Third extended heat wave within 6 weeks.
The previous one exceeded 40°C, and the buildings not yet had time to completely cool down from that one before the third wave hit.
I was considering putting up a tent in my garden myself, but as I own a ground floor flat, the indoor temperatures did, with the help of some additional cooling measures, thankfully not exceeded 27°C.
Third extended heat wave within 6 weeks.
The previous one exceeded 40°C, and the buildings not yet had time to completely cool down from that one before the third wave hit.
No man, you didn’t have 3 heatwaves in 6 weeks. you had 1 coldsnap in 6 weeks, where the temperatures were lower than the current normal due to global warming.
27°C is still too hot to sleep in
I can do it with a fan but like, it’s not a great sleep. I also forgot I turned on the timer and I woke up almost immediately when it turned off …
Well, much better than the constant 32°C the neighbour in the topmost apartment had at the end of the big 10 day heatwave!
Especially when you manage to keep the humidity in a lower range.
Where is this? It has outdoor-style shutters and what I suspect are German-style windows behind them.
I love those outdoor shutters. Not only are they great for keeping the heat from getting inside, they also mean you can have a TV in a room with big windows. If you want to watch a dark movie, or any movie that would be ruined if things are too bright, you can also lower the shutters. They’d probably also be good in a violent storm.
Great for sleeping in with a hang over. Wake up ready for lunch.
Spot on, I live in Germany!
This kind of shutters are standard here and are actually great!
But during longer heat they still loose most of their advantage, as at some point the heat has just seeped through the massively build outer walls (and stays in the walls for a nice, cozy bedtime temperature of ~30°C on the upper floors…)Yeah, I lived in Switzerland for a time, and they’re pretty normal there too. When it got hot, sometimes I’d throw the windows wide open at night and let the place cool down to 20ish. Then, around 9am I’d shut all the windows and shades. I was also lucky because I had windows on opposite sides of the apartment, so I had good cross ventilation to blow the heat out.
When I’d come home it would be low-20s or mid-20s inside, while outside it was above 30. But, like you said, if the heat wave lasted too long, the concrete would heat up. I’d still throw open the windows at night, but once the concrete of the building was up to about 30 degrees, even if it dropped below 20 at night, it would still be 25ish indoors in the morning.
At that point, when it was 25ish indoors, below 25 outside (but heating up) and 30ish degrees in the walls, I wasn’t sure if it was smarter to shut everything and try to keep the warm air out, or open things and hope that the ventilation allowed the concrete to cool.
Also, at night even though cross-ventilation was a good plan, and it cooled things off, I lived in a loud neighbourhood (by Swiss standards) and it was so much easier to sleep with the windows shut. Those windows reduce the noise from outside so much.
Yes it looks very German: the Rolladen, the Balkonsolar and also just the steel construction style of the balcony itself
I think they are called “storm shutters” in america?
Having used both, American storm shutters are inferior to rolladen.
That’s not even a tent tent, it’s a child’s pop-up toy “tent”. An adult can barely fit inside it and there’s no way to stretch out and sleep.
Edit: Ooo, which means it is not vented, and so it likely gets very hot inside.
I have a tent like that. It’s for two people. Probably the most common type of cheap tent I see in Finland
The tent is barely wider than the door it is next to. Assuming Germany (though most countries will be similar) the standard residential minimum is 90cm door width. Even if you add 10-20cm for a more generous width of the door behind it no adult at 170cm will be sleeping in that tent.
They are pretty small. Some measurements for the tents I looked up were 205 x 150 x 105 cm and 200 cm x 140 cm x 100 cm. It probably looks smaller here than what the actual floor measurements are.They’re not spacious but adults do fit in them
Yes, this is correct. A standard residential doorway in Germany is required to be at least 90cm/~35”. Even if we say this is another European country, the width will be similar. Let’s be generous and add another 10cm/~4” for a total width of 100cm/39”.
The tent is hardly wider than the door it is next to.
No adults are sleeping in that tent.
I once lived in a basement one room suite, so no balcony or any outdoor space. During the summer it was hotter than the outside. I remember lying down in the bathtub running pure cold water to cool down, then trying to sleep for a bit but having to repeat cooling off every 2 hours.
Basements are usually cooler unless theres a very inefficient furnace/boiler situation.
Must’ve been something like that. I was next door to the boiler room.
I think it might be some kind of minimal beach camping tent, like this one:
https://www.ironsnow.com/products/ironrain-camping-tent-beach-play-tents-2-person-waterproof
Had to probably do with a tiny one, as it would be the only one to still fit the limited space.
The opening would be directed at the balcony door.
So no ventilation issue, but you might have do deal with some mosquitos (but those thankfully haven’t been much of a problem here this year as it has been also exceptionally dry so far…)Nope, not even that fancy. It doesn’t have separate poles, they’re just permanently integrated. The whole thing folds up into a circle. And without real ventilation, even with that circle door, they get hot inside.
You can see the separate poles
Gah, you’re right. I have not had enough coffee yet.
