Help! Insulation has turned my house into a sauna!

ic

I have house cats, and fitted these to the majority of my windows: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BOA-Concealed-Upvc-Window-Restrictor-Child-Safety-Catch-/170550153894?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item27b594d2a6

Means I can leave windows open for ventilation, but the gap is small enough the cats can't climb out. Fairly easy to fit, the screws just tap into the plastic frame, they're concealed when the window is shut. With all my windows, I found the best place to fit was right up against the hinge.

evoke

You need to find a way of creating a chimney effect so that the cooler air at ground level rises up and can escape easily through the attic room, thus pulling up cooler air from below.

It seems like your attic is holding the hot air at the moment.

paddyrg

Evaporative coolers work to an extent - they exchange heat for humidity, so the air is cooler...but it is harder to sweat to lose heat from the body as the air is humider! Air con units just move heat around - so you have to have effective venting for them to have any point at all, that venting needs to be short and exclude open windows (you can use cardboard/plywood to mask the rest of the window - you can even paint it white which will help a little more again).

However the problem sounds like you're in an attic (heat rises, it just does) with huge black heat collectors (a roof) making sure it gets as toasty as possible. No domestic ACU is even going to cope with that.

As we're talking a week or two, there's a lot to be said for sleeping downstairs - bring your mattress down (or get a travel one) and put it on the floor and use that. We've got a mattress on the floor just now (it's cooler than on a base, more draughts!) and sleeping in the altogether and still chasing round the bed for the cool patches in the night. It'll pass I assure you ;-)

Maybe you could also try a reverse bedpan - use ice packs to pre-cool your bed/mattress down to give you a head-start at bedtime?! :-)

mart.vader

This works for me

http://www.screwfix.com/p/18-high-velocity-floor-fan-chrome/54056

Tessie_Balloon_Juice

Jon_Tiffany wrote: »

Don't waste your money with air coolers, they increase the humidity. In the pound shops you can get those foil blankets, these are excellent for putting up at windows to keep the heat out. Ideally you need to let in cool air at night to cool the house and then keep windows shut furing the day to keep the heat out.

Brilliant idea! Thanks!

Tessie_Balloon_Juice

ic wrote: »

I have house cats, and fitted these to the majority of my windows: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BOA-Concealed-Upvc-Window-Restrictor-Child-Safety-Catch-/170550153894?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item27b594d2a6

.

These seem perfect, thanks! The ones I saw at Wickes were £30 each!

Tessie_Balloon_Juice

paddyrg wrote: »

Maybe you could also try a reverse bedpan - use ice packs to pre-cool your bed/mattress down to give you a head-start at bedtime?! :-)

Another good idea! I'll definitely do this!

evoke

A fan in a room where the air isn't moving outside of the house will actually warm the air up. You'll feel cool whilst the fan is blowing directly at you because of the wind-chill effect and evaporation of sweat from your skin.

However, the ambient air temperature in your room will rise!

There is no getting away from allowing hot air to escape and having cooler air replace the hot air. This is the chimney effect that I mentioned in my previous post.

You really need to find a way of cooler air rising into your attic and then escaping outside. This will draw up more cooler air from the ground level.

jc808

ed110220 wrote: »

I think it's unlikely that the insulation has made the problem worse, as usually insulation helps keep buildings cooler when it's hot outside by keeping the heat out just as it keeps it in if it's warmer inside than out in the winter.

Generally insaulation keeps heat out as well as in.

The problem you have is something else (probably your windows) is letting heat in ... try white screen blinds.

Are your floors insulated? It could be heat rising from below floors that cannot escape cos the roof is insulated.... j

Tessie_Balloon_Juice

evoke wrote: »

There is no getting away from allowing hot air to escape and having cooler air replace the hot air. This is the chimney effect that I mentioned in my previous post.

You really need to find a way of cooler air rising into your attic and then escaping outside. This will draw up more cooler air from the ground level.

This makes total sense, I just don't know how I can make cool air rise into the attic rooms!