hotter than this....
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