Are your houses cool or hot in this heat?

[meadowquark]

I just moved into 1960s house several months ago. It is terribly hot inside even though we keep the windows open. I moved from a Victorian terrace which was cool if there was no direct sun shining at the room. I cannot remember boiling like this. Is it the weather, or is it the house structure?
Will I benefit from a warm house in winter?

YY to sash windows as the perfect cooling design in the UK. Never had a bad day. Fond memories.

They work as long as you can guarantee no fecker will nip in through your windows on the ground floor.

same 1960s semi that in the sun from sun up to down so last night at midnight it was still just over 30 in side, great in winter though, but a slight pain on the few odd warm days in summer

I should have put whole house air conditioning into our new build. Big mistake. London is getting hotter and hotter.

70s bungalow cool in summer and toasty and cheap to heat in winter. I have uncool but very practical vertical blinds as I have massive windows. I keep these closed on hot sunny days, works well.

I think my house is about 300 years old - two foot thick walls and stone flagstones that are like ice blocks in winter...and tiny windows.
fantastic in this weather.

My house sounds like Oodear's. The walls are really thick stone. That is great most of the time, but if we have a prolonged spell of sunny weather they start heating up...and keep hot.

It was 27 degrees in the bedroom last night; was sorely tempted to set up camp on the ground floor where it was about 20 degrees.

We had some heavy rain today so I am hoping that has cooled the walls down.

1980's box,
now we have double glazing it is cool.
windows are open from 6.30-8.30am
then windows and southfacing curtains closed
7pm - bedtime everything totally open.

yesterday it was 36 in our garden and 23 in the house. was hot but felt great in comparison to outside.

We're in a brick terrace and it started out cool but has got hotter as the week goes on. DH kept the window open at bedtime for the first time I can remember.

1950's ex-LA house here. Front is north facing, so the living room stays cool (and is bloody freezing in winter!), but the kitchen has been roasting these last few days. Upstairs seems permanently warm, as there's a hot water tank in my south facing bedroom, and the temperature in there was still at 34 degrees at midnight last night. I slept downstairs on the sofa!

I tend to keep my bedroom window open, but the curtains closed in an attempt to keep the sun out, plus, as a pp has said, opening the loft hatch seems to suck up a lot of the hot air, and I've got velux windows up there too, so that helps a bit. I'm planning on getting a canopy type thing over the kitchen window for next year to try and keep the direct sun out.

Here's a trick if the heat wave lasts a loooooong time. As the houses heat up and the walls are holding more and more heat, you can hose your house down. Yes, hose your house down. Squirt the roof and walls. If the house has really heated up you will see steam rise off the roof. That evaporation will cool the house down a bit.

No good during a hose pipe ban though, or if you are on a water meter.

1960s house here. Huge windows and loads of them. Easy to keep warm in winter and unbearable upstairs on hot days.

Does opening a loft hatch help if your loft is well-insulated and doesn''t have windows?

We have a 1920s house with really thick walls so it is cool inside. We have air conditioning for our loft room so very nice.