To think buildings in the UK need to be adapted to this heat?

[Glaceonn]

I know I’m not alone in this, I wonder how it is in high rise flats? My flat is 40 degrees plus in some rooms. What is the answer though because air conditioning as standard would make environmental issues even worse.

There’s no air conditioning in hospitals, care homes, on the tube, buses as far as I know.

Some people simply can’t cope in this heat, I know I’m speaking from a biased viewpoint but I’m not the only one. I can’t remember the last time I wore a jacket in the day, so it’s not just ‘a few days of heat’ where I am.

It’s making me have panic attacks, there is barely any air. If it was extremely cold but we had no heating, we’d be able to expect our landlord to make the place warmer for us.

I’ve had one hour of sleep and can’t articulate my thoughts very well!

@WorldsBestBoss hospitals are always really warm.

Summer 2018 was like this for weeks, it was awful. maybe three , and there was nothing awful about it. Temperatures of 31/32 are really not that hot.

@MyDcAreMarvel UK housing and infrastructure e.g. railways aren't built to withstand temperature over about 25 degrees. This is why when it gets over that temperature in the UK roads often melt and trains have to go slow.

Trees make a huge difference so stop cutting them down! thanks I feel like I can justify the cost of removing two huge trees from our garden now . Blocking the light was bad enough but I certainly don’t want them blocking heat.

@MyDcAreMarvel

@WorldsBestBoss

It does get hot sometimes in Scotland when they built the new eri in Edinburgh it was boiling and no air con. I went in for monitoring for a few days at 37 weeks pregnant and it was awful. Not enough fans for all the patients either. I think new builds should have ways to cool down as well as retain heat.

Oh I know - I had a particularly hot night last night, but it was bearable, whereas other areas in the UK I have found unbearable.
I had my dc in a hospital in the South East in a heatwave one July.
48 hour labour with only a small fan......and they kept telling me not to drink so much water in case I needed to go to theatre! It was an experience! You'd think the ERI would be architecturally cool as it's fairly new?

Annoyingly, solar gain has only been part of the regs since 2006 and the ERI was opened in 2002. We've been trailing behind for ages in the UK.

The regs have probably only been acceptable since the 2010 update - before, if you didn't care about the environment you could get around the regs by putting A/C everywhere. Crazy to think that was acceptable not so long ago.

Myself and my partner agreed to start saving for proper AC to be installed through the house. Our bedrooms and office is on the third floor so it's just like a sauna. We both worked from our bed yesterday (coldest room in the house) with the family on

@DynamoKev

There’s no air conditioning in hospitals, care homes, on the tube, buses as far as I know

Some of the Cricle line trains have aircon.

As does the District line and I believe the Jubilee line too.

It would make far more sense if we concentrated on making our homes and public buildings more heat efficient, building new homes with high insulation, improving the insulation in old buildings with better window design and insulated roof spaces for example . We have far more cold days than hot and waste huge amounts of energy heating open air!

@MyDcAreMarvel

Summer 2018 was like this for weeks, it was awful. maybe three , and there was nothing awful about it. Temperatures of 31/32 are really not that hot.

I diaagree. I grew up with summers like that but ghat temperature feels completely different to the temperature where I was. Here it is really horrible for some reason. I think it's difference in humidity

I grew up in South Africa. There you get actual heat, as in 35 plus. And nowhere did we have air conditioning, and I didn’t know anyone who did.

Fact is that we’ve had 4 days of this heat, and by Thursday the temperature is set to drop again, then by next week people will be whinging about the rain.

The idea of putting air conditioning into houses for the sake of a few days of temperatures above 25 is ridiculous, not to mention horrendous to the environment. And air conditioning isn’t actually very good for you. Fresh air is always preferable.

Here it’s not actually the heat it’s the humidity. If the humidity was lower then the heat wouldn’t be as noticeable.

I am in heart failure and today I am extremely breathless plus swollen and my ICD has been pacing this morning. So I will spend the day doing very little, but still there’s no way I could justify air conditioning.

Tbh, as much as house design is an issue so is people's attitudes to the heat too.

People in the UK don't, in general, know how to deal with the heat because it is such a rarity for the temperature to get so high. Things like when and where to have windows and curtains open, when is the best time for certain activities (ie staying out of the sun in the middle of the day) how to keep cool (hats, cool -not cold- showers, style and fit of clothes, appropriate layering) etc. I popped to a friends house to collect something last week and it was boiling inside because she had all of the curtains and windows open "to try and get some fresh air because it is so hot" when she would have been much cooler if they were all closed

I lived in Spain for many years and over there people grow up with the heat, yes everything is designed to reduce heat - marble and stone everywhere, high ceilings, small windows, shutters built into the windows etc - but they also know how to reduce the effect with behaviour.

My DD was born there and she grew up knowing that once she got dressed in the morning she needed to close the window shutters so her room would stay cool, only open it when we got home from school and only open the windows after certain times. Her school also had rules on wearing hats at all times outside (if you didn't have your hat then you couldn't run around on the playground at breaks, you had to stay on the benches in the sun shelters), water bottles were kept filled up (and water was constantly offered to the younger children to keep them hydrated), sports/PE were only ever scheduled first or last thing so nobody was out in the midday heat etc

I live in Surrey & we've had hot summers now for the last few years so I wouldn't say this weather is a one off.
It's grim & I'm lucky I can sleep downstairs where it's cooler.

For those saying a few days of above 25 isn't bad, the problem is that some of these new build flats with lots of glass start heating up when it's 23 or 24 out, and get up to 30+ degree inside, and then simply don't cool down at night, or for days afterwards. So what feels like only a few days of heat wave to other people can mean several weeks of unrelenting indoor temperatures for us. And this is with blinds and windows closed.

