Cool Tips for Hot Days

Cli­mate change and rising sum­mer tem­per­at­ures pose a threat to many people’s health. With a few meas­ures such as insu­lat­ing the build­ing envel­ope and installing air­tight win­dows, you can effect­ively pro­tect your home from over­heat­ing. Make sure, how­ever, to use only low-emis­­sion products inside your home.

As tem­per­at­ures are expec­ted to rise in the long term, it is imper­at­ive to provide adequate pro­tec­tion against sum­mer heat for both res­id­en­tial and com­mer­cial build­ings – for the sake of com­fort and for health reas­ons. Des­pite their cool­ing effect, fans and air con­di­tion­ers are not the best solu­tions, as they often cause colds and muscle ten­sion – not to men­tion the energy con­sump­tion of these appli­ances. Often, there are more effect­ive ways to pro­tect indoor spaces from over­heat­ing. First, we must take a closer look at the archi­tec­ture. Do facades really need to be as trans­par­ent and glazed as pos­sible? Prof. Thomas Auer of the Tech­nic­al Uni­ver­sity of Munich advoc­ates “appro­pri­ately dimen­sioned win­dows and ceil­ing heights”. By using tall, nar­row win­dows, rooms with high­er ceil­ings allow more light to enter the deep­er parts of the room. Thanks to the win­dow area account­ing for less than 20 per­cent of the facade, there is no need for sol­ar shad­ing, which usu­ally con­sti­tutes a clas­sic thermal bridge. Nev­er­the­less, good nat­ur­al light­ing is achieved.

If you still want to go for large glass sur­faces, you can pro­tect the interi­or from over­heat­ing with a roof over­hang. In sum­mer, when the sun is high in the sky, it helps to keep the heat out­side. The low angle of the winter sun, by con­trast, can gen­er­ate sol­ar heat gains inside. Bal­conies can have a sim­il­ar effect. In addi­tion, or as an altern­at­ive, spe­cial sun pro­tec­tion meas­ures ensure that indoor spaces remain at a com­fort­able tem­per­at­ure dur­ing the sum­mer months. Roller shut­ters, Vene­tian blinds, fold­ing shut­ters or awn­ings provide pro­tec­tion from excess­ive sun­light. This is par­tic­u­larly import­ant for roof win­dows or sky­lights. Shad­ing devices can be con­veni­ently lowered and raised with the help of motors and auto­mat­ic timers. Mod­ern sol­ar-powered drives also help save elec­tri­city.

In gen­er­al, win­dows and fixed glaz­ing must fea­ture good insu­la­tion prop­er­ties. Con­sumers should note that the insu­la­tion value of the glass is not the same as the insu­la­tion value of the entire win­dow assembly. Mod­ern win­dows are highly com­plex sys­tems that con­sist of mul­tiple com­pon­ents. Wheth­er installed in new-builds or used for repla­cing win­dows in exist­ing build­ings: triple glazed win­dows with good insu­la­tion prop­er­ties are stand­ard today. Con­sumers also have the option of installing spe­cial sol­ar con­trol glass. An innov­at­ive solu­tion is so-called “smart glass” (or switch­able glass), in which the pane changes from clear to tin­ted with­in a few minutes, while main­tain­ing trans­par­ency. Coat­ing glass panes with a spe­cial film can also pre­vent excess­ive heat gains. Fur­ther­more, a well-insu­lated build­ing envel­ope helps pre­vent heat stress. Insu­lat­ing the facade, the roof, or at least the top floor ceil­ing has a pos­it­ive effect on the indoor cli­mate. Provided there is suf­fi­cient vent­il­a­tion – either manu­ally or via a con­trolled res­id­en­tial vent­il­a­tion sys­tem that ensures auto­mat­ic air exchange.

Wheth­er new or old build­ings: When upgrad­ing the energy effi­ciency of a build­ing, espe­cially when provid­ing for sum­mer heat pro­tec­tion, a wide vari­ety of products and mater­i­als are used. Often, wall and floor cov­er­ings are also replaced as part of mod­ern­iz­a­tion pro­jects. Mater­i­als used in these pro­jects include par­quet and tile adhes­ives, grouts, plasters and paints. Many of these build­ing mater­i­als have a dir­ect impact on the indoor cli­mate and thus on the res­id­ents’ health. Con­sumers should there­fore always ensure that the selec­ted mater­i­als have been cer­ti­fied to be safe for health in order to avoid indoor air pol­lu­tion from harm­ful sub­stances. They should dis­cuss this point with the con­tract­or well in advance of award­ing the con­tract.