What options against excessive heat in south-facing kitchen? Awnings window films blinds...

[ParentOfOne]

We have a south-facing kitchen which can easily get 12-14C warmer than outside. It's basically a greenhouse. Great in the winter, awful in spring and summer.

For those who have been in similar situations, how have you handled it? Other than installing air conditioning.

We are looking at:

• window films which supposedly reduce heat absorption
• retractable external awnings or just a parasol, to put in the garden and give some shade to the kitchen French doors
• blinds and shutters

We already have fans and keep the kitchen as ventilated as possible, but that doesn't do much

Any thoughts / suggestions / recommendations?

Andywarholswig. I was looking at something like this. How does it cope with windy days? We are completely open across a school field so the wind hits us with some force when it is a windy day.

without knowing size of windows etc Ikea have some very reasonably priced blinds that reduce glare but you can still see through and roll up if needed. Worth looking there. In the worst of the heat last summer, my kitchen became a furnace and we were going away, but needed to leave our house rabbits in there. My solution was using masking tape to line the glass with foil (shiny surface facing towards the outside) to reflect the light back out. it was very effective (and dark!) but as a temporary measure to make it liveable for the buns - think in the kitchen 25c while outside was 35c - it worked well. Maybe there is some kind of foil backed blind for the worst of the day? It's worth noting that in hot weather people from hotter countries know to keep curtains, blinds and windows all shut

curious79 Yes I do keep windows closed, curtains closed etc until temp drops but it means I sit in a darkened house. Very depressing especially if it goes on for days on end or even weeks.

RumbleMum. I’m really interested in the solar control glass. I can see it’s expensive but like you I have one entire wall which needs it. I can’t find a firm that fits it just manufacturers. Who fitted yours?

@Yujismum , for solar control glass, you need to pay attention to the g-value: a g-value of 1 means no shielding from the sun, a g-value of zero means almost total block. AFAIK good solar control glass has g-values between 0.18 - 0.25

I am not sure about cost effectiveness, though. In other words, is it worth spending more for a good solar control glass? Or, in a south-facing room, you will still need to block the sun with something external, like external blinds etc, so you may as well save money and get cheaper glass? I genuinely don't know.

If you do some research, please post back.

A strategically placed small tree? (Once it's grown in five years or so).

Solar blinds work well for us.

@DRS1970 Could I please ask you to elaborate? Internal or external blinds? Do you remember where you got them?

ParentOfOne. I was going to say you seem to be knowledgeable about solar glass, and ask you more info.

DRS1970. Ditto, could you elaborate please.

Can't remember who asked but this is a shade sail - I've attached mine above the sitting room window and it's come down over the winter

@Yujismum I'm afraid I don't know more about solar glass than what little I have already posted. When we bought the current windows we knew literally nothing and I regret not doing more research then. Our current windows insulate in the winter but turn the south-facing rooms into greenhouses in the summer.

ParentOfOne I have exactly that problem but mine is Low E glass. I was told when it was fitted tha5 it would keep heat in. Fine with the temperatures we were getting years ago! So just wondering if yours is Low E glass and not Solar Control Glass. Solar Control Glass being different from Solar Glass.

Thank you. We’re having the same internal blinds described here as the current blind is, to quote the installer, “as much use as a chocolate teapot” (she’s not wrong!). I can see us going for external shutters too soon and live in darkness

Small update:
I have installed, McGyver-style :) , a car windscreen sunshield, of those you apply to the outside of the car (otherwise it's pointless...) to the outside of one of the south-facing windows.

It is really, really ugly, but it does the job: the glass no longer becomes hot, while the glass of the window next to it, without this contraption, becomes boiling.

I don't know what we're going to do next summer, but this one we're not spending money on new windows or external blinds.

Also:
my account had been suspended! When I enquired, mumsnet told me their system flagged suspicious activity and they had reason to believe I have been using multiple accounts and had been banned from one of those. None of that is true. I pushed back asking for details, and they reinstated my account; they didn't apologise, nor did they elaborate on what system flagged what and how.
As far as I can remember this is probably the only thread I have contributed to over the last 5 months - solar glass and external blinds are hardly a controversial topic which attracts trolls!!!

ParentOfOne. I will look at car windscreen’blinds’ but my windows are large, have a whole ‘wall’ of them, approx 12ft wide so need a lot of covering. Agree totally that it’s outside screening which is effective. And yes again, have thought about external shutters and if the temps continue to rise as last year we shall be sitting in the dark as well. Infact I am sitting in the dark now as awning out (not windy, so good) and curtains closed.
Strange glitch suspending your account?!

I would like to add that awnings should not be left unattended, especially when there is a chance of rain. Many have wind sensor which close them if the wind is too strong but I am not aware of rain sensors.
We now have a hole because it rained a lot when we were not home, and we had left the awnings open. Too much weight = hole.

I have no idea if different fabrics would have let more water filter through instead of accumulating on top

ParentOfOne. “ it rained a lot..”
Clearly you don’t live where I do! No rain of any significance for weeks now. Grass brown, ground cracked.

Advantage of ikea triangular shade sail
Is rain falls off easily.

Agree with shade cloth. Live in Australia and it makes a huge difference for almost no cost. Can take it down whenever you want if you fit it on hooks and it still lets some light in.

Triple glazing and external blinds (roller blinds or awning or both). Weather station with indoor and outdoor temperature measurement. Open all windows very early morning, mobile fans to circulate the air, close windows and activate blinds as soon as outside temperature is no longer cooling the inside of house. Lots of tall bushy plants in garden to reduce heat glare and provide shade.

Have and do all those Cathyattie with the exception of triple glazing. Didn’t know there was such a thing. Problem is the wind. Once it gets to 20-25 mph the awning has to be retracted and for some reason it has been very windy when it’s hot here. The awning plays the major part in shading my windows.

I have made a discovery this year - in my ongoing battle with my super hot loft room. I have a Meaco fan which goes up and down as well as side to side. I have been leaving the windows, with their external shades on, open a crack with the fan going full and using all of the movement both ways, then in the evening I open the windows a bit more and stop the fan aiming upwards towards the middle of the ceiling for the nighttime. It appears to be quite effective, I assume because heat rises and so the fan is blowing the hot air out of the top of the open window, which pulls colder air in through the bottom of the window.

I haven't tested this method in extreme heat yet of course, but it's worked well thus far.

I found out that the previous owners who converted the loft put the bloody velux windows too close to one another, meaning the proper external metal shutters won't fit. I'm quite cross about it.

When I say stop the fan, I mean stop it moving so that it is stationary, blowing up towards the middle of the ceiling.

We had internal bifold shutters installed on south facing patio doors. It’s made a huge difference. (Excuse the cat in the photo - look behind it!) In early morning or evening it’s lovely having the shutters tilted open a little, to let any breeze through when the glass doors are open. Then doors and shutters both kept closed during the heat of the day.