Adapting your home for climate change

[Spudlet]

Is anyone else thinking about ways to adapt to hotter weather? We are definitely considering this in light of the next few days, given that this cools well become a much more common event.

For our house (1930s semi) we are thinking about external window shutters, which I remember making a massive difference to the apartment I lived in when I lived in a hot country. And also removing the carpet downstairs and having hard floors, with big rugs that can be put down in winter. And if we can afford it, possibly external cladding on at least one wall to improve the insulation. That will be the most expensive job so I don’t know when it might be possible, but I think it will make a big difference.

I am also building a workspace in my garden at the moment which has a black roof - but if these temperatures become more common I’ll be painting it a light colour. And when I get plants for
the garden now I specifically look for drought resistance. My workspace will have two water butts to collect all the rain over the winter and I want to add at least one more to our house at some point too.

Is anyone else thinking along these lines?

I think it's really sensible to think like this.
Are you thinking about alternative sources of energy too? Am thinking about solar panels

yes, I’ve been contemplating external shutters on the south facing back and roof light blinds for the kitchen. All windows will also have both blinds and curtains for insulation purposes. We already use mosquito nets on the beds and have lots of water butts

Yes I've been looking things up this week. There's not many things that can be done. The main things are shutters, and ventilation. I was reading about the windows here in the UK being an issue because they open outward, so you can't have shutters down and windows open the way they do on the continent. I haven't found a company who actually does external shutters here.

My house was built in 1947. I think it's stupid though that houses being built now are not being designed better to take these sorts of things into account.

I think it was the Code for Sustainable Homes under Labour that talked about orientation and passive ventilation. Would have been normal now, along with zero carbon homes. Of course Conservatives scrapped it.

I’d like to get solar panels but I think the cost is probably prohibitive at the moment, and I’m not totally sure if our roof is oriented correctly? Some of our neighbours have a little wind turbine, but we don’t have the space. But if the cost of solar panels comes down, we’ll definitely look into it.

Solar panels are a sensible investment with energy prices the way they are

External shutter if I could. For now I have NRC foil outside the window and it does work!

We've had extra insulation put in bit by bit. There's a thinnish board stuff called kingspan which you can put in internally & that's quite good. I'm rubbish at getting work done on the house (it's our first one post renting) but cc really stresses me out & it's good to feel you're doing something

I think we will see more people using brise soleil over their windows to create shading. They look lovely when climbing flowers grow up them too so it’s win win

Careful with the external cladding. The local authority in an area we had a house in were offering this and we didn’t get it done. I’m so glad as both neighbours on either side who did now have terrible mould issues as the house no longer breathes. Make provision for good ventilation.
Ditto solar panels - my employee was looking at these - their life span varies quite a bit between brand so choose carefully.

I was reading about the windows here in the UK being an issue because they open outward

We have some windows that open inwards, and internal shutters on the ones that open outwards.

We have an awning on our big bi-fold door, which was pretty cheap (about £150 from memory) and makes a huge difference. We also have inward opening windows downstairs, the other bonus of them is it means you can have an external mosquito / fly screen. This means we can fully open the windows to cool down in the evening whilst sitting in the kitchen with the lights on. I'm assuming that as the climate generally gets warmer, flies and mosquitoes are generally going to become more of a problem.

We need to replace the upstairs windows and were literally just saying yesterday that we may actually go for inward opening ones if we can find anywhere that does external shutters. From living abroad, they make a huge difference, they are much better than internal blinds at keeping a room cool.

The good thing is that lots of the things that will help with hotter summers will also help with colder winters. We will be experiencing more extremes at all times of the year.

Other things to thing about:
planting for shade
water butts have been mentioned but having them on every down pipe will be sensible
permeable driveways will cope better with flooding
drought tolerant summer plants
door curtains
screen doors on back doors are a nice to have

Interested to hear if anyone knows a company who do external shutters.

If you Google electric blinds you’ll find lots that do external blinds in cassettes that come down like shop fronts.

wooden shutters might need to be a joiner

insulation insulation insulation
double or triple glazing
shading the windows

External shutters definitely something we will consider, we are also investing in good quality blackout curtains. Downstairs is already mostly tiled.

It's all here what home owners need to comply with for agenda 2030 justmovein.com/blog/sustainability/what-will-sustainable-homes-look-like-in-2030

Sure there will be fines for you if you fail.

We have a well-insulated house, ceiling fans and stand fans. Solar panels which feed into the grid, a huge water tank which is plumbed to the washing machine. Our front deck has an insulated roof which keeps it a bit cooler.

Lots of trees around the house and the garden is as drought resistant as possible. Basically when we're in drought, if it dies, it dies.

Living walls are supposed to be really good for temp reduction, maybe you could have a living roof on your workspace?

Obviously take a while but shade from big mature trees is very effective too!

We have an Edwardian terrace with sash windows. They are brilliant in the summer because I can slide up front and back windows to create a through breeze. Trouble is in the winter they are draughty and we have been considering replacing them with modern ones which only open in or out. Not sure what to do now!

We have wisteria on the front of the house, which does help to shade the living room window. We also have door curtains up already - they make a real difference. And we have some trees, and another baby one that’s getting bigger - not much use for the house but in time it will shade my work space, and it did a lovely job of giving me a shady patch to do some yoga in this morning. I don’t know if the roof would be strong enough for a living roof, but I might look into it.

I’m struggling to find a company that makes external shutters that aren’t just decorative and our windows do open outwards, so that will be something to think about as they reach the end of their lives and we start to replace. The shutters on my flat in Italy were brilliant for letting in a breeze while keeping the sun out. We also had huge, heavy curtains that you could close around the balcony, again keeping the sun right out while letting the air in. I wonder if external door curtains will become a thing here? Hopefully businesses will start catering to the need for these sorts of adaptations.

We’ve spent the afternoon putting in another water butt and putting a sail shade over the patio

Yes, we are looking seriously at solar panels but they're still £££.

We've increased the loft insulation signficantly.

Water butts are a must. We have demolished the ugly and pointless conservatory that took up the entire backyard and was freezing in the winter, unbearably hot in the summer, and replaced it with pergola, shade, lots of planting including vines and fruit trees and will also be setting up raised beds for veg.

We are letting the front garden go wild and installed a pond, birdfeeders, wood pile, compost heap, hoverfly lagoons, birdhouses and bee houses to try and improve biodiversity.

Ideally would like to convert the flat-roof garage into a terrace for more fruit / veg and maybe even a small turbine (if anyone's got any tips, let me know on my thread!).

Climate change and biodiversity decline terrify me. I have been reading far too much scary stuff recently but don't want to stick my head in the sand either.

Trees and plants keep houses cool. The trouble is people rip them out and cut them down so they have room for their rattan 3 piece and decking and nothing to shade the garden. If you fill a room with plants it helps keep it cooler.

How do you attach it?