Staying cool can be a challenge, especially for the elderly or those who work from home and don’t have air conditioning or easy access to public places like libraries and malls. The heat wave sweeping across much of Europe has already killed more than a thousand people, while last year’s record temperatures in B.C. they are believed to have killed nearly 600 people, with the majority of deaths in people aged 70 and over. Data from Statistics Canada released in October 2021 shows that 61 per cent of Canadian households have some type of air conditioning units and just 42 per cent have central air conditioning. While many Ontarians have A/C, data shows that in Quebec, only 59 percent have some type of A/C and just 27 percent have central A/C. CTVNews.ca spoke with Jennifer McArthur, Associate Professor of Architecture at Metropolitan University of Toronto, for tips on immediate and long-term solutions to keep your home cool.
DIRECT SOLUTIONS
Close your blinds and curtains. According to the US Department of Energy, about 76 percent of the sunlight that passes through typical windows is converted to heat. This can be useful in the winter, but in the summer, window coverings keep the heat out, especially in rooms facing the sun. Light colored blinds and curtains in particular will help deflect more heat. “Blinds will actually trap heat between them and the window, so you want to basically pull the blinds down in the morning and keep them down all day,” said McArthur, who is also a member of the Ontario Regional Advisory Council of Canada Green Building. Municipality and certified energy manager. “You don’t want to have them upside down because it releases some of the heat into the house. But if you have the ability to shade the window from the outside, that’s going to be 100 times more effective, because then the sunlight isn’t even coming into your house in the first place.” You can open your windows if the outside temperature drops below 22 or 23 C and it is not too humid. If it gets cold at night, have all the windows open, turn on your fans, bathroom and kitchen exhaust fans to try to get as much fresh air into the house as possible. It also helps to limit the pollutants that accumulate inside your home and keeps you healthier. “You’re basically trying to get rid of all the heat that builds up in the house at night. And then once the temperatures start to rise or once it gets humid, you want to shut it down because your body feels a lot warmer at 23 degrees and humid than it does at 23 degrees and dry.” How to use fans effectively. If you have a ceiling fan, make sure it rotates in the correct direction. In winter, blasting can help push heat from the top of the room down. In the summer, it should be blowing down or spinning counterclockwise when you look up. You should be able to feel the fan when you stand under it, McArthur said. If you have A/C, using fans along with the air conditioner can also help lower your energy bill, according to Natural Resources Canada. McArthur recommends drinking hot liquids instead of cold and taking hot showers instead of cold to maximize the fan’s effectiveness. “This is going to sound really, really counterproductive, but the best way to wind down is to sweat,” he said. “What that does is it actually brings all the blood flowing closer to the surface of your skin and makes it easier for your body to shed that heat with the breeze.” Although bathroom and kitchen exhaust fans can help remove air, don’t run them 24/7, especially on hot days. Instead, use them at night when the air is cooler or after rain when the air has cooled temporarily. “Nature abhors a vacuum, so any air you push out of the house will be replaced with air from outside, so if you don’t want that air coming into your house, don’t run those fans unless you’re obviously cooking or have to” , McArthur said. Some characters have suggested placing a bowl of ice in front of a fan as another way to create cool air. However, unless you picked up the ice at a gas station or grocery store, McArthur noted that the heat from making the ice cubes is released into the home from the back of the fridge, which can ultimately be counterproductive. A cold wet sheet. You can also drape a wet sheet or other light cotton fabric over a pop-up tent or clothes drying rack. Evaporative cooling can really help cool you down, McArthur says, especially if it’s in front of a fan. It’s not something you want to do for too long, though, because the trade-off for immediate heat relief is that it will add some moisture to the air and could make your home feel a little musty afterward, he warned. Minimize the use of large devices during the day. If you can, skip the stove and oven and fire up the barbecue. Or, if you can, turn off the stove while you cook and open the stove exhaust to let the heat out of the house. Microwaves, for those who use them, are another method that doesn’t produce as much heat. Insulated electric kettles are faster and more efficient than boiling a pot on the stove too. This is also the best time of year to skip the energy-consuming clothes dryer and hang your clothes outside. Using heavy-duty gaming computers can also heat up a room. “But that kind of escapism can also be better for your mental health to deal with the heat, so it’s really up to each person to decide on those trade-offs,” McArthur said.
