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.

External shade. Blinds will take you so far, but to have any real effect the shade needs to be external.

Not sure if you are being sarcastic!

If not, you are very welcome.

If you are, I'm not sure why. This was the closest image I could find to the lean-to pergola dh has built on our house in France which gets very fierce sunshine in the afternoons. It's now lovely and cool in the kitchen, and pleasant to sit out on the terrace whereas before it was unbearable.

Get window tinting, it reduces glare and heat, many local firms do it.

I have the same set-up, and I am saving up to buy those external metal roll-down shutters that everyone has on the outside of their windows in Spain. They make a MASSIVE difference. And there’s a setting on them where you can roll them down but have ventilation holes open. Although, once it’s hotter outside than in, you MUST close the windows. Then open them when the sun has gone down.

Until then, other tips I picked up from living in Spain: try to use your cooker as like as possible. Air fryers and slow cookers are very useful for that. And maybe just leave the washing up till the morning in summer?

Our kitchen/diner is super long with a skylight (luckily with a blind), a window, and bi-folds. All facing south or west. I have decided that I need to stop being a snob about vertical blinds but to invest in some so we can open the door but also adjust depending on the light.

I'm originally Australian and always find it hysterical that here we are obsessed with light and big windows, whereas hot countries build with shade in mind. So you get Brits complaining when they want to buy in these places that they are too dark.

Apart from that picky bits are your saviour. No one needs a hot meal in this heat. I made a rice salad recently which was cooked rice (cooked early) tomato, cumber and other salady bits. And had it with salmon. If you do want to cook, an air fryer is your friend.

Love this thread. Problem solving at its best.
My contribution.
Like others have said, an Awning. This style linked. AND then at the end of the reach of the awaning you place those trellis planters others have linked, on wheels, on your patio, for that low sun you describe.

This year, before anything grows use the greenhouse shade netting/mesh across the trellis.
www.blinds-2go.co.uk/awnings?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21455416685&gbraid=0AAAAAC9DimaaDWqsx6KoNRJF27R90GBro&gclid=CjwKCAjw6rfSBhAqEiwA_yocpsa0vYo76d8nikgBvw9MD1WYfZljkujrA27uevi1FI3QVWGOjXmzURoCAZAQAvD_BwE

Have a Pergola built, attached to the wall, and grow dapply, smelly honeysuckle all over it. Failing that, just buy an awning.

All I can think of is Lady Catherine de Bourgh sweeping into the sitting room at Longbourn and criticising the aspect. Hopefully this thread has been more use than her.

I mean it would be pricey but can you replace the glass with doors with integral blinds? You can still have the door open a fraction, blinds still working?

We had them and they were excellent.

**

Curtains or blinds inside. Shutters outside.

You can rig up your own outside protection with sheets or duvet covers or old curtains.

Like these?
https://www.robertdyas.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=sail+

@Sunsetsarehellinmyhouse T
You need to block the sun out, that's what is making it so hot. Try getting an awning? Other solutions include parasols, we have reflective film on south facing windows and that works. Tall plants in pots to shade the window. Even taping cardboard onto the outside of the window temporarily on the hottest days - use masking tape as it doesn't leave a mark. Can you get blinds inside too?

Cooking wise, don't cook on the hottest days, have picnic food instead. Microwavable rice for a side dish avoids cooking. Air fryer is good too.

All our windows are on the east and west of the house. It's absolutely relentless. It's horrendously ugly, but we put reflective sheeting on the outside of the living room window and it's lowered the indoor temperature from 35C to 28 because the sun just bounces off it. Could that be a temporary option?

If you have a concrete patio, you can plant tall and fast growing plants in pots. Bamboo for example can be very tall and can create shade.

Great ideas

Cheap solution is to buy a large camo net and hang it on the outside wall over the entire glass section. Gives a lovely dappled shade indoors and the wind passes through it.

It’s too hot for cooking. I’m disabled I struggle in the kitchen so do chopping etc in the lounge at the table as it’s easier than manoeuvring the kitchen

I really feel your pain as I’ve just had a glass roof removed from the back of my Southwest facing garden room which is open plan to my main living area. Literal hell. I used to love September being over and the dark nights setting in!

I'm so excited by all these excellent ideas, thank you, I'm loving reading them!
At work on a quick tea break at the moment and reading through.
Can't wait to properly start researching all the ideas tonight!
One thing I won't be doing is air con. Would feel better working out a green solution, not adding further to the climate change problem by having air con installed. But all the other suggestions are bloody brilliant!🤩

We left it too late to get a permanent solution in this heat wave for our bifolds, so I thought I'd share this solution, which is working well.

We've put up some 4mm thick foil insulation of the sort that goes behind radiators. We've attached it with 40mm clear suction pads. We have three bifolds, and each bifold has two pieces of foil. We can take the foil off in sections, as the sun moves round.

This actually still lets light through, and reflects light from our ceiling velux.

What you can do today is hang dust sheets from the top windows (if you have them), dangling down to cut out the worst of the direct light. That's what we did last heatwave, it made a HUGE difference.

Why are you cooking for over an hour, let alone in this heat? Sandwiches and snacky meals only in summer.

Has anyone got external wood shutters our Italian neighbours put them on their windows. When they moved did the same thing to their new home. It made such a difference.

Ive long thought these massive glass slab 'walls' are a nightmare in the sun, it doesnt attract me in a property.

Im picturing you next week OP, dragging big pots full of trees onto the patio, putting up your new awning, wheeling around your new parasol, draping your duvet covers over things and spraying the ground and windows!!!

You'll end up having to put a jumper on!!