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.

That’s not true. Builders don’t design houses for one thing. New houses have to comply with the Building Regulations.

Overheating is addressed in new homes in the relatively new Part O of the regs. It has to be proven by a prescribed calculation or thermal modelling. There is no way to cut corners here.

Shutters are one recognised way of providing solar shading, but they’re not mandatory. The design can use a combination of glazing, orientation, shading and ventilation to comply. The design would not be approved by Building Control unless it demonstrates compliance wrt overheating.

I couldn't recall which way it was! Defo don't need that 😬

You can fit internal shutters. They fold back when not in use. Or have blinds and decent curtains. Both do the same job as external shutters and don’t need painting.

You need to let the heat out as soon as the external temperature is cooler than indoors. Then close all windows and shutters before it starts heating up mid morning. Then only open shutters and windows when the outdoor temperature has dropped below indoor temperature in the evening again. It keeps indoors noticeably cooler than outdoors.

I don't have shutters, but blackout blinds and curtains in all rooms bar the bathroom. Like a previous poster I've managed to keep indoor temperatues to 27 when outdoors it's been 34 by following keeping all windows shut, all blinds and curtains drawn before it heats up in the morning. Then as soon as temp drops in the evening all windows/doors/blinds opened for a couple of hours in the evening. Then up at 6, opening all windows and doors again. By 8.30 everything is closed and drawn, and left that way until the evening. It's been the difference between manageable and unbearable.

I've lived in several properties in the UK with shutters, older properties. As pp said loads of tenement flats in Scotland have them.
As to how do they work, well yes you don't let your property get hot in the first place by keeping them closed and doing as pp suggested re opening windows early and late.
I have used blackout blinds to similar effect this summer and my house has never been unbearably hot, dark but not hot.
Most of my neighbours open their doors and windows when it's hot, I don't understand their logic, they are literally heating up their houses.

Well maybe it's time to think about changing that. But I guess they'd need to be plastic, right, unlike most European shutters? I have wooden window frames and the maintenance in terms of painting is no joke. Add in shutter maintenance in our wet climate and I'd lose the will to live.

Air con is using electricity and many people cannot fit retrospectively. It will drain the electricity supply if we all get it. Fans and shutters are much cheaper and there’s no difference between external and internal ones. They both cut out the sun!

Yes - shutters can restrict other options at a window. Also, if you're going for the sort which fold away into the wall as in Georgian houses, that's going to be expensive so modern build-em-fast-and-sell-em-not-so-cheap firms won't want to be bothered. They'd have to employ very good craftsmen!

They were common in the past, especially when glass was a luxury only the rich could afford. But until this scary change over the last decade or so, the UK hasn't been exactly sun-baked.

And air con is basically refrigeration and will just exacerbate the problem of climate change.

@CoffeeCantata Yes so natural solutions are better!

This made me laugh!

It’s really obvious why we don’t have shutters here.

I’m mid 50s and there have only been two summers I can remember where we needed them. And both of them were recent years. And only for short periods of time.

Don’t think that’s how insulation works. It doesn’t differentiate between warm or cold.

They did once.

Op YABU I have lived in my house for 15 years, and until this year, have never needed external shutters. Some years, we havent really had a sumner.

I am looking to put some up now. But, rhis is global warming.

If someone wants to add shutters then surely they can do that, like any additional things we have on our houses we put them on or in

I've got shutters. Quite a few neighbours have external blinds on velux windows.

Has anyone tried getting planning permission to add French style external roller shutters to their windows in the UK? I have, and was turned down. So even if builders / developers wanted to add them I reckon it wouldn’t be that easy. But they do make a real difference in winter and summer.

So much warmer in winter too. Modern German houses have integrated roll down shutters, they don't need to be fixed on the outside like in France. The French ones look nicer, but not as hermetically sealing for the winter.

Well I rented a flat that had sash windows for 20 years but having functioning eyes I recognised that MOST windows open outwards ........... 🙄

I wonder if a really effective blind, which you could use as well as curtains if you wish, could be devised?

We have blinds at our windows as well as curtains (I love a bit of William Morris, me) but they are just the standard flimsy ones. I think it might be easier and cheaper for most people if something much more robust, specially designed to reflect heat, could be invented.

Colour is very important in reflecting heat. Our house faces south and I used to paint the front door dark colours, which i prefer. Immediately it all blistered. Then I gave in and had it painted pale ice blue and we've never had an issue since.

I am baffled as to why people in this country use fans in rooms with the windows open. I am baffled as to why people in this country don't close the curtains/blinds when it is really hot and sunny.

I live in a finca in Mallorca so we often have 40 degree days. I have internally opening windows and shutters but I don’t use the shutters. I have ceiling fans on all the time and houses here are built for the heat so it’s fine. I have all the windows open to allow a draft through. Shutters are very expensive and if you have wooden ones they don’t last that long in the heat. Aluminium is better but not very pretty.

External have a huge effect if used correctly and don't make the global heat situation worse.

It should be illegal to install AC to a building which doesn't use the easy the available passive cooling options first.

Sash windows are great for optimising breezes by releasing the hotter air at the top of the room and drawing in cooler air through the lower section.

A few years I went to a heritage site with a steam pump and the draught created by the large sash window at the end of the room was surprisingly strong compared to the outside air movement (although helped by the temperature differences created by the steam pump, but it did show the effectiveness of the air flow created)

Sheltering the windows externally from the sunlight hitting them is the best initial protection.

4 years ago when the record temperatures were reached, we made external screens from dust sheets draped and held in by closing the windows which did substantially filter the sun reaching the windows and delay the rooms from heating.

External shutters would be useful for heat retention in the winter as well as moderating peak summer temperatures.

The difference is inside/outside installation.

If you use blinds inside, the heat is already in the room.

If you use something very effective inside very close to the window (or directly on it), you'll reflect all the heat back on the window. If the window is double glazed, you can create so big heat between the glasses that the window will crack.

There are static heat reflecting internal window foils available which are efficient and can be easily put up and down without glue - but the heat can damage the window.