Heatwave Help | Reducing Overheating in Your Home
Mattinson Associates, Architects and Interior Designers on the Isle of Wight have compiled some simple, cost effective measures to reduce overheating in your home this summer during a heatwave.After the scorching heatwave earlier this month and then torrential rain, our weather is becoming more extreme and sporadic than ever. Typically in Britain, our homes are built to retain heat, so when we are facing temperatures of up to 40°C, our homes are uncomfortable. Ventilation
- Opening up windows can help reduce the heat of your property by preventing the build up of humidity and increasing air movement. Although opening a window when it’s hot sounds obvious, there are ways to be more strategic such as opening windows on both sides of the property to increase a through-draft, opening the windows towards the wind direction and opening a skylight to let the hot air out.
Shading
- Sun coming through windows will heat anything it touches, particularly in more modern homes where triple and double glazing is installed causing minimal heat to escape. To avoid excessive build up of heat, simply tilt your blinds or close your curtains slightly to increase shading.
Standby Electronics
- It might sound silly that leaving a tv on might be the cause of your hot home, but actually when you consider the amount of electronics on standby regularly, such as fridges, dishwashes, washing machines, computers etc, you can understand how once added up the emitted heat is high. Although we’re not recommending turning off your freezers and fridges, it might be worth having a wonder around your property and simply turning anything off on standby - you might even save a penny or two in the process!
Planting
- Indoor plants keep buildings cooler in warm weather by consuming hot air thus cooling the air around them. A bit skeptical? Studies have found that the correct use of plants can reduce air temperature in an office by as much as 10°C - check out this article by House Beautiful for their recommended plants to keep a house cool https://www.housebeautiful.com/uk/garden/plants/a22048437/house-plants-cool-home-heatwave/
Using a Fan
- To reduce the temperature of a room particularly at night, we would recommend facing a fan out the window. This way, the hot air is drawn out through the fan, the cool air replaces it and the room temperature should fall.
We hope you’ve found our top tips in ways to reduce overheating during a heatwave helpful, however if you think you need a little more assistance in spatial planning or perhaps remodelling with improved glazing in your home, find our contact details here: https://www.mattinsonassociates.com/contact/