I have slept in one of those children’s tents before. I was going backpacking, and a friend offered me his “backpacking tent” that was much lighter than mine.
It turns out it was lighter because it was a children’s tent that was about 80% the length of my body, so I had to sleep with my knees up. We got snowed on, and luckily it held up.
Be free, sleep on a mattress on the balcony!
Hammock would be the way to go!
Mosquitos: “looks like meat is back on the menu boys!!”
The only minor upside from the fact, that it also is one of the driest summers in my region so far:
No mosquitos.
Even the freshly imported Asian Tiger Mosquitos, which normally start roaming in July and need less open water, are almost completely absent (and they are only active during daytime).
A couple of nights ago 2 riders in the Tour de France (from INEOS I thought) also slept on the balcony because their hotel rooms were too hot. Amazing that these athletes, who ride for 3 weeks at insane altitude (not all the time, but still) don’t even get a good night’s sleep.
It was the Norwegian Halland-Johannesen twins of Uno-X Mobility that had the great idea.
All of the teams carry mobile air-conditioners and purifiers, but for unknown reasons Uno-X didn’t bring any to their hotel
More likely for children to play in. A tent gets very hot in the sun - even more so than an apartment.
But it cools down again rapidly at nighttime, other than the apartment that essentially keeps on staying at the same temperature.
I assume that’s what they are trying to profit from here.While the sun is still up, it doesn’t make any sense at all staying in the tent.
Better stay in the apartment with the blinds down and some fans running, as in most cases it will still be cooler inside than outside during daytime, and only switch to the tent during the night.I work in a foundry, and this is what I’ve experienced. During a heat wave the building is hot the first day, hotter the second day regardless of difference in temp, then hotter the next day. It then levels out pretty much, because the extreme heat is fighting to change not the air temp, but the building materials temp, in this case concrete and steel. It takes longer for the materials to heat than the air but once it starts going, the building materials continue to warm, because they also cool slower. Then even at night, it doesn’t really cool off because it takes a long time for concrete and steel to release heat. Honestly the furnaces don’t make much of a difference unless you’re right up on them.
- Fan
- Open windows
- Tropical nights
- German houses (massive walls acting like night storage ovens after some days in the heat)
.
Not that I didn’t try the fan solution. Done properly, I managed to reduce the air temperature by about 1°C by early morning compared to the evening.Still not enough in some cases. My bedroom for example. It’s on the southside of the building and even with every window open and fans running till late in the night, I can still feel the temperature difference between north and south side rooms.
Skill issue
Open windows make it so much worse if the air is very hot and/or there is no wind - which is often the case in many places
Said that, i syill keep them open because i got one of those fans that cool air using water which makes a lot of humidity that somehow i need to remove
Telling a German to open windows is like telling a bird how to fly. Stoßlüften is down to a precise science here.
But it doesn’t matter with the temperatures and building construction style. They retain heat like crazy. It’s not getting cold enough at night for the buildings to lose all their thermal energy, even creating air flow through the building with a fan. Source: me with all my windows open in a 4th floor apartment with the inside temperature sitting at 28°C at near midnight.
You wouldn’t be sleeping in it during the day
Some nights, I’m seriously considering sleeping in the hammock on my balcony. The only problem is that the sun would wake me up (and probably roast me) way before my alarm clock.
I did this when I was visiting Mexico. Probably some of the best sleep I’ve had in my life. Balcony was on the North side of the building. Even though it was hot outside, the extra airflow through the hammock kept me pretty cool.
I sometimes do sleep in a tent outside in the garden (Not out of heat reasons yet, but because of fun events with the kids).
I wouldn’t worry about being woken up by the sun, as what will actually wake you is not the sun, but the relentlessly enthusiastic birds chirping away at the top of their lungs almost an hour before sunrise already ;-)I used to keep a loaded nerf pistol with me for this exact reason.
Seems useless, you’d need to be awake to take the shot.
I recommend an automatic “Bird Banger” to scare them away periodically.
I doubt the birds would wake me. I sleep with my window open anyway so I’m used to them.
You might want to try a sleeping mask
I just woke up. I’m not even up. My body just woke up to go poop, then it’s back to bed.
I read “sleeping mask”, but my brain interpreted that, and imagined a gas mask. Filling the inside of the mask with sleeping gas.
I doubt that helps much when the sun shines directly on my face. I’m more worried about the heat than the light.
Beat me to it, a lot of the apartments around here built prior to AC had these, but many have since been removed or enclosed into conditioned living space. All you’d need is a bug net on a balcony to recreate it, unless you sleep in the buff.
Can an adult fit in that?
Doubt, with external shutters and solar balcony
Why?
The external shutters only help keeping the sun out during daytime.
Once the walls have heated up (which takes 3-4 days, as these are massive brick walls), you have a nice constant 30°C, day as night…Apartment with external shutters can still overheat if situated in a strong urban heat island and heatwave endures for long time…
Yeah but it tells of a better efficiency
No, this type of external shutters is standard for German homes, so tells not much by itself.
