Let's go: keep cool your home in Summer without air conditioning

We begin with a question: How is the heat in Barcelona? It's humid. So a real temperature of 30 celsius degrees with a humidity of 60% transforms into an overwhelming perceived temperature of 40 celsius degrees! If Barcelona were a city with dry heat, with a humidity below 35% those real 30 celsius degrees would not vary for the body.  

We must always prepare our home to combat the thermal stress we talked about in the blog in 2017. Let's get to the heart of the text How to get a fresh house? Then we will make recommendations in two directions: cool the house actively and get heat out of it:

1. Lower blinds: letting sunlight into our house is equivalent to turning it into an oven.  Therefore, use the shutter.

2. Ventilate: Create sream of air as soon as possible.

3. Water is your ally: water the plants at night, wet the curtains when the water interact with little the temperature is lowered the temperature and scrub with cold water.

4. Use awnings: lower them in the central hours of the day to avoid the sun and its reverberation. 

5. Insulate:  whether if we talk about heat or cold always close the doors of the rooms. 

6.Be creative: move the work table, chairs, rocking chairs or armchairs to the coolest room facing north.

7. Outside carpets and velvet: it makes no sense not remove winter objects and materials.

8. Use cotton or silk sheets: you refresh yourself. 

9. Do you know the combined effect of fan, ice and salt? Put in front of the fan a container with ice and salt when the air comes out of the fan and impact on the ice will cool down.   

10. Renounce to the oven, reduce the use of the iron and use LED lights: the electrical appliances named above emit hot air. Another source of heat is light: bet on LEDs emit less heat and also spend 90% less.

11. Plants: the vine arbours as they go up the walls cool down and reduce solar impact/reverberation. In addition, as we have written in some occasions, they refresh and purify the environment, link to the blog.

12. Turn on the extractor hood while you cook: it's about getting the heat out of your house on the fast track. Don't cook slow-cooked food (by the way, in summer nobody wants to cook).  

13. Put some kind of laminate on the windows: the models let the light through but filter the ultraviolet and infrared radiation and stop the heat from entering. In this link of knowing how to live multiple advices are given.

14. Do the shower regularly: use cold water that also consumes less energy (7% energy less consumption than hot per degree). Don't bathe, you don't need it .

15. Wear fine/lightweight clothing or especially breathable sportswear: dressing lightly is essential.

We would like to end this article by addressing people with disability. If you are in such a situation, ask for help from someone you trust (family members, neighbours, caregiver, etc.): you also have the right to stay cool. Please find out about municipal heat plans. 

We hope you will enjoy Summer.