To think that houses in the UK should have window shutters on the outside?

We don’t have aircon where we live in France- very few people do but the shutters make a huge difference. If we leave them up when the sun comes around in the afternoon we really feel the difference. June has been between 30 and 35 degrees most days. I think they would make a big difference in the UK.

I've always thought that Swedish style individual awnings/canopies on each window would be great to reduce heat, here in a top floor Victorian tenement (no shutters - building for mill workers). The slightest heat outside and its 26 in here, the stone radiates heat all night (yes we have insulation but also south east facing large windows).

Properly insulated houses would keep a lot of the heat out, especially if people understand how keeping blinds/curtains and windows closed impacts on cooling.

Brise-soleil also don't suffer in high winds like awnings, because of the aerodynamics. I looked at them for our south facing elevation because our prevailing wind direction (westerly) has taken out a series of umbrellas.

It would have to be a massive one (bi-folds all along one wall) and wouldn't help the situation in the bedrooms where the windows are very tall. We do ok with our strategic blind management. 😊

@Ddakji , you might want to google brise-soleil, which are fitted externally above windows and have tilting vanes that reduce sunlight when the sun is high in the sky but allow it to penetrate during the cooler months. They don't affect opening or closing the windows at all, but are drilled into the walls.

My husband and I used to live in Egypt, where we had shutters on all the windows. It does help in moderate heat but in very hot weather like we have been having here, you would still need the A/C. It isn’t worth the expense.

We were broken into, so we have external blinds fitted over the windows and patio doors at the back of the house. They are electric, you just push a button. There’s a control in a double locked box outside the back door. I use them at night and every single time I go out.

It wasn’t necessary historically but now - it agree. We just changed all our windows to inwards, specifically so that we can install the European style metal shutters.

Wooden ones are still a no-go though. Far too wet here.

My 20 year old new build is remarkably cool inside. Maybe that’s why I’m a bit flippant. It’s a lot hotter outside. The living room is south facing but we have blinds that clip into the frame that can do at the top or bottom to stop the sun being in our eyes.

Nobody is saying someone outside southern England shouldn't fit whatever shutters they like to their house, especially when their house is a clear outlier. Crack on. But the OP is talking about building regs and standards for new builds, which is the actual generalisation here.

I find them really claustrophobic so it’s a no from me. I also don’t want inward opening windows as I like a few decorative things on my sils. I also love hot weather so I appreciate I’m weird as I struggle to understand the utter hatred of a few hot days.

I’m in Scotland . We don’t really do heat here. The shutters would get rained on so often they’d rot.

I’m not saying I would get shutters - it’s a Victorian house on the edge of a conservation area so probably outrage would ensue 🤣 but I can see that they’re a good idea and should definitely be fitted in new builds in the south east.

We’re looking into a ceiling fan, I think that’s the best way forward. For DD’s room, which is west facing, an awning would be brilliant so I will continue researching somewhere that would do a small one for over a bedroom window.

We have to get creative!!

What I’d like is a Queenslander, which is a bungalow built on stilts. Hope springs eternal 🤣🤣🤣.

Yes, if you can only open half the window, you get a layer of HOT air between the window and the shutter.

I mean this is the internet so in my defence, you never know. So if you want shutters get shutters then? But for huge windows they would be expensive, which is why they'll never be standard on new builds. If regulations change to force builders to keep the heat out, all they'll do is make the windows smaller.

Or get a ceiling fan, or a Dyson fan. These would prevent the absolute extremes of temperature and would be cheaper.

Ours hit 29 degrees last night too, despite being very sensible and using all the shading tactics.

On reflection, that was still 4 degrees cooler than outside which isn't too bad for upstairs south facing room.

Still its rainy and 20 degrees now so much nicer.

I’m sure there are excellent UPVC options nowadays - I meant more that the dampness of our climate explains why, historically, external wood fixings were not a good idea, so they never became established here as they did in drier climates.

Yes, of course! I’m not an idiot 🤣.
It’s an east facing room so curtains and windows are closed all morning until the sun moves round. But the air was so hot and still yesterday, and it has 2 huge windows. Which was probably fine when it was built in 1850 or whenever 🤣.

My Edwardian (detached) house is absolutely fine in this heatwave. It’s south facing, with huge windows on that elevation, which have shutters on the inside. They, combined with high ceilings downstairs and upstairs, big rooms and plenty of windows on the north side too, mean that despite reaching 32/33 here for days on end it’s never got warmer than 24 downstairs (bar the kitchen, which has an Aga, where the temperature has hit 27 in the afternoon. Interestingly, despite being detached, there’s only one, small, west facing window.

The windows (single glazed, wooden sash) were fully refurbished shortly after we moved in, and the insulation in the roof upgraded and there’s no problem keeping it comfortable in the winter either, with a gas boiler.

An added bonus of a south facing house with a decent size garden and no neighbour within 10 meters left or right is that the garden always has sun, yet the terrace nearest the house is lovely and pleasant in the afternoon even in a heatwave. If I want to bake I just need to move 10 meters or so up the garden 😂

External shutters on new houses would seem like a sensible addition, and a complete overhaul of the required ventilation / insulation standards. It seems as if the current regulations are not fit for purpose. I’m not sure how we (as a country) lost the ability to build liveable houses!!

Would a fixed awning outside be better for you to shade the whole area on the sunniest days?

Do you do anything to prevent that though? Do you have the blinds closed during the day to stop the sun shining in and heating up the room?

Streets should have more trees. They help keep temperature down.

Because traditionally our houses were built from materials that kept us nice and cool in summer and insulated in winter. I live in an old cob farmhouse. Cool as a cucumber here. I keep curtains drawn on summer days except in a couple rooms (that don’t have curtains) and we are never hot, even on hottest of days (house and garden both south facing).

Was speaking to someone yesterday who lives in a new build and she was saying they were roasting because the way it’s insulated, it captures heat and keeps it in.

You can't generalise like that. I live in Cumbria. We have a house where the majority of windows are south facing and very large (floor to ceiling). We might not be in the midst of the heatwave currently afflicting the southeast but we did have our own very hot spell earlier on and even without that, our windows gather every bit of sunshine going - great in the winter but uncomfortable in the summer. We use blinds and curtains strategically but shutters would be simpler. They would also be very expensive given the size of the windows.