Please tell me how to survive in a West facing kitchen

[Sunsetsarehellinmyhouse]

I'm losing the plot.
It's actual torture.
Every time it's time to cook dinner from June to early Sept I am on the brink of a meltdown after an hour in my west facing kitchen. The back wall that faces the sun is 8 foot wide and all glass. Glass back door. Glass big window. No actual wall.
The sink is underneath the window, facing the setting sun.
The length of my kitchen is 10 foot and there's nowhere I can stand to escape the sheer intense heat burning into my kitchen from 5pm onwards as the sun lowers until it is directly opposite my kitchen.
I sweat. I wince. I wear sunglasses inside. My legs get sunburn from standing at the hob or worktops as the sun penetrates in to the room.
I can't cope.
I can't cook and wash up earlier in the day cos I'm at work.
I can't cook later at 8pm once the torture is over because my young DC need dinner at 5 or 6 pm latest.
If I leave all the washing up till 8pm by then I'm doing bedtime with DC and don't get back downstairs till gone 9pm and by then I'm knackered with a headache due to the intense heat torture of the kitchen earlier on.
HTF does anyone cope with a tiny box sized west facing kitchen with a glass back wall?
Blinds don't make it any better because I need the glass door and window open for ventilation otherwise I can't even stand in there.
I feel like crying.
Never thought about this when we viewed the house in November.

Do proper research before you discount an awning. We had a ridiculously hot south west facing glass wall. Popped a very expensive automatic awing just above the ground floor windows and the whole house was cooler. Amazing.

Shading the windows from the exterior cuts out 80% of solar gain, shading windows using interior blinds cuts out only 10% of solar heat gain.

Further cooling strategies are:

1. evaporative cooling (water outside the windows like a paddling pool, spraying the patio with the hose pipe periodically etc).
2. evapotranspiration: lots of greenery outside the window also cools the air locally outside. Large pot plants on the patio will shade both the patio and your house. A hot patio will act like a radiator storing heat throughout the day that’s then released into the air later on in the evening and can make a west facing space much hotter.
3. shading the exterior of the building as well as the exterior of the windows will also help. A large sun sail where you can change the angle rather than just window shading would help a west facing room.

You could also plug in an air fryer and use it in a shaded space outside to stop heat from cooking warming the kitchen even more.

Exactly this. If you shade your outside wall and patio during the hottest part of the day, the evening will be cooler as a result - even when the sun is lower and shining through your windows.

You want to stop the outside concrete patio and your exterior wall acting like a big hot radiator that heats your room in the evening as the heat transfers inside.

Heat travels by radiation (the sun), conduction (heat moving through materials) and convection (heat moving through the air). Visible light is only one method by which heat moves. It’s possible to let sunlight into the room in the evening AND have a much cooler space if you shade the exterior patio, windows and wall during the hottest part of the day.

Yes, this is key. You need to keep the sun from reaching the glass. Interior blinds even UV or blackout don’t work as well as the glass is hot.

We are in a new house and our architects were clear that the heat needed to be stopped before it penetrated the glass and therefore exterior blinds were the answer. We had them fitted to some windows during build but once we moved in had them fitted to all windows. They are amazing, they stop heat coming is so during heatwaves our house is cooler than outside. We have a lot of glass and it’s all floor to ceiling. They allow light in so it’s not dark in house. They also do not allow people to look in so allow privacy. They are pricey but worth every penny. They make the house really comfortable. We have solar sensors so blinds come down when sun out / we are away and so house is cool when we get home. We also have in an app so we can control while we are away. I was worried about wind but apparently they can withstand a hurricane wind! They are sleek and look lovely outside as well. There are various companies doing these - we used a company called Kensington Blinds. If you go on the website you will see case studies.

We are in a new house and our architects were clear that the heat needed to be stopped before it penetrated the glass and therefore exterior blinds were the answer.

They sound really good, it’s amazing how many architects design houses and extensions without adequately considering the heat/light.

Already been said, but put blinds up if nothing else.

When I know it's going to be really hot, I get up early on the first day and cook chicken, salmon, boil eggs and cook something like potato/pasta/coucous all in one go, maybe a homemade quiche if not in a rush. That way, I can avoid cooking anything for a couple of days as we've got plenty of cold options.

If hot weather goes on a while and we need other options, it'll be something like pizzas don't take too long to cook, and you can prepare

Get some heat reflecting film on your bifold doors and the windows, they're on permanently so you don't need to faff with opening and closing etc also for hood measure get an awning, it will make a huge difference.

as a long term solution, plant some trees which will eventually make your garden shady and therefore possibly cool your kitchen down somewhat

im in the same position as you except with a south facing garden, I'm looking to get all this stuff done.

Oh my goodness SO many amazing suggestions on here! Things I hadn't even thought of!
Thank you all SO MUCH!
I'm rushing off to work now after a busy morning getting DC into school but later I'm going to sit and research all your different ideas and decide on something or more likely a combination of a few of your ideas.
I feel hopeful now! Thank you!
I'm also calmer this morning, as I'm in a completely shaded cool kitchen as we speak and it's heaven. Last night when I posted I felt like my brain was actually genuinely physically too hot, I couldn't cope, and was overly, horribly stressed and upset.

