I cope ok-ish with cold weather - less so hot weather.

MrHappy · January 3

Its early January and its cold. But for me my mind is never too far from thoughts of summer heatwaves. I'm not kidding when i say for the last few years i have had genuine concerns i wouldn't survive due to oppressive heat inside my home. The life saver for me was buying a portable Meaco aircon unit which is super expensive to run but it probably saved my life.

Knowing next to nothing about aircon units i went with one of the cheapest options from amazon the Meaco portable aircon (i'll try to add a pic). Its small, noisy, and only really works when its pointed directly towards me.

When it is pointed directly towards me its great because it blasts ice cold air at me. The downsides are dangling the extraction hose out of my window (which allows hot air to enter) and as soon as i switch the unit off my flat is like a furnace again within 10 mins.

Freesia123 · January 3

@MrHappy

My bedroom is basically in the loft, so at the moment it's absolutely freezing cold. I have gas central heating, but I can't afford to keep that running all day and night. So I warm my bedroom up a little either with the central heating or with a small electric fan heater, just before I go to bed to take the chill off. Then I have a heated throw that I put around my shoulders when sat up looking at my laptop. Wearing lots of nightwear and duvets and blankets over me. Coldest part of me then is my nose!

Summer it's the reverse absolutely boiling! So I have resigned to using a 12 inch desktop fan, that I direct at my face and I leave that running, all night if I have to.

Obviously in the day I cope with opening all my windows. Sometimes I need the fan then too.

66Mustang · January 3

Depending on how you are with physical tasks, there is quite a simple make-shift fix for the hose - you can cut a circle into a piece of wood which itself is cut into a suitable shape for the opening in the window, then put that into the gap in the window. That at least seals the gaping hole a little bit

MrHappy · January 3

@Freesia123

Wow you've got to deal with extreme temps at both ends or the scale too hot and too cold.

MrHappy · January 3

@66Mustang Sadly i have zero skills in woodwork but a brilliant idea from you thank you!

MCMikey · January 3

Sounds like you're in the same boat as me. I'm in the loft and the sloping areas of the roof which are about 50% area have no insulation (plasterboard than a small air gap and then black tiled roof) and during the summer the tiles soak up the sun during the day and release heat at night back into the flat.

I almost bought a similar air con device as yourself. Instead during the summer, at night I have series of four fans which draw in the cold air from one side of the flat and blow it out the other side. The fan that draws in the air will actually have its butt outside to draw in the cooler air with the two fans inside pulling it through the flat and then the fourth to expel. Depending on the prevailing wind direction on any particular evening, I reverse all four fans so it's pulling and pushing the other direction. I start these off at about 8:00 p.m. and turn off at about 9 a.m. with the temperature of the flat relatively low by that point, at which time I shut all the windows to keep the increasingly warm outside air out until about 8:00 p.m. Repeat.

In really hot countries they don't keep the windows open during the day (and they also have wooden shutters on the outside as a buffer - draw the curtains on any sunny's sided window).

MCMikey · January 3

Re previous post - caveat, you need to watch out for any potential rain during the night if the back of a plug in mains fan is stuck out of the window...

Freesia123 · January 3

@MCMikey

'I'm in the loft and the sloping areas of the roof which are about 50% area have no insulation (plasterboard than a small air gap and then black tiled roof)'

Yes this sounds exactly like my bedroom.

How do you manage in the winter?

MCMikey · January 3

Freesia123 - I'm generally cold until late afternoon as it takes that long for the living room to warm up, then the room is warm all evening. I can't walk much, but can at times do a bit on an exercise bike raising my temperature and tolerating the cold a bit better. I've also saved up during the rest of the year to afford the higher bills in winter.

I cope ok-ish with cold weather - less so hot weather.

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