Help with bringing temperature down in the house

Errata

Hot air rises, so open the loft hatch and leave it open.

WestonDave

In terms of cooling the house you need to work with nature not against it.


It may seem like a good idea to open windows during the day but all you are doing there is letting in hot air. Circulating that may feel better but it doesn't solve anything. Look at a typical daily temperature profile and you'll see that between 10pm and 8am outside temperatures are generally below 15C - which would feel cold if your house was that temperature in winter. That is the air you want to capture by having as many windows (doors loft hatch etc) open as possible overnight (subject to security and also maybe not in the babies room as that would be too cold for a baby to having blowing over it). From 8am to mid morning the temperature outside will rise quickly staying at a peak until around 8pm when it drops as the sun goes too low in the sky to heat up. So between 8am and 10pm you want to keep the windows closed so you trap the previous nights cool air in the house.


The next issue is solar gain - this is where the sun shines in through the windows and heats things up. The more of this you can block out the better. Curtains shut helps - you may even want to go as far as making some reflectors (cardboard with tin foil on) to put against the glass in any south facing windows. This is why in hot countries they still often have shutters on the outside of the windows which get closed in the hot parts of the day.


Once you've done all that then think about supplementary cooling (because its then going to be working rather than just offsetting heat coming in). If you can get a portable aircon or an air cooler (these just blow air against a wet filter) then great. However having an airer full of wet towels (stick them in the washing machine for the last rinse and a gentle spin so they aren't dripping all over the floor if that's a problem) and then stick them on an airer. The process of evaporating that water off uses heat energy from the surroundings to change the state of water to vapour. Quite often beer festivals in the open will use this to chill big barrels of beer - just putting wet cloths over them really works - we use it when camping to help keep the cool box from warming up. Be a bit wary of freezing things to let them warm up in the room - if you aren't careful all that happens is that the freezer removes the heat from the bottle of water etc and pumps that heat out into the room and effectively just sends it round in circles.

KxMx

This may seem a silly question but are your curtains lined? And what colour are they?

I got a new pair on sale which are dark grey and high quality, with basic lining.

They've proved loads better at keeping out light and a good deal of heat than the black lined lesser quality I had before.

Also try not to add to the heat once it's in the house- use a microwave or oven grill for cooking or have a cold dinner while it's really bad. BBQ outside maybe?

CDaniels1987

Thanks for all the replies, we had him in just a vest last night and he slept really well, only waking for his feeds, he seemed cooler, and only had to put a sheet on him around 4am this morning because his little legs were cold.

I think I am going to go for an air cooler, as AC might not be the best option with the layout of our bedroom (the only window is located right behind the bed, and due to the size of the room it is not possible to put it anywhere else) having a hose go out the window would be pretty much impossible.

Air Cooler it is then, thank you again for all the replies, hopefully I can get this all ready for the 30 degree weather forecast for next week!:mad:

CDaniels1987

Just to double check with people who have an Air Cooler, will it do the job in a room that's 23-24 degrees? Just want to bring it down by about 3-5 degrees for the night time so its more comfortable.

I have just read some stuff on google which has said they are basically expensive fans and don'd drop the temperature at all, and only work if you have a good air flow, but that's one of the problems with the room, we don't have any decent air flow, even with the window open, the air flow is very poor.

Sorry to be a pain with all the questions.

gayleygoo

A vest or sleepsuit would be warm enough, don't need both, especially if you feel warm at night. You are probably already aware that babies are much less able to disperse heat than adults. I worry about "too hot" more than "too cold".

CDaniels1987 wrote: »

Oh we have already made a complaint about that midwife, as we knew that her not saying to bath him and only give him 30ml of milk was completely wrong!

We had one MW advise us to bath baby once or twice a week, another who said she thought everyday was better, but acknowledged that is was more old-fashioned advice, and once a week was fine as long as face, hands and bum were washed everyday. 30ml of milk was probably fine for a teeny baby, their stomachs aren't able to hold much until they're a few weeks old.

notanewuser

onlyroz wrote: »

Why? If you're warm enough sleeping naked and with a single sheet then give baby a vest and a single sheet. If you need pyjamas and a duvet then give baby a vest, sleep suit and a thick sleeping bag. Seems like sensible advice to me.

Because I can't regulate my own body temp so often feel cold whereas DD has always been like a hot water bottle!

Mupette

what about posting on mums.net should be some better help than text book midwives

Gloomendoom

CDaniels1987 wrote: »

Just to double check with people who have an Air Cooler, will it do the job in a room that's 23-24 degrees? Just want to bring it down by about 3-5 degrees for the night time so its more comfortable.

I have just read some stuff on google which has said they are basically expensive fans and don'd drop the temperature at all, and only work if you have a good air flow, but that's one of the problems with the room, we don't have any decent air flow, even with the window open, the air flow is very poor.

Sorry to be a pain with all the questions.

I'm afraid that I can't be much help with the air con but, if you do consider moving in the future, look at old houses. Ours has walls that vary from 4 to 2 feet thick and I sleep under a 13.5 tog duvet year round. Our neighbours have a modern stone house and fell the for need air-con to keep it cool in summer.

That said, we have spent a fair bit of time in Australia and few houses use the air-con unless it is very hot (mid 30's).

Carer

We had an air cooler a couple of years ago and it was utterly useless, even adding ice to the water tank didn't help.

It went to the dump in the end and we went back to using a normal fan.