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?

@BewareTheBeardedDragon Do you mean that you point the fan so it moves air upwards and towards the window or upwards and away from the window?

On a similar note, sash/guillottine windows which open from both the top and the bottom are brilliant: this so-called "Victorian air-conditioning" works by creating a breeze between colder air at the bottom and hotter air at the top

@12roundsofwhitelowfatspread
I have internal shutters, similar to those in the picture with the cat, in an office loft. They help with the light but make absolutely zero difference with the heat. Even when they are closed, the loft easily reaches 32C when outside it's only 24-25C

The only thing which has helped a bit is adding a car windscreen sunshade on the outside of the windows - we go back to the point that you want to stop the sun from heating the windows because, once that happens, there's very little you can do. But, unsurprisingly, in the loft this helps less than on the first floor.

@ParentOfOne the fan is on the opposite side of the room from the window, directed towards the window side but up towards the ceiling. My velux windows can be opened hinged in the middle so that there is a gap at the top and another at the bottom - similar to the old box sashes as you describe. This may also help - but in my loft it doesn't work alone, it needs the fan as well.

Have three (two elderly dogs to keep cool as well as myself) Meaco fans which are excellent but of course they don’t actually cool the room, just whoever they are pointed at. Loft has Velux and a large dormer window directly opposite so I open both which creates a through draft and manages to keep loft at bearable temps but I’m not using loft at the moment other than a bit of a store room. It’s not possible to have a sail as I can’t fit it myself and just not practical solution for me. Strange how internal shutters working for one and not another. (Cat lovely btw, though probably dreaming of lying in sun and wondering what the pesky shutters are, being a desert creature).

"Strange how internal shutters working for one and not another."
Without being a scientist, I suppose two things are at play:

1. once the sun has heated the windows, the heat from the windows radiates to the rest of the room; putting blinds or shutters inside the room does little to nothing to limit this
2. Putting internal blinds or shutters, however, does limit the extra light that comes in, and therefore does limit additional overheating (to an extent) by blocking additional sunlight

Whether blocking 2) while leaving 1) mostly unaffected does much or not will be a function of the specifics of the room and your own tolerance to heat (which varies hugely from person to person).

I would guess perhaps your loft is also suffering from hot air rising into it from the rest of the house maybe?

Our shutters on large south-facing ground floor windows definitely make a big difference - if left open, the room gets hot even from winter sun. As you suggest, they need to be closed quite early on very hot days; they then seem to reflect a lot of the heat back out.

Will definitely be trying the external velux blind someone suggested.

We’re also putting in some large planters full of tall grasses, outside big windows, to try and shade the glass a bit.