LONG-TERM INVESTMENTS
Turn off incandescent and halogen lights. If you haven’t already, change your old light bulbs to LEDs. LEDs not only last longer, consume dramatically less energy, but they also don’t produce huge amounts of heat like halogen and incandescent lights. Block the sun from outside. As mentioned earlier, covering windows from the outside is more effective than closing your curtains or blinds. Awnings and shutters, for example, can help keep out sunlight. According to the US Department of Energy, window shades can reduce solar heat gain by up to 65 percent on south-facing windows and up to 77 percent on west-facing windows. But the best long-term solution is to use nature, says McArthur. “The gold standard for passive design is actually having deciduous trees outside so they don’t block the sun in the winter and block the sun in the summer,” he said. “They also add local cooling because trees actually evaporate a lot of water into the air, and that process actually cools the air around them. So the trees are actually actively cooling.” An example would be walking through a forest from a field on a hot day – the temperature difference isn’t just due to shading, McArthur explained. In addition to deciduous trees, hedges, climbing plants on a pergola can all help. However, he cautions against using ivy, which can cause structural damage to the bricks, and recommends talking to an herbalist for advice. Install weather effects and close your windows again. This is a “no-brainer” that will pay for itself year-round, McArthur says, because it will keep cold air from entering your home in the winter and warm air from entering during the summer. Door sweeps can also help keep in cold air. Update your windows. If you’re planning to replace aging, leaky windows, consider getting them specially coated or tinted. Even a slightly tinted window will dramatically reduce the amount of heat that gets through without affecting the ability to see through them, McArthur said. Update your roof. If you plan to renew your ceiling, choose a light color. A silver gray pebble will reflect much more heat and light than one that is black. You can ask about the surface reflectance index of the shingles, which indicates how hot it will get under the sun. Installing solar panels is another way to use sunlight, but also reduce the amount of heat absorbed by the roof itself. Consider installing an energy recovery ventilator. These systems help replace stale indoor air with fresh outdoor air, ridding it of pollutants. It transfers heat from one air current to another, McArthur explained, so in the summer, the air exchange results in warm air from outside losing heat to the stale but cooler air inside. If you have A/C, the system also reduces the amount of energy your A/C must expend to cool your home. Check your insulation. The easiest way to check if you have enough insulation is to look at your roof from the street in winter. If there are patches of snow that have melted, or if you have less snow and ice than your neighbors, then you may have an insulation problem. You can also hire someone to conduct an energy audit. “But above a certain point, it just becomes overkill and it’s not really that useful,” McArthur said, adding that some types of insulation require a lot of energy to make and are worse for the environment.
title: “Cool Your Home During A Heatwave " ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-16” author: “Betty Lozano”
Staying cool can be a challenge, especially for the elderly or those who work from home and don’t have air conditioning or easy access to public places like libraries and malls. The heat wave sweeping across much of Europe has already killed more than a thousand people, while last year’s record temperatures in B.C. they are believed to have killed nearly 600 people, with the majority of deaths in people aged 70 and over. Data from Statistics Canada released in October 2021 shows that 61 per cent of Canadian households have some type of air conditioning units and just 42 per cent have central air conditioning. While many Ontarians have A/C, data shows that in Quebec, only 59 percent have some type of A/C and just 27 percent have central A/C. CTVNews.ca spoke with Jennifer McArthur, Associate Professor of Architecture at Metropolitan University of Toronto, for tips on immediate and long-term solutions to keep your home cool.
DIRECT SOLUTIONS
Close your blinds and curtains. According to the US Department of Energy, about 76 percent of the sunlight that passes through typical windows is converted to heat. This can be useful in the winter, but in the summer, window coverings keep the heat out, especially in rooms facing the sun. Light colored blinds and curtains in particular will help deflect more heat. “Blinds will actually trap heat between them and the window, so you want to basically pull the blinds down in the morning and keep them down all day,” said McArthur, who is also a member of the Ontario Regional Advisory Council of Canada Green Building. Municipality and certified energy manager. “You don’t want to have them upside down because it releases some of the heat into the house. But if you have the ability to shade the window from the outside, that’s going to be 100 times more effective, because then the sunlight isn’t even coming into your house in the first place.” You can open your windows if the outside temperature drops below 22 or 23 C and it is not too humid. If it gets cold at night, have all the windows open, turn on your fans, bathroom and kitchen exhaust fans to try to get as much fresh air into the house as possible. It also helps to limit the pollutants that accumulate inside your home and keeps you healthier. “You’re basically trying to get rid of all the heat that builds up in the house at night. And then once the temperatures start to rise or once it gets humid, you want to shut it down because your body feels a lot warmer at 23 degrees and humid than it does at 23 degrees and dry.” How to use fans effectively. If you have a ceiling fan, make sure it rotates in the correct