To feel baffled as to why buildings don't have shutters in the UK

[DontSingSusan]

I just find it baffling that virtually no buildings in the UK have shutters.

I get that the climate is changing and they wouldn't necessarily have been needed in the past but why don't new builds have them?

Every time there's a heatwave, people are going on about AC, but shutters are a much easier, cheaper and more climate-friendly option.

It's really striking in the UK as everywhere else in Europe seems to have them.

We've got temperatures around 40 degrees all week (not in the UK) and couldn't survive without them.

External shutters are supposed to be much better because the sun doesn't get through the glass. Apparently internal blinds block 25-40% heat, external blinds they can block up to 95% of heat.

How do shutters even compare to an aircon? They trap heat and don’t do much in keeping a place cool.

It’s not uncommon for much older houses to have shutters.

Possibly more in the interests of keeping heat in rather than out. Who knows.

I had proper traditional internal shutters in one of my old tenement flats in Edinburgh. They were amazing. Room was pitch black at night, and it kept out a lot of noise. Not sure they did much about heat, but I’d say that was rarely an issue in Edinburgh.

I also dont get this, especially as we used to have shutters much more until around the 1850s.

They are great insulation for heat and cold and it gets properly dark at night.

I lived in Germany for a bit and there windows were so good compared to ours all round.

Because the weather in the UK Is usually shite 12 months of the year 🤣 it’s only the past few weeks that the weather has warmed up a bit!!
Next year may be like any other year and we’re lucky if it hits 30c!!

Why are you 'baffled'?

The sensible and logical explanation is that we're only just starting to notice climate change, so shutters haven't been necessary up to now. If summers like this become a pattern, perhaps they will become commonplace.

True! I love Auld Reekie but it's not a hot location.

Temperature difference with/without shutters/air con. Shutters stop it getting hot in the first place, but yeah if it's already got hot you are done for.

I’ve just been in a Portuguese place with external shutters. It was a flat in a small block for reference. I’m slightly on the fence about them. The weather was cooler there than the UK ( 26 /27 degrees ) and there was a breeze but even with tiled floors it didn’t feel that cool ( shutters down when the sun was out and up later ). There were very specific instructions for using them because breakages require a specialist blind repairer. Im going to have to look at the photos of the older buildings to see what they were using.

I used to live in a Victorian house with the original wooden shutters which folded back into the sides of the bay window.
Lined curtains proved to be better, both in summer and winter. However, that was when it was rare for the temperature to reach 30°c, and when hot weather tended not to last more than a few days.

We have those metal shutters in our southern Europe house. You have to carefully pull a pulley to get them down. The windows are slide across ones to accommodate them. Wouldn’t be any good in our freezing temps.

Internally opening windows don’t work well with rain because any rain already on the windows drips inside the house when you open them. Not too bad if your house has a European tiled floor in every room, rather more problematic if your house has British carpets and wooden floors. Obviously the way to get around that is to build the roof at a shallower gradient and build deeper eaves, just like they do in Europe. That way the windows are more sheltered from rain fall.

So buy your shutters, but also buy new windows and / or new floors and a new roof too which would require planing permission because you would be completely changing the aesthetic too.

And you would lose your loft with your new shallow roof so you would have to build a basement, just like the Europeans do. Expensive shutters.

Planning takes a while to filter through and the architecture of housing has been pretty much the same for decades.

We are also more geared up to combat the cold rather than the heat in this country.

I do think that there should be adaptations though, roofing with solar, batteries (as standard enforced by planning law) plus shutters as you say.

Because at some point in history shutters instead of curtains implied you are poor. And in the UK we haven't had the weather where shutters were useful.
Loads of modern French, Belgian and German houses come with double or triple glazing, open outward and have metal shutters built into the window frame. They are not attractive from the outside though.

I think OP means external shutters which work much better than internal. With internal, the heat is still trapped next to the window and rises up into the room - a mini radiator really.

From memory that solar ordination was to have big south facing windows to reduce heating demands. My large south facing windows have turned that room into a furnace in this heat and Im looking for not too ugly long term solutions now.

Yes, I understand that, we had them when I lived in Germany. I am just supporting the points that they've not really been necessary until now.

Yes, we can say that the UK is build more against cold than heat - but still, the number of posters with single glazed windows and cold draughts is surprising.

Central Europe, external shutters were common here in past to protect windows during storms and to be closed in the winter - if the snow went up to the window or it was just very cold.

After the modern heating they are less comnon, but coming back to suppport in the summer.

And yes, it would be good if everyone considered passive cooling before going for AC. I was surprised how much good external shutters did in Spain/Italy when used correctly.

I love those big old shutters and yes it was very much more about keeping heat in

I remember staying in a very old stone house in the Middle East. The walls were built to funnel through air and drafts. There was a courtyard in the middle which was pleasant to sit in. No air con, but very comfortable.

Retractable awnings are what you need, fairly pricey but easy to retrofit. Look at any old photo of your local High Street and almost every shop had them to keep the sun off goods displayed in the window.

Yes, they were a great idea. Shops always used to have them.

'Baffled' is maybe the wrong word (too much MN!)

I can see that historically, the lack of shutters was cultural. And retrofitting is obviously complex and costly. But with climate change I think they're now a necessity on new builds although you rarely see them.

As other posters have pointed out, it's not just about temperature, but also light and security.

I never understood a) why the UK is going to be at the forefront of 'blocking the sun' when we are renown, throughout the world and time, for lacking sun most of the year - surely other countries would be more suitable for this ridicilous experiment b) solar panel reliance - see point a c) wind turbines - what wind, ffs

There have been exceptionally hot summers in the UK, for the UK where this type of thing is not common but not unheard of, but shutters aren't something I would expect to see, as a result.

Those are more prevalent in places like Malta, Italy, Israel etc. We just don't have that climate.