Please EIL5 how the external house bricks are 44 degrees when the temp is 20 degrees

[KievLoverTwo]

EIL5 for those not aware: explain it like I'm 5. Thank you to anyone who gets to the bottom of the thread.

So the other half and I have been discussing how our rental is consistently overheated in the summer. We can get up at 9am and the downstairs, with all its very thick curtains closed and no windows open, is 25 degrees, when it's 18 degrees outside, overcast and a bit grim, and has been like that for several days. The heat never seems to go away.

I've just been round with a temperature gun. Outside temp 20 degrees with a pleasant breeze, inside wall in the worst room 26 degrees, south east facing external wall 24 degrees, West facing external wall onto which the window faces 44 degrees (the sun is hitting it right now).

We have come up with the following theories:

He thinks the house is built out of INTERNAL wall bricks; he says that's okay to do (according to google), as long as they have the protective coating; but we live in a wind tunnel, everything corrodes, things that weigh a ton blow away, stuff gets heavily weathered.

He thinks all the protective coating has worn off, which is quite clear by the amount of both brick and render erosion. Kinda looks like a toddler has been at some of those bricks with a hammer and there are chunks of missing render everywhere.

Internal bricks are made to retain heat, I think? So they're holding on to it.

This is only my theory, to which I have no basis at all that I can support it with: we live on a farm*, it's been a dairy farm since the 70s, and recently the nearest cow shed got extended to be 45 ft closer to us, which puts it 70ft away from the corner of the house that gets the heat the worst. Methane causes heat. Obviously It's well known to be a contributor to climate change. So, the theory goes that after 5 decades of an excessive amount of methane in the area, it's in the ground, and it's basically constantly hot. The heat is radiating downwards, a bit like one of those everlasting volcano eruptions you see (Darvaza Gas Crater - "Door to Hell"). I've mostly just made this up, I know precisely nothing about thermodynamics!

Is any of this plausible? Something else obvious we've missed? The roof height is HUGE. It's a vast loft, probably about 12ft high in the middle.**

*opening windows works until we're driven insane by flies, which aren't caused by cattle, they're caused by zero maintenance to gutters/pipework/septic tanks - but don't worry, we ARE leaving, as soon as we possibly can. I'm just bugged with curiosity and annoyance at wtf is going on because it makes several rooms borderline unusable.

The pleasant breeze will have contributed to the lower outside temp.
Bricks do get hot, mine are definitely external brick and are hot to touch right now.
Brick absorbs the heat of the sun and hold on to it.

In simple terms, thermal mass is the ability of a material to absorb, store and release heat. Materials such as concrete, bricks and tiles absorb and store heat. They are therefore said to have high thermal mass. Materials such as timber and cloth do not absorb and store heat and are said to have low thermal mass.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z2gjtv4/revision/5

I did think they must be holding onto the heat, but what seems extraordinary is the length of time they hold onto it. It takes 48 hours of 60mph winds for the internal house temperature (sans heating) to drop 2 degrees.

I can say that with all authority because that's quite a common scenario here! Even in 'summer.'

The other half claims he can feel the heat radiating off those (hottest) house bricks when he's standing 12 feet away O_O

The methane thing is a red herring, methane is a gas, much lighter than air and it rises into the (upper) atmosphere. It does not go "into the ground". And it only causes heat if it burns - which it doesn't in a cowshed, or the cows become steak.

What's the heat rating for your home?

I'm not in the UK, but my UK house is 26.3C downstairs and 27.6C upstairs with no activity in the house, boiler not running at all. Outdoor temperature temperature is reported as 21-24C so the house is clearly retaining heat.

If you boil your kettle at might, can you still feel the warmth in the morning? it's the same thing, heat is being stored.

I wonder if the chemicals used in farming can cause heat to be retained in the ground? I get your point about methane.

I don’t know what the heat rating is. Well, it’s an EPC C, it’s a 12 yo house.

There are also lots of cracks around the base of the house and poorly fitted doors etc that I suspect let a fair amount of heat in.

The outside temperature is generally the temperature of the air.

The temperature of the bricks is a lot higher due to the radiated heat from the sun. The sun doesn't warm up air anywhere near as much as it's able to warm up the bricks (cos the air is more or less see through, the energy of the sun mostly passed through it).

Makes sense.

I forgot to mention the house has a lot of huge windows (thick curtains closed, makes no difference).

I wonder if that helps 'incubate' the heat inside, somewhat.

Can you tell that I'm clueless? :)

Thanks to those who have replied. Can I ask: do all modern houses get like this?

What makes it worse is the house is vast. 28ft x 30ft, two floors, far higher ceilings than most modern properties. Would not expect this kind of heat in such big rooms.

I remember two summers ago when we were moving out of our painfully cold stone cottage. It was 29 degrees outside and the most the house ever got inside was 18 degrees.

It was an awful house, but today I am missing it!

Maybe we just need to avoid modern houses completely for our next rental and find a leaky old Victorian house or something.

Could you plant things to block the sun from the house? I am sure I was something about climbing plants being good insulators of buildings. Or maybe just some trees to provide shade?

Yes, I had read that on here recently too.

There’s no point. We will only be here another month or two. I was trying to get to the bottom of an annoying irritant.

I think as a PP said, bricks retain heat, and if the house is built of internal bricks that are designed to keep heat inside rooms, it is doubly worse.