Keeping the heat out without AC

Phl283

i was wondering if someone could help me with some advice on affordable ways of keeping the heat out of my home. I love in a basement / ground floor flat. One of the rooms at the back of the house is an bit open room with sliding french doors at the back and windows in the roof so it's v light. It also has a concrete floor which heats up over time until after the sun has gone down!. The room gets quite hot as the sun comes round from lunchtime to sunset. Portable air conditioning units are expensive, loud and power hungry. I was thinking on days when it gets hot of trying to block the sunlight out somehow. I was considering reflective window film, reflective bubble wrap or even just hanging reflective screens you can get for plants

I've also heard that bubble wrap is a cheap way of doing this but surely it would still let the light in? Anyway. I wondered if anyone had any thoughts? i'm aware some of these options are quite ugly!

FreeBear

Had scaffolding up round the house last summer. The boards cast a fair bit of shade over the south facing windows which helped to keep the solar gains down. In your situation, an extendable awning might help. Pull it out during the summer, roll it back up in the autumn so that the winter storms don't trash it... Drawing the curtains is another way of limiting the solar gain at the expense of making the room gloomy.

subjecttocontract

1. If it's hotter outside than inside.....keep windows and doors closed. In the evening when temp drops open them.
2. Draw curtains, close blinds.
3. Have an exterior blind fitted over those doors and windows that are affected.
4. Use fans....They will make you feel more comfortable......cheap to buy and run..

ashe

Solar film would reflect some away but does have a certain look. 

When you open the doors/ windows, use fans to create airflow eg blow a fan out of the room, while a window is open, this will draw air in through the opening. 

Plantation shutters could be an option for the french doors & blinds for the windows to help keep the room cool when the sun is out. 

YoungBlueEyes

I don’t know what you could about a concrete floor, but your title has it right - you don’t let heat out, you keep heat out. 

I have all the windows and back door open early in the morning for the cool breeze ( yes that contradicts my previous sentence…) but as soon as the air feels warmer outside than in I close up on the sunny side of the house. Curtains/blinds/doors all shut. Trap the cool in. The back of my house is NW facing so that’s open a few hours longer, but as soon as the sun starts coming round I close that side too. Then when the front is in shade and the air has cooled I reopen the front. Back gets opened again about 7pm ish. Lovely cool breeze through the whole house before bedtime  

Bit of a faff but it absolutely works. 

Phl283

thank you! this is really helpful. I totally get the point off when it's hotter outside, close the windows and blinds and keep the heat out; it's more that i'm struggling to find an affordable and simple way of keeping the heat out of one room as the patio doors and ceiling windows have no blinds / curtains. I know the answer is get blinds but there's not that many days of a year when they would be needed as the light in the room for 90% of the year is so nice and not an issue. So i guess what I mean is are there are any good temporary light / sun blockers?

jackieblack

Last summer when it was really hot I bought some of these First Aid foil blankets and taped them to the inside of the windows - this would work with patio doors too - not desperately pretty, but effective and cheap 

Simonon77

subjecttocontract said:

1. If it's hotter outside than inside.....keep windows and doors closed. In the evening when temp drops open them.
2. Draw curtains, close blinds.
3. Have an exterior blind fitted over those doors and windows that are affected.
4. Use fans....They will make you feel more comfortable......cheap to buy and run..

Its amazing how many people open all their windows thinking it keeps the house cool when its boiling outside !

subjecttocontract

One downside which you can't escape from is the fact that the building itself will absorb heat on a hot day and then radiate it slowly whilst it cools during the night. We suffer from this big time in our property in Spain. A good way of reducing the amount of heat soaked up by the building is to have exterior window blinds. These are very common on Spanish properties and relatively cheap being either manually operated or electric.

chris_n

Phl283 said:

thank you! this is really helpful. I totally get the point off when it's hotter outside, close the windows and blinds and keep the heat out; it's more that i'm struggling to find an affordable and simple way of keeping the heat out of one room as the patio doors and ceiling windows have no blinds / curtains. I know the answer is get blinds but there's not that many days of a year when they would be needed as the light in the room for 90% of the year is so nice and not an issue. So i guess what I mean is are there are any good temporary light / sun blockers?

If you want real temporary then use your spare bedsheets, even taping bin bags over the outside will do it. After that you are into fixed, sliding or retractable awnings or some sort of shade screen.  You really just need something to create shade.
I ordered one of these for my daughter to keep the sun out of her conservatory. 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SONGMICS-Awning-Privacy-Balcony-GSA589G01/dp/B0B38PG31X/

subjecttocontract

Draw curtains can be picked up 2nd hand for virtually nothing either on Gumtree or local charity shops.
I've bought 2nd hand curtains for rental flats for under 10 quid........measure the size and start looking.