I live in Wales, in a temperate rainforest climate. Our usual maximum temperature for June is maybe 18-20ºC (64-68ºF)? Most of the time it's 10-18ºC (50-64ºC). [source]
Today it went up to 31ºC (88ºF). I live in a very small terraced bungalow, with nice big west-facing windows. I have a portable air conditioner, the kind where you stick a tube out of the window. Today, first thing when I got up, I set up the air conditioner and stuck the tube out of the window and taped towels over the opening around the tube so that hot air from outside couldn't get in. I closed all the windows and doors, and pulled down all the black-out blinds. I covered my front door with a blanket. You know, all the usual advice - turned my house into a dark box. I didn't even turn on the TV.
My air conditioner is meant to work well in a room up to 70m³ (2,472ft³? That is such a big number, did I get that right?) and up to 30ºC (86ºF), and it will keep it as cool as 18ºC (64ºF). I calculated that the space I was asking it to cool today was 33.4m³ (1,180ft³). In the hottest part of the day the air conditioner couldn't even get the room down to 24ºC (74ºF).
it's not because the air conditioner is bad. It's highly rated, I was very careful when shopping around. My house is just like that. It was built by the council many decades ago, and it is still a council property, which means they don't have the money to retrofit all their properties to account for the climate shift by adding built-in air conditioners or whatever else.
The low temperature outdoors overnight was maybe 19ºC (66ºF), which is the hottest it is supposed to get in the entire daytime. Even if I open all my windows overnight, when I wake up in the morning my living room is already 24ºC (75ºF) because it holds onto the heat, and without the portable air conditioner, even with all the doors and windows and blinds closed, even if I do no cooking or using hot water, it will go over 30ºC (86ºF) in my living room. In order to be comfortable I have to stay in my bedroom, because it's the only room the air conditioner can keep cool enough - it's 23.7m³ (837ft³) and on the less sunny side of the house. (Again, this air conditioner is meant to work well in a room up to 70m³ (2,472ft³).)
So all of that is just for today, when we're in a heatwave and the high temperature was 31ºC. The day after tomorrow is the hottest day of the heatwave, and it'll be 36ºC (97ºF). I already have one of the best portable air conditioners money can buy, and it's already not enough.
And like Greta said yesterday...
WHY DOES MY CAT STILL WANT HER HEAT PAD SWITCHED ON
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