Third extended heat wave within 6 weeks.
The previous one exceeded 40°C, and the buildings not yet had time to completely cool down from that one before the third wave hit.
I was considering putting up a tent in my garden myself, but as I own a ground floor flat, the indoor temperatures did, with the help of some additional cooling measures, thankfully not exceeded 27°C.
Plot twist: that’s just where they grow their weed.
Third extended heat wave within 6 weeks.
The previous one exceeded 40°C, and the buildings not yet had time to completely cool down from that one before the third wave hit.
No man, you didn’t have 3 heatwaves in 6 weeks. you had 1 coldsnap in 6 weeks, where the temperatures were lower than the current normal due to global warming.
27°C is still too hot to sleep in
Well, much better than the constant 32°C the neighbour in the topmost apartment had at the end of the big 10 day heatwave!
Especially when you manage to keep the humidity in a lower range.I can do it with a fan but like, it’s not a great sleep. I also forgot I turned on the timer and I woke up almost immediately when it turned off …
Be free, sleep on a mattress on the balcony!
Hammock would be the way to go!
Mosquitos: “looks like meat is back on the menu boys!!”
The only minor upside from the fact, that it also is one of the driest summers in my region so far:
No mosquitos.
Even the freshly imported Asian Tiger Mosquitos, which normally start roaming in July and need less open water, are almost completely absent (and they are only active during daytime).
Where is this? It has outdoor-style shutters and what I suspect are German-style windows behind them.
I love those outdoor shutters. Not only are they great for keeping the heat from getting inside, they also mean you can have a TV in a room with big windows. If you want to watch a dark movie, or any movie that would be ruined if things are too bright, you can also lower the shutters. They’d probably also be good in a violent storm.
Spot on, I live in Germany!
This kind of shutters are standard here and are actually great!
But during longer heat they still loose most of their advantage, as at some point the heat has just seeped through the massively build outer walls (and stays in the walls for a nice, cozy bedtime temperature of ~30°C on the upper floors…)Yeah, I lived in Switzerland for a time, and they’re pretty normal there too. When it got hot, sometimes I’d throw the windows wide open at night and let the place cool down to 20ish. Then, around 9am I’d shut all the windows and shades. I was also lucky because I had windows on opposite sides of the apartment, so I had good cross ventilation to blow the heat out.
When I’d come home it would be low-20s or mid-20s inside, while outside it was above 30. But, like you said, if the heat wave lasted too long, the concrete would heat up. I’d still throw open the windows at night, but once the concrete of the building was up to about 30 degrees, even if it dropped below 20 at night, it would still be 25ish indoors in the morning.
At that point, when it was 25ish indoors, below 25 outside (but heating up) and 30ish degrees in the walls, I wasn’t sure if it was smarter to shut everything and try to keep the warm air out, or open things and hope that the ventilation allowed the concrete to cool.
Also, at night even though cross-ventilation was a good plan, and it cooled things off, I lived in a loud neighbourhood (by Swiss standards) and it was so much easier to sleep with the windows shut. Those windows reduce the noise from outside so much.
You can kinda do some managing of when the shutters are open, half-open or closed as well as when the windows behind them are open or closed, to keep heating from sunlight outside and tilt air-circulation in favor of the colder hours but, yeah, eventually even that is fighting the wall of the building itself having warmed up.
Here in Portugal (were that kind of shutters are also very common) I did manage to, for most days of the one 40C+ heatwave we had, keep the indoor temperature below 30C, though it still creeped up (no doubt due to exactly that effect you mentioned of the building walls heating up) and after some days I actually had to use a fan to help air-circulation with the outside during early-morning and night when the air outside was colder.
Yes it looks very German: the Rolladen, the Balkonsolar and also just the steel construction style of the balcony itself
Great for sleeping in with a hang over. Wake up ready for lunch.
The picture of them at central park looks like the Jonestown aftermath lol. Collapsing in suits, oxfords and glasses
I thought that with the beach one - guys conked out on the sand with their clothes on, including ties.
In my own experience, you can do some amount of heat management with those shutters and the window by chosing when you have them open and when you have them closed - whilst without aircon the appartment tends towards the average temperature of the whole day, you can push it a bit more one way or the other by managing sun exposure and air circulation in favor of the hours when the temperature is more towards the end you want.
What I did were I live during the last heat wave (which around here had max temps above 40C) was to during most of the day keep the shutters down and the windows closed, and then during the night and in the early morning having the window open and just the holes of the shutters open (the shutters are made of strips and the are some holes between them, so when you pull them up they first just open the holes and only after all the holes parts of the strips are exposed if you keep pulling them up wil the shutters lift up - example)
In simple terms, during the hours when the sunlight would hit my windows it was hitting the shutters instead and either being reflected or converted to heat outside rather than inside (as those shutters are installed outside), and air was allowed to circulate between the outside and inside only when it was colder outside.