direction. In winter, blasting can help push heat from the top of the room down. In the summer, it should be blowing down or spinning counterclockwise when you look up. You should be able to feel the fan when you stand under it, McArthur said. If you have A/C, using fans along with the air conditioner can also help lower your energy bill, according to Natural Resources Canada. McArthur recommends drinking hot liquids instead of cold and taking hot showers instead of cold to maximize the fan’s effectiveness. “This is going to sound really, really counterproductive, but the best way to wind down is to sweat,” he said. “What that does is it actually brings all the blood flowing closer to the surface of your skin and makes it easier for your body to shed that heat with the breeze.” Although bathroom and kitchen exhaust fans can help remove air, don’t run them 24/7, especially on hot days. Instead, use them at night when the air is cooler or after rain when the air has cooled temporarily. “Nature abhors a vacuum, so any air you push out of the house will be replaced with air from outside, so if you don’t want that air coming into your house, don’t run those fans unless you’re obviously cooking or have to” , McArthur said. Some characters have suggested placing a bowl of ice in front of a fan as another way to create cool air. However, unless you picked up the ice at a gas station or grocery store, McArthur noted that the heat from making the ice cubes is released into the home from the back of the fridge, which can ultimately be counterproductive. A cold wet sheet. You can also drape a wet sheet or other light cotton fabric over a pop-up tent or clothes drying rack. Evaporative cooling can really help cool you down, McArthur says, especially if it’s in front of a fan. It’s not something you want to do for too long, though, because the trade-off for immediate heat relief is that it will add some moisture to the air and could make your home feel a little musty afterward, he warned. Minimize the use of large devices during the day. If you can, skip the stove and oven and fire up the barbecue. Or, if you can, turn off the stove while you cook and open the stove exhaust to let the heat out of the house. Microwaves, for those who use them, are another method that doesn’t produce as much heat. Insulated electric kettles are faster and more efficient than boiling a pot on the stove too. This is also the best time of year to skip the energy-consuming clothes dryer and hang your clothes outside. Using heavy-duty gaming computers can also heat up a room. “But that kind of escapism can also be better for your mental health to deal with the heat, so it’s really up to each person to decide on those trade-offs,” McArthur said.
LONG-TERM INVESTMENTS
Turn off incandescent and halogen lights. If you haven’t already, change your old light bulbs to LEDs. LEDs not only last longer, consume dramatically less energy, but they also don’t produce huge amounts of heat like halogen and incandescent lights. Block the sun from outside. As mentioned earlier, covering windows from the outside is more effective than closing your curtains or blinds. Awnings and shutters, for example, can help keep out sunlight. According to the US Department of Energy, window shades can reduce solar heat gain by up to 65 percent on south-facing windows and up to 77 percent on west-facing windows. But the best long-term solution is to use nature, says McArthur. “The gold standard for passive design is actually having deciduous trees outside so they don’t block the sun in the winter and block the sun in the summer,” he said. “They also add local cooling because trees actually evaporate a lot of water into the air, and that process actually cools the air around them. So the trees are actually actively cooling.” An example would be walking through a forest from a field on a hot day – the temperature difference isn’t just due to shading, McArthur explained. In addition to deciduous trees, hedges, climbing plants on a pergola can all help. However, he cautions against using ivy, which can cause structural damage to the bricks, and recommends talking to an herbalist for advice. Install weather effects and close your windows again. This is a “no-brainer” that will pay for itself year-round, McArthur says, because it will keep cold air from entering your home in the winter and warm air from entering during the summer. Door sweeps can also help keep in cold air. Update your windows. If you’re planning to replace aging, leaky windows, consider getting them specially coated or tinted. Even a slightly tinted window will dramatically reduce the amount of heat that gets through without affecting the ability to see through them, McArthur said. Update your roof. If you plan to renew your ceiling, choose a light color. A silver gray pebble will reflect much more heat and light than one that is black. You can ask about the surface reflectance index of the shingles, which indicates how hot it will get under the sun. Installing solar panels is another way to use sunlight, but also reduce the amount of heat absorbed by the roof itself. Consider installing an energy recovery ventilator. These systems help replace stale indoor air with fresh outdoor air, ridding it of pollutants. It transfers heat from one air current to another, McArthur explained, so in the summer, the air exchange results in warm air from outside losing heat to the stale but cooler air inside. If you have A/C, the system also reduces the amount of energy your A/C must expend to cool your home. Check your insulation. The easiest way to check if you have enough insulation is to look at your roof from the street in winter. If there are patches of snow that have melted, or if you have less snow and ice than your neighbors, then you may have an insulation problem. You can also hire someone to conduct an energy audit. “But above a certain point, it just becomes overkill and it’s not really that useful,” McArthur said, adding that some types of insulation require a lot of energy to make and are worse for the environment.