As for the efficiency: Buildings here are mainly designed for colder weather, with the intent to keep the warmth inside and at a constant temperature (thick, massive walls and insulation on the outside). And at this, they are very efficient.
But during the recent, unusually long heat waves, once the heat managed to seep in (typically after 3-4 days), you are basically screwed, as you have no chance to lower the inside temperature without AC.
Temperature stays high even at night, trapped in the walls.
that solar is plug in balcony solar, meaning it probably doesn’t have a battery, so only works when the rest of the power grid is working. if they are in a power outage it isn’t providing power. that’s for safety reasons as they don’t want these balcony solar units to back feed into the larger power grid that would cause power companies from working on power lines
So, you as the owner get the cost, almost no money for the energy but also no off-the-grid security? Do i see a pattern?
It mainly covers your base consumption.
Profit you make is the savings you have because you have to purchase less electric energy from your provider.
Typically pay for themselves within 3-4years for such an installation on south facing balcony in my region.
The rest of the 20years of its lifetime is just free money after that.
I have a two panel installation, saving me ~120€ per year.
Damn, that’s actually not the worst idea…
Rediscovering of old ideas. Sleeping on the balcony is what some people did in hot urban areas for ages
Was thinking so myself.
You would have to deal with the noise, though.
It is an urban area, so quite some people packed into a limited space, all with their windows open during the evening and night (or sitting on their balconies or in their garden patches having lively conversations until past midnight…)
So I was happy not having to resort to that measure in the end :-)Or smoking 😔
Sucks not being able to open the windows because half the complex has smoke that loves to come right in uninvited.
Where I live, excessive smoking seems to be thankfully mainly a thing of the past.
At least cigarettes.
Only one regular tobacco smoker in my building, but at least two or three smoking weed…Lots of both around here, and no sense of either how strong it smells or how much it affects asthma.
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They don’t have windows or fans or what?
Maybe just save up $200 and buy a portable AC unit instead of a tent
When it’s 40°C outside during the day and 27°C during the night the apartment doesn’t get the chance to cool down and fans only move hot air around. Portable air conditioners keep the dead alive with their noise while also cooling about as well as a wet rag. I totally understand the desperation of just sleeping outside during the night.
fans only move hot air around
That’s what I was talking about, move it out the window
I’ve tried this many times over the years but when the walls are already heated up and the temperature outside stays high during the night it makes very little difference to confort levels. The heat just radiates from the walls and heats the inside air all night. Until I got proper air conditioning installed I just suffered during the summer.
That does work (mainly at night). But it’s annoying when the walls don’t cool down. I’ve found that it’s better to have very large windows because they don’t retain the heat (just close the blinds during the day).
Have you used a portable AC made in the last decade? They’re quiet / on par with central AC these days. I have a Midea one and unless it’s on full-blast, it’s hardly noticeable beyond the sound of air moving
The cheap ones are noisy
That is surprising. I’ve had two in the last dacade, the last one bought 3 years ago and they are around 60dB which is standard from what I’ve seen. I checked the local midea models and they still say >60dB in their spec. No decent central or split system gets close to that kind of noise and personally I find it impossible to live with.
I bought one used for 95€. It’s a real blessing after working in the sun all day. It does cool down the apartment but the noice thing is true in that it does make some noice. But I don’t mind it when it’s a constant humm, nice to sleep during that
Maybe just save up $200 and buy a portable AC unit instead of a ten
I own one. The portable ones have a rather limited efficiency. Ours brought the air temperature down to 23-24°C in the sleeping areas during the daytime.
After switching it off for the night (the things are incredibly noisy…), temperatures quickly rose to 26-27°C again (at least at reduced humidity due to the AC).
And that was in a ground floor apartment…And opening windows doesn’t really help any more if the minimum outside temp still is >20°C during the night and the air is basically motionless.
I have a split one. And an obnoxious neighbour who smokes pot and complains a lot.
I also have pot smoking neighbours. But at least they are really nice!
(I get to eat all the crazy excess foodstuff they buy while getting the munchies… 😁 )This lady (and I use the term loosely) smokes so much pot that she’s become paranoid as hell. She doesn’t eat. She only drinks vegetable smoothies.
Sounds like a reason to get some earplugs
That’s good advice for people who have $200
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Wow feeling a little heated there? Big man making death threats with a keyboard. How about you eat a big fat pile of shit?
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Must be in the hospital with a brain problem there I guess.
Where I live summers are routinely 95-105 F with high humidity and it always sucks. We deal with it by using fans and air conditioners.
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Has a balcony; $200 is too much…
Balconies are pretty much standard in German housing.
Actually, interestingly they are common especially in poorer neighbourhoods (the notorious “Plattenbau-Siedlungen”).
The photo was taken in a mixed neighbourhood, with self-owned flats interspersed with social housing in the same apartment blocks.
So the argument doesn’t apply in this case…deleted by creator