@cushioncovers

For anyone saying it only a few days try doing a 12 hour shift in full PPE in a hospital that has no a/c.

I genuinely don’t know how you do it, I just want to say thanks for what you do, it’s amazing. And also to anyone who has to work with no escape from the heat in stifling clothes or uniform.

Our busses certainly have air conditioning as it's noisy as hell and utterly freezing for most of the year (and indeed now if you forget to bring a jumper or cardigan). Keep your curtains closed to keep your rooms cool and a fan or portable air conditioning unit would be helpful if you find it's a problem that lasts most Ethan a handful of days a year. I'm not sure changing the entire structure of houses is needed for such a short time especially if it made heating houses harder/more expensive for the rest of the year

It isn't just the heat that we need to consider. Living in a sealed environment isn't healthy overall but specifically now the movement of air and air quality indoors to limit the spread of respiratory infections is more clear than ever.
Years ago De Montfort university built an engineering faculty where the building design itself passively drew in fresh air at the bottom, it moved up through the building and exited at the top. It was all over the architectural press at the time.
It really is time for us to find new ways of construction for healthier more comfortable homes, with less emphasis on style over substance. I do wonder how the poor sods with bifold glass doors cope on wet summer evenings: most of a can open a window to let the cooler sit in, but they must get all the wet splash back in their house if they have to open a whole door!

Yeah, I mean I’m not exaggerating when I say my classroom must be at least 35 degrees. One child was sick yesterday because of the heat. We’re basically outside the whole time.

@MyDcAreMarvel

Summer 2018 was like this for weeks, it was awful. maybe three , and there was nothing awful about it. Temperatures of 31/32 are really not that hot.

Well to me those temperatures are too hot for comfort, even outdoors, but I accept that plenty of people love them. However, those outdoor temperatures translate into something very unbearable in my flat, and I promise you it feels like there’s no air, or that it’s burning in some of the rooms.

I have a house in the south west and we have ceiling fans. They’re pretty effective and much more cost effective than air con. We also have shutters in the bedrooms.

@AlternativePerspective

I grew up in South Africa. There you get actual heat, as in 35 plus. And nowhere did we have air conditioning, and I didn’t know anyone who did.

Fact is that we’ve had 4 days of this heat, and by Thursday the temperature is set to drop again, then by next week people will be whinging about the rain.

The idea of putting air conditioning into houses for the sake of a few days of temperatures above 25 is ridiculous, not to mention horrendous to the environment. And air conditioning isn’t actually very good for you. Fresh air is always preferable.

Here it’s not actually the heat it’s the humidity. If the humidity was lower then the heat wouldn’t be as noticeable.

I am in heart failure and today I am extremely breathless plus swollen and my ICD has been pacing this morning. So I will spend the day doing very little, but still there’s no way I could justify air conditioning.

So if nowhere had a/c, can I ask were they buildings the same as here in the UK or were they build slightly differently to allow for heat issues? Genuine question as I don’t know.

It really isn’t just 4 days a year, it’s been weeks of it being hot here because of the effect of the sun on this building. Even above 20 degrees it can get extremely hot inside.

I hope you’re ok as it sounds horrible for you with the breathlessness

Air con isn’t the answer, it’s expensive and not great for the environment.

It’s definitely possible to make houses for cold and heat. We are also in Central Europe, with cold snowy winters and hot summers. Our house is heated in winter, but when heating goes off overnight stays nice and warm.
At the moment it’s typically 30-35 degrees most days. Inside it’s 22-24degrees on average. No air con. We have thick walls with insulation, triple glazed windows, wooden shutters on all windows and several pull out shade awnings. The shutters get shut on bedrooms as the sun moves around so it’s cool to sleep, and the awnings get pulled out to shade outside terrace and the rooms inside as stops direct sun on living room and kitchen. We also have plenty of natural shade from trees in garden.

Natural low cost solutions are the way forward. Our awnings for example are about 40 years old, we will replace soon with a fancy electric version that’s larger, but we could buy the exact basic version that’s currently there for about £300. It will last years at no additional cost, and provides shade for outside and inside. Air con is a constant cost of energy. The wooden shutters are from when the house was built in the 1920s, they just require painting or varnishing every few years to look nice.

IKEA sell roller indoor blinds atm for about £20 which aren’t blackout, so you can see through them but they really help block out the suns Rays whilst letting natural light in still

@SCMocha

For those saying a few days of above 25 isn't bad, the problem is that some of these new build flats with lots of glass start heating up when it's 23 or 24 out, and get up to 30+ degree inside, and then simply don't cool down at night, or for days afterwards. So what feels like only a few days of heat wave to other people can mean several weeks of unrelenting indoor temperatures for us. And this is with blinds and windows closed.

This pretty much hits the nail on the head, it takes a very long time for the heat to go after it’s cooled down outside, and not much at all to get it to heat up. It’s relentless.

I completely agree. I work in a school and it's above 30 degrees in my office. In the winter it's freezing. I think most schools are like this.

We have it the opposite in NZ (and in Sydney when I lived there). Everyone seems to labour under the misunderstanding that we don't have winter so houses aren't even bloody weatherproof and aren't ever built with central heating.

It was 4c the other morning (headline news) and winter really only means it drops below 14c for a couple of weeks but we were bloody cold with just a log burner. We chatted about getting a heat pump (blower of hot air on the wall) but dismissed it 'for the sake of a couple of chilly weeks we may as well not bother'

@casualnamechange

Yeah, I mean I’m not exaggerating when I say my classroom must be at least 35 degrees. One child was sick yesterday because of the heat. We’re basically outside the whole time.

That’s awful maybe outdoor teaching as standard is the way to go when it’s this hot?