That said, for a couple of days I had to help the air circulation during the colder hours a bit with a fan, since just passive circulation through the half-open shutters wasn’t enough.
This way I managed to keep the inside temperature mostly below 30C, with no aircon.
A couple of nights ago 2 riders in the Tour de France (from INEOS I thought) also slept on the balcony because their hotel rooms were too hot. Amazing that these athletes, who ride for 3 weeks at insane altitude (not all the time, but still) don’t even get a good night’s sleep.
Damn, that’s actually not the worst idea…
Rediscovering of old ideas. Sleeping on the balcony is what some people did in hot urban areas for ages
Was thinking so myself.
You would have to deal with the noise, though.
It is an urban area, so quite some people packed into a limited space, all with their windows open during the evening and night (or sitting on their balconies or in their garden patches having lively conversations until past midnight…)
So I was happy not having to resort to that measure in the end :-)Or smoking 😔
Sucks not being able to open the windows because half the complex has smoke that loves to come right in uninvited.
Where I live, excessive smoking seems to be thankfully mainly a thing of the past.
At least cigarettes.
Only one regular tobacco smoker in my building, but at least two or three smoking weed…Lots of both around here, and no sense of either how strong it smells or how much it affects asthma.
Doubt, with external shutters and solar balcony
Apartment with external shutters can still overheat if situated in a strong urban heat island and heatwave endures for long time…
Yeah but it tells of a better efficiency
No, this type of external shutters is standard for German homes, so tells not much by itself.
As for the efficiency: Buildings here are mainly designed for colder weather, with the intent to keep the warmth inside and at a constant temperature (thick, massive walls and insulation on the outside). And at this, they are very efficient.
But during the recent, unusually long heat waves, once the heat managed to seep in (typically after 3-4 days), you are basically screwed, as you have no chance to lower the inside temperature without AC.
Temperature stays high even at night, trapped in the walls.
that solar is plug in balcony solar, meaning it probably doesn’t have a battery, so only works when the rest of the power grid is working. if they are in a power outage it isn’t providing power. that’s for safety reasons as they don’t want these balcony solar units to back feed into the larger power grid that would cause power companies from working on power lines
Why?
The external shutters only help keeping the sun out during daytime.
Once the walls have heated up (which takes 3-4 days, as these are massive brick walls), you have a nice constant 30°C, day as night…
Can an adult fit in that?
deleted by creator
The CBAM can’t happen soon enough!
They don’t have windows or fans or what?
Maybe just save up $200 and buy a portable AC unit instead of a tent
When it’s 40°C outside during the day and 27°C during the night the apartment doesn’t get the chance to cool down and fans only move hot air around. Portable air conditioners keep the dead alive with their noise while also cooling about as well as a wet rag. I totally understand the desperation of just sleeping outside during the night.
fans only move hot air around
That’s what I was talking about, move it out the window
I’ve tried this many times over the years but when the walls are already heated up and the temperature outside stays high during the night it makes very little difference to confort levels. The heat just radiates from the walls and heats the inside air all night. Until I got proper air conditioning installed I just suffered during the summer.
That does work (mainly at night). But it’s annoying when the walls don’t cool down. I’ve found that it’s better to have very large windows because they don’t retain the heat (just close the blinds during the day).
Have you used a portable AC made in the last decade? They’re quiet / on par with central AC these days. I have a Midea one and unless it’s on full-blast, it’s hardly noticeable beyond the sound of air moving
That is surprising. I’ve had two in the last dacade, the last one bought 3 years ago and they are around 60dB which is standard from what I’ve seen. I checked the local midea models and they still say >60dB in their spec. No decent central or split system gets close to that kind of noise and personally I find it impossible to live with.
Maybe just save up $200 and buy a portable AC unit instead of a ten
I own one. The portable ones have a rather limited efficiency. Ours brought the air temperature down to 23-24°C in the sleeping areas during the daytime.
After switching it off for the night (the things are incredibly noisy…), temperatures quickly rose to 26-27°C again (at least at reduced humidity due to the AC).
And that was in a ground floor apartment…And opening windows doesn’t really help any more if the minimum outside temp still is >20°C during the night and the air is basically motionless.
I have a split one. And an obnoxious neighbour who smokes pot and complains a lot.
I also have pot smoking neighbours. But at least they are really nice!
(I get to eat all the crazy excess foodstuff they buy while getting the munchies… 😁 )This lady (and I use the term loosely) smokes so much pot that she’s become paranoid as hell. She doesn’t eat. She only drinks vegetable smoothies.
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
Has a balcony; $200 is too much…
Balconies are pretty much standard in German housing.
Actually, interestingly they are common especially in poorer neighbourhoods (the notorious “Plattenbau-Siedlungen”).
The photo was taken in a mixed neighbourhood, with self-owned flats interspersed with social housing in the same apartment blocks.
So the argument doesn’t apply in this case…deleted by creator
