Headlines - Heat Wave: Keeping Your Home Cool in Summer

The 2003 heat wave caused 17,000 deaths. An excess mortality rate was also identified retrospectively during the heat waves of 1976 and 1983. Global warming, now well established, will intensify in the coming decades. Preventing health risks caused by heat is therefore a current and future challenge. The French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) has published a practical guide titled “Hot Outside, Cool Inside.” From appropriate home modifications to “common-sense” behaviors, various solutions exist to avoid relying on air conditioning. The guide provides an overview of equipment to protect a home from heat, behaviors to adopt to cool the interior, and air conditioning systems. It comprises three sections: protecting against heat, providing coolness and increasing comfort, and air conditioning.You can protect yourself from the heat by creating shade—specifically by shielding south- and west-facing windows—with exterior coverings (shutters, awnings, screens, etc.) being the preferred option. You can also adopt good habits (lowering blinds when the sun shines through the windows, closing shutters during the day, and closing windows when the outside temperature is higher than the temperature inside the home). Finally, you can use vegetation (a single tree in front of a window, a pergola, a hedge, or dried plants). You can bring in cool air by taking advantage of the night to ventilate: open windows at night to create drafts, and circulate the air with a portable fan or a ceiling fan.If installing an air conditioning system is necessary, there are satisfactory solutions to limit energy costs and environmental risks. But implementing them requires some advance planning: equipment purchased in a rush to deal with an exceptional situation is likely to prove costly to operate and ill-suited to the task. ADEME recommends checking the energy label, avoiding low-end equipment, and consulting qualified professionals. Care should be taken not to set the temperature below 26°C and to avoid temperature differences of more than 5 or 7°C between indoors and outdoors. Air conditioning requires keeping windows closed, and the units can be expensive and noisy. It is possible to stay cool in your home during the summer while avoiding excessive energy consumption.