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The old-school way of keeping the summer heat out of your home

monocle.com

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Re: The old-school way of keeping the summer heat out of your home

#21

Post by zemvpferreira »

elliottkember wrote: post #6
codingdave wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that is exactly the point. Air conditioning doesn't keep heat out - it burns energy to change the air once the heat has gotten in. There are ways to keep it out in the first place. FWIW, it isn't either/or - we practice keeping the shades, curtains, and windows drawn when it is hot, open when it is cool.... and we have air conditioning. Best of both worlds.

You’re simply never going to get through to someone who has internalized the idea that AC is perfect and free. They have accommodated to the luxury and will burn the planet to keep it.

We have more energy hitting the planet every second as radiation than we can possibly use. This is a non-issue for any civilised society switching to solar.

Re: The old-school way of keeping the summer heat out of your home

#22

Post by draven »

jaapz wrote: post #16
draven wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are complimentary. Shutters reduce the amount of heat coming in. AC gets whatever heat managed to go in out. One thing I'll never understand is not having shutters, only curtains. I live in France, almost everyone has shutters. But in other countries it's often different. I lived in Thailand for a couple of years and had only curtains, so the sun would still get past the window pane, heat the curtain, and the AC…

Most of the time these things are governed by whatever's cheaper (in the short run). Maybe electrical energy is massively subsidized or just cheap in general. Installing shutters can be a large up-front investment, especially when installed by somebody else. It may take many years of burning energy with an AC to earn that back. Also maybe the home isn't even yours, but you are renting. The owner doesn't care about yo…

I thought it was more of a cultural thing, or perhaps enforced by the building code ? Here in France I've never seen a house or flat without shutters. In Bangkok, when I was looking for a condo, none of them had shutters.

A cursory web search tells me shutters can influence the DPE ("diagnostic de performance énergétique".) A bad rating means you can't rent your property.

Re: The old-school way of keeping the summer heat out of your home

#23

Post by citrin_ru »

throwawayffffas wrote: post #20
nunodonato wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

nice of you to think that by evening you get cooler air :D we have had days where the only time of the day where the outside temp was lower than indoor's was between 01-07. So either you stay up to open the windows, or wait till early morning... but then you just get 1-2 hrs before having to close everything again

Yeah, anecdotally night time temperatures have gotten much worse the last decade. But in the 90s-2010s you could easily get by without air-conditioning and no misery, with just passive temperature control.

If you live in a brick/stone hours you can still go a long way by maximally ventilating house at nigh and during the day keeping sun out (shutters, awning e.t.c) and keep ventilation minimal. It would not help if the nights are warm (so you'd need AC) but there are still many more days with cold nights and by using shutters and timed ventilation you can reduce AC energy use.

AC full on without other measures and passive thermal control techniques are no only two available options, one can combine them.

Re: The old-school way of keeping the summer heat out of your home

#25

Post by rusk »

somewhereoutth wrote: post #24

Maybe we need shade structures - a shade above/around the building and detached so that air flows underneath and there are no thermal bridges to the building proper. Like you would make to protect tents at e.g. Burning Man.

Already in widespread use https://www.sips.org/what-are-sips

Re: The old-school way of keeping the summer heat out of your home

#26

Post by exe34 »

elmer2 wrote: post #2

While all of these might offer some cooling in your home, nothing beats air conditioning.

I've put some fabric on the outside of my windows using nylon thread, a stapler and some plastic suction cups. It made the day time temperature of my living room go from about 32°C to about 23°C during a heatwave in the UK. I won't need aircon in that room now. I do have an upstairs office that will keep on getting hot, so I might get an aircon there in a year or two. But I'm not desperate thanks to a tiny bit of effort.

Re: The old-school way of keeping the summer heat out of your home

#27

Post by exe34 »

draven wrote: post #22
jaapz wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the time these things are governed by whatever's cheaper (in the short run). Maybe electrical energy is massively subsidized or just cheap in general. Installing shutters can be a large up-front investment, especially when installed by somebody else. It may take many years of burning energy with an AC to earn that back. Also maybe the home isn't even yours, but you are renting. The owner doesn't care about yo…

I thought it was more of a cultural thing, or perhaps enforced by the building code ? Here in France I've never seen a house or flat without shutters. In Bangkok, when I was looking for a condo, none of them had shutters. A cursory web search tells me shutters can influence the DPE ("diagnostic de performance énergétique".) A bad rating means you can't rent your property.

Do shutters make it worse? How? Is it just a bad metric?

Re: The old-school way of keeping the summer heat out of your home

#28

Post by JuniperMesos »

benj111 wrote: post #12
elmer2 wrote: post #2

While all of these might offer some cooling in your home, nothing beats air conditioning.

Is this an American thing? There seem to be a number of comments akin to "you'll prise it from my cold dead fingers" when that isn't being suggested.

I think it is an American thing; a principled grounded in many Americans not actually believing people like you when they claim "that isn't being suggested". Moralistic arguments that using air conditioning is harmful to society (which certainly exist in America, even if they're more common in Europe) are the rhetorical basis for actual laws regulating the use of air conditioning and trying to legally discourage its use as a matter of government policy. I have learned via European heat wave discourse that there are actually a surprising number of building regulations in various places in Europe that restrict or ban the installation and/or use of air conditioning. These kinds of laws are less common in the US, but there's definitely vocal energy conservation activists who would like to see more of them enacted here. And those are the people who the "you'll pry it from my cold dead fingers" types are opposing.

Re: The old-school way of keeping the summer heat out of your home

#29

Post by somewhereoutth »

rusk wrote: post #25
somewhereoutth wrote: post #24

Maybe we need shade structures - a shade above/around the building and detached so that air flows underneath and there are no thermal bridges to the building proper. Like you would make to protect tents at e.g. Burning Man.

Already in widespread use https://www.sips.org/what-are-sips

But there is no airflow inbetween the outside and the building core - the panels are still part of the building itself.

Re: The old-school way of keeping the summer heat out of your home

#30

Post by arcza »

Anything except using AC like the rest of the world, hey Monocle? There is no comparison, and not to mention the excellent efficiency of R-32 based super inverter systems that are no different to winter heating heat pumps. AC should be the norm in Europe, but apparently it's "far right"!
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