Keeping the house cool, as a heat sensitive person (ME/CFS)
Summer is disgusting and should be banned! Related, ME/CFS has made me heat sensitive, so sharing this list of house cooling tips in case it helps you similarly.
Number of stars (****) indicate the benefit felt;
Painting the sunniest wall with white (one time cost £1,000) *****
White masonry paint made a big difference. The West facing wall - a red brick 5m wide two storey wall - was too hot to hold a hand on comfortably in the height of summer. Now this wall feels cool to the touch, even in the worst heat. We estimate this reduced internal temperatures upstairs by 5-8oC. Our neighbour has followed our lead! This also keeps the house a little warmer in winter, avoiding heat loss through moisture transpiration. We’ll paint the front (East) of the property when budget allows.
All upstairs windows wide open at night (cost free) *****
Minor annoyance is increased traffic and neighbourhood noise, but then we sleep with earplugs anyway. We run an air pollution filter to stave off the worst of wood smoke air pollution. We don’t get too many gnats in suburban Bristol, luckily.
+ downstairs windows & patio doors on the catch (cost free) *****
We have a dog and our property is overlooked, so we’re quite relaxed bout having doors and windows on the latch and the cat flap wedged open. The air flow draws in cool air overnight, releasing heat through the upstairs and attic space.
Added roof vents (one time cost £700) *****
Our 1970’s build house had impermeable bitumen membrane beneath the tiles, which meant the attic space held heat in summer and was prone to condensation in winter. We had four vents added, solving both problems. We no longer feel the heat coming through the ceilings. The attic isn’t immune to holding some atmospheric damp air in a wet winter, so mould can appear on fabric stored there - we use plastic storage bags for these items. We also added Rockwool insulation, which keeps some of the heat at bay and retains heat in winter. I still need to add a foil insulation backing to the inside of the attic hatch!
Drape cotton sheets over the outside of windows (cost, negligible) *****
My daily ritual of draping white cotton sheets over the windows and patio doors is a hallmark of summer. I trap the sheet in place by closing the window and then removing the sheets once the sun has gone around (I try to do this quickly, or hot air soon fills the room). These can flap around in the wind, so a mid-weight cotton is best, I hang with the seam at the bottom edge for added ballast.
It can feel a bit claustrophobic not being able to see out, but for me this is a comparatively small downside.
Open doors & windows in the morning to let cool air in, then trap this inside the house all day (cost free) *****
We open windows and doors on the cool side of the house wide, closing them once it’s cooler indoors than outside (bearing in mind our perception of this will drift as the day warms). We usually just run one or two trickle vents, so the Co2 doesn’t build up too much. Which reminds me to buy a Co2 monitor! We have LOTS of houseplants, but I doubt this does much re O2 levels.
Solar reflective glazing upstairs (one time cost +£300) ****
Two upstairs windows needed replacing so we spec’d solar reflective glass, which has a minor tint but bounces out c.30-40% of solar heat.
Planting trees that shade downstairs windows midday-3pm (one time cost £500) ****
Mature trees are expensive! I’ve planted two Rowans as they are deciduous, flower and offer berries in autumn. One is in a very large half barrel pot, the other is in the ground - this one is much younger and I wish I’d bought a more mature tree, but didn’t due to cost. At the front is a Gelder Rose, it’s not yet above the window sill line, but will eventually fill the window - more privacy and I’ll have it pruned in an open canopy fashion so we can see out through it.
Painting windows with greenhouse shading paint (cost £10 for 500ml) ***
Our front door, side window and downstairs loo are all textured glass, to which I add a coat of greenhouse shading paint. I’ll see if I can get permission from my partner to add a strip of this to the top half of other downstairs windows, above the eye line and just for June and July, but I’m not holding my breath. I’d do the upstairs ones similarly, but I don’t have the energy to climb up the ladder.
Open attic hatch at night (cost free) ***
Self explanatory. We’ve yet to see an invasion of loft spiders!
Open internal doors & cupboards over night (cost free) ***
This releases trapped heat which can escape through the windows.
Minimise oven use (cost free) ***
If we must use it, we do cooking early in the morning or last thing at night, so the house can cool down more quickly from the cool air. We try to keep cooking times short.
Dishwasher & washing machine used when it’s cool (cost free) ***
As above really.
Portable air conditioner machine (one time cost £7000 + electric usage) ***
My least favourite intervention as it’s noisy and thirsty on leccy (we run on renewable leccy). Impossible to sleep in the same room. Rather intrusively loud on video calls. It’s also a faff trying to hold the exhaust pipe in place upstairs - the hottest part of the house - as there’s no fitting compatible with our style of windows. So we stick the exhaust pipe out of the cat flap and wedge a t-shirt around it to create an air seal. I’d sell it, but I may still need it on occasional 35oC+ days in future summers.
My next moves!
We can’t afford retractable sun awnings at the moment, so I’m mulling installing a sun sail over the patio doors - to save the daily faff of draping cloth. I’d ideally like to install window shutters on the West wall, but that’s expensive and this isn’t our forever home.
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Our house now feels noticeably cooler to step into through summer - at a guess it could be as much as 10oC cooler than outside temps. However, opening doors for parcels and comings and goings can soon erode this difference.
Hope this helps! Let me know if I’ve missed any tricks!
Never a dull moment.