It's not very pretty, but will get you through the next few days: spray your windows with water and put foil against them. It's something I saw on social media from Paris when temp was over 40 degrees. I've done this on two windows which are not double glazed (rest are), and it does make a difference. It is giving a drug farm vibe, but it does stop the heat.

Hi OP, 👋
I haven't read TFT, just your replies, so not sure if this has been said but...
I still use my slow cooker in summer, for this very reason! 🥵
I get too hot, so I will either pop it all in the night before, so it's done for the next day
Or I prep everything the night before, so its ready to plonk in the slow cooker the next morning. 🙌
Think pulled pork, bolognese, and my pal in work always does salmon (which I'm yet to try in the SC).
Hope that helps 💐

ETA: BBC good food do some nice slow-cooker summer recipes 😋
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/summer-slow-cooker-recipes

@Sunsetsarehellinmyhouse

AC and awning.
AC will make a difference to the room temp.
Awning for shade/not being blinded.

OP - similar issue with creating shade in my garden - we built a thin brick planter and then planted bamboo in it - creates a lot of shade! Brick planter around 1.2 meters tall! Also helped!

we got a handyman that was an ex bricky locally - not as expensive as I thought!

Best of luck OP! 😇

I had this for 6 months when we were getting a new kitchen built - horribly hot summer. The temporary kitchen was a tiny windowless room next to the boiler that still came on for hot water. It was absolute hell. You have my every sympathy. We spent a lot of that summer BBq-ing outside.

Your are panicking as you cant see a solution but an awning will keep the room cooler until the evening, when you can pull.down blinds if the sun is very low

Air conditioning unit will help

Air conditioning unit,plus awning plus blinds will together make it much much more bearable

@Sunsetsarehellinmyhouse roller blinds are a great solution. I have them and they work well as I also have a lot of glass in the kitchen. You can get sunshade and full light block out ones on the same roll and have one or the other down. I actually keep the sunshade ones down all the time. I can see out but it stops the glare. Aircon is also necessary at the hottest time of the year.

Thanks very useful.

I feel for you OP! We have blinds and yes they block the sunlight but it doesn't feel any cooler. I believe it's due to the sun still hitting the glass on our windows & doors which magnifies it, so out of desperation (& budget!) I found a huge white tarpaulin sheet in the shed and have hung it over the glass doors (trapped it in the top of the doors when you close it so no hooks needed), it hangs down fully covering the doors & this keeps the sun completely off all the glass!

On the smaller windows I've even used sheets of white printer paper sellotaped together & blue tac'd them on the outsides to cover all glass.

No it doesn't look great, but at this point it's about surviving this heat, not being house proud. I'll have to look into the shade sails PP mentioned, as shutters, installed awnings or AC is too expensive.

Also, most of our bedroom windows are West facing too 😓

What about Night and Day Blinds?

We have a manual awning much cheaper than an electric operated one think we paid about £200.00 so could be a cheaper option for some.

everyone's probably already said this but:
anti-sun film on the doors and window
do the kids a cold meal - pasta salad, chunks of cheese etc. prep in the morning and put it in the fridge
Have cold food yourselves later
buy a fan/air con unit

When the sun gets to your eyeline, as cantilever parasol that you can tilt could block that out.

Also as others have said, we have a big sail shade that makes a massive difference - you can fix the third point of the triangle on the ground (so two points above the door and windows and one on the ground.

The UV films that go on the outside of the windows are genuinely amazing. Don't do putting stuff on the inside as it will just increase the heat of the window itself and sometimes they can crack.

Also, food like potato/pasta/couscous salad that you can prepare earlier but eat cold.

As others are saying, huge outdoor shading needed. Temporarily I would be leaning big OSB boards covered in white cloth against the wall/window and creating a total block from the sunlight with a gap behind for airflow.

But, fundamentally, the issue is the trend for excessive floor to ceiling glass, hard landscaping right up to the window and similar. We have known since conservatories and greenhouses were invented that this led to massive overheating (and massive heat loss in winter). We have know that traditional houses with smaller windows, planting against the wall, shade from trees and hedges etc were cooler. So many people have been suckered into paying ££££'s for something that will need to be ripped out and replaced, all because it 'looks nice'.

If I lived in the SW now, I would be putting huge effort into climate adaption. We are expecting (early models, so not reliable) through August into September this year. Our forecasts of climate change say these heatwaves will become more common, last longer, and have higher peak temperatures. We know that this months heat waves are nothing compared to what is to come. We know that within 25 years we will have seaside areas being abandoned by rising sea levels, that many south east UK city centre spaces will be unbearable in the summer, and that a mass change of our geography will be starting. Europe will be similar...Living on north eastern edge of the Scottish central belt, I think I have about won the climate change lottery....