How to keep cool
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is The Guardian.
Today, why can't you keep your cool?
You've probably noticed it's really quite hot. And if your office is anything like ours, people are chatting about the weather quite a lot. First as the obligatory icebreaker. Oh my gosh, it's way too hot. And then as problem solving, solutions, personal hacks on how to stay cool. Be it dinky handheld plastic fans or those truly abominable air-con collars that people are wearing around their necks. Endless iced coffee, feet in a bucket of cold water, head under a wet towel. We asked around to see if we'd missed any.
Unbearable. I've had to buy an air conditioning unit for my bedroom. I use a wet towel around the neck when I'm driving, especially, just to keep cool like that. My grandmother, who's very traditional, would tell me this would get me ill, but I sometimes sleep with wet hair because it's so warm and I have a fan at me and my hair's kind of damp, so that way I'm not... just sweating. My husband is a big fan of opening the windows early in the morning, but then shutting them. Fans with ice behind them, things like that. I'm just like, you know, grin and bear it. You want to stay cool with eating, like with what you eat, because that actually kind of keeps your body temperatures. It moderates your body temperatures.
So things like, you know, cucumbers, like having a salad.
Why is heatwave preparation becoming essential for UK homes?
Ice cubes and cucumbers aside, though, if this is to be our new normal, and the science very much warns it is, how are we going to properly adapt? From our homes to our behaviour, our workplaces to our culture, heatwave experts warn that we've got a lot to learn. From The Guardian, I'm Noshi Nikbal. Today in Focus, how to future-proof against record-breaking heat. Tom Greenhill, you're a chartered engineer and a chartered environmentalist. And early on in your career, you became a specialist in improving the performance of new buildings in heat waves. You've set up this website called the Heat Wave Toolkit. What inspired you?
I spent thousands of hours preparing buildings for future climates. If you're going to spend several million pounds on a building, you want it to last. It's going to last for decades. And I realised that the tools that engineers have are ones that are designed for that outlook.
So let's talk through some of the solutions you offer. You've split them into three sections. Stop the sun, let cool air flow and slow down. First things first, stopping the sun.
So the reason stop the sun is at first is because it's typically the most powerful thing you can do. The important thing is that external shading is super effective. It's really effective and it's far more effective than anything you do on the inside. Often when you watch the weather, they'll tell you to close the curtains. But if you can, if you can access the outside of your window, putting something, anything on the outside of your window, if you can, will be far more effective.
Can I just say, I mean, this is familiar because my partner has spent the last few weeks installing all sorts of things at the back of the house because I won't let him do it on the front. But I can confirm that it's a lot cooler because of it.
It works and it's incredibly effective. The next best thing you can do in terms of stop the sun, if you have any skylights, is to shade those first if they are accessible. So, for example, some anti-heat external blinds. Or one of my favourite things, somebody sent me this amazing idea, is that they realised they had this rooflight lantern, which was generating so much heat.
What's a rooflight lantern?
Well, it's just an enormous roof light. And roof lights and skylights collect so much heat because they see the sun for so much of the day. And so anything you can do to shade a roof light will really help. And this person realized that their roof light was the same dimensions as a king-size bed. So they went to Ikea.
That's a big light.
So they went to IKEA, they bought a £5 elasticated sheet and within about 30 seconds popped it on to the top. And what's amazing about that is because it's very thin and it's white, they have fantastic shading, but also beautiful diffused daylight.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:40
2
Why is heatwave preparation becoming essential for UK homes?
1:40–8:34
3
What is the Heatwave Toolkit and why did Tom Greenhill create it?
8:34–11:10
4
How can external shading 'stop the sun' and what cheap hacks work?
11:10–16:47
5
What low-cost DIY shading ideas (like IKEA sheets or shade cloth) actually reduce heat?
16:47–25:09