The heat

NotSpaghetti

What a great excuse to eat crisps David

A bag of crisps only adds 0.16gr 3% of daily needs, it's surprising how much salt you need if you are eating a lot of fresh fruit & veg, even cereals and bread much less than I expected.

We eat very little processed food and no ready meals

What a great excuse to eat crisps David

I don't worry about spending inheritance money, my children are better off than me. I still work at 75years old so use it to make life easier & safer by adding home adaptations for future use. Thanks for the amazing suggestions blackout blinds do the trick, keeping temps down internally.

We too have huge awning with lights. First thing we put it out with the touch of a button, put our big fan on and the room stays cool all day.

Hopefully a normal Summer week now, tho temps of around 30c for next weekend.I expect we will have adjusted more to the heat by then.

We have a large glass roofed conservatory. It used to be freezing in the winter and boiling in the summer. We had an air-con installed three years ago. Marvellous …the conservatory is usable all year.

Pimmi

We're just back from Holland and France - exterior metal roller blinds are the norm there. I wonder if these can be retro fitted to windows?

That was mentioned on BBC London News. Some of the Councils there are considering installing these on their blocks of flats as air con is expensive to install, run and maintain.

We have a big open plan living area and lots of windows with the sun on them until midday. Blinds pulled down on 2 big windows helped this last week but that wasn’t enough to keep the heat out. We bought a portable aircon unit which has to have a tube to the outside through a partly open window. It has helped quite a lot so is a good investment for the future although hope this won’t be needed too often. Thanks to those who have posted about salt intake - I came to the conclusion that our inability to think straight was something to do with that so we’ve addressed it with extra in cooking, crisps and salty crackers.

I fitted perfect fit blinds too, on our kitchen patio doors. Thinking of spashing out for some for the living room patio doors. We have vertical blinds there at the moment, they are a nuisance when the doors are open & let a lot of sunlight in when it's too hot.Inherited from last owner.

Oh for goodness sakes.
New phone, new fingers, and new eyes needed.

Just had a anall clap if rhundee here.
It doesn't feel like nearly enough!

Iam64 we have a kitchen like yours. We bought, and fitted ‘perfect fit’ blinds. Help keep the heat in in the winter and have kept the kitchen coole in the dreadful heat we had last week. I also kept a velux in the roof open for any hot air to escape. This year we had perfect fit shutters fitted to all the south and west facing windows. They have been very successful at keeping the heat down in those rooms.

We're just back from Holland and France - exterior metal roller blinds are the norm there. I wonder if these can be retro fitted to windows?

We have very large south facing windows in our Scottish home, nothing between us and the Irish Sea. We have wide slatted Venetian blinds that are left down and upward tilting during the sunniest days. This does work well, although we are experiencing exceptional heat.
In the winter they are pulled up to allow any radiant heat from the sun

Thanks Bazza. I designed our kitchen big extension ten years or more ago. Love it. It’s so well insulated our heating bills didn’t rise despite its size. This is the first year the heat has been a problem. It’s unusual here to get such high intense temps over several days.
If I can avoid it I’d rather avoid spending yet more of the children’s inheritance. I imagine canny house buyers would anticipate the impact of big heat. I would

My kitchen sounds a lot like yours Iam64 and we’ve just had solar reflective film fitted. It has bought the temperature down somewhat but not enough in this exceptional heat. It wasn’t expensive so may be worth doing. You can see through it from the inside but not from the outside.

The foil blankets sound like a good idea, bu I am not sure how I would fix them. The wind is strong so it would have to be a method which would not tear the blanket. Can anyone share any tips please?

Blinds and an outside shade - anything to keep out the sunlight!
My daughter has a fabulous triangular ‘sail’ - it’s outside but keeps the lounge area shaded

Certainly fit blinds on the Velux windows, but on any window you can actually reach, outside shutters are more useful for keeping the sun out, and the temperature indoors reasonable.

Unfortunately, outdoor shutters and casement windows that open outwards are not on speaking terms with each other.

This means you either need casement windows that open in to your room, which will be well-nigh impossible to find in the UK, tthough the are standard fittings in Germany and the Netherlands, or you sill need to do as Spaniards do, and simply take your windows off their hinges at the start of the hot weather and put then on a gain come autumn.

My daughter has fitted solar reflecting film on her second storey windows.
She says it made a huge difference.

To add, you can but separate ready made thermal linings that just hook on the curtain tape.

I have thermal lined slatted blinds plus thermal lined curtains. Together they keep the cold out in winter and a great help in this weather. I have thermal curtainsin my sitting room that help too. Unfortunately this extreme heat in my area has been brutal, 37⁰ yesterday! I'm so longing to get up in the morning to open the blinds all day.

Ive just calculated the salt content in my usual breakfast and lunch this week
Yoghurt and fruit plus a salad sandwich for lunch - only 1 gram
Fish salad planned for supper, also low in salt. Recommend minimum intake for an adult is 4 gram, so I do need to add

The last 2 days it has been windy so much better than no wind we have lined curtains and a ceiling fan over the bed so we can sleep. So it's up early a do what's needed in the garden then watering after supper
We do need to watch our salt intake, if we are drinking a lot of water and eating salads every day. We need 6grams each day, Ive been adding extra and I do feel better despite the heat

Thanks vegansrock. My husband fitted an awning which was good till it fell off. DIY never his strong point

I have found a good handyman, due to do some work here so I’m going to ask him about a pergola