Should you open or close your windows during a heatwave?
While electric fans are a go-to for many, you might also be tempted to open your windows to cool down but how effective is this and should you keep them closed instead?
To settle the debate, John Small, Housebuilder in the UK and owner of Ty Eco, has explained how to keep your house as 'cool as a cave' this summer.
Should you open or close your windows during a heatwave?
Ty Eco founder John follows the PassiveHaus UK principles which help new-build and re-fitted homes beat the heat.
What is a heatwave?
He said: 'If it's cooler inside than outside, you should keep your windows closed.'
John added that while it can be tempting to open your windows during a heatwave, you're only bringing the warm heat inside, making your home hotter.
He explained the science behind his advice: 'Heat enters our house in two ways: solar radiation from the sun, and hot air.
'We want to limit both, by closing the windows and curtains – but, if it reaches a point where the temperature inside the house is equal to that outside, then you should open the windows, keeping the curtains closed.'
If you want to open the windows, there's a specific time you can try it.
How to cope with hot weather
John explains that you can open your windows to keep cool in the late evening through to early in the morning until 9am.
He advises keeping windows closed outside of this period.
John added: 'For those really feeling the heat, it may be that your home is actually warmer inside than out, in which case, I would advise you to reverse the advice, but be wary, how it feels, and the actual temperature is deceiving, so always use a cheap temperature probe.'
Recommended reading:
If you're still struggling to keep your house cool, John said you could use privacy film.
This is used in hotter climates around the world and increases your windows' ability to bounce away heat and will lower your home's internal temperature.
A reflective film blocks the radiation heat from the sun and offers extra privacy.
He said the heat film is also designed to allow the same amount of natural summer light into your home.
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South Wales Argus
29-04-2025
- South Wales Argus
Should you open or close your windows during a heatwave?
While electric fans are a go-to for many, you might also be tempted to open your windows to cool down but how effective is this and should you keep them closed instead? To settle the debate, John Small, Housebuilder in the UK and owner of Ty Eco, has explained how to keep your house as 'cool as a cave' this summer. Should you open or close your windows during a heatwave? Ty Eco founder John follows the PassiveHaus UK principles which help new-build and re-fitted homes beat the heat. What is a heatwave? He said: 'If it's cooler inside than outside, you should keep your windows closed.' John added that while it can be tempting to open your windows during a heatwave, you're only bringing the warm heat inside, making your home hotter. He explained the science behind his advice: 'Heat enters our house in two ways: solar radiation from the sun, and hot air. 'We want to limit both, by closing the windows and curtains – but, if it reaches a point where the temperature inside the house is equal to that outside, then you should open the windows, keeping the curtains closed.' If you want to open the windows, there's a specific time you can try it. How to cope with hot weather John explains that you can open your windows to keep cool in the late evening through to early in the morning until 9am. He advises keeping windows closed outside of this period. John added: 'For those really feeling the heat, it may be that your home is actually warmer inside than out, in which case, I would advise you to reverse the advice, but be wary, how it feels, and the actual temperature is deceiving, so always use a cheap temperature probe.' Recommended reading: If you're still struggling to keep your house cool, John said you could use privacy film. This is used in hotter climates around the world and increases your windows' ability to bounce away heat and will lower your home's internal temperature. A reflective film blocks the radiation heat from the sun and offers extra privacy. He said the heat film is also designed to allow the same amount of natural summer light into your home.
The Guardian
30-03-2025
- The Guardian
How hurricanes Otis and John exposed Acapulco's big divide and left residents ‘scared for our lives'
Flora Montejo always dreamed of buying her own home. After almost three decades working as a nurse, the 68-year-old invested her retirement savings in a two-storey house in San Agustín, a working-class suburb of the Mexican resort town of Acapulco. Montejo's retirement dream was shortlived. Not long after moving into her newly remodelled home, Hurricane John dumped record levels of rainfall on Acapulco, triggering landslides and flash floods after calm creeks turned into roaring rivers. In San Agustín, almost 50 homes along a tributary of La Sabana River collapsed after five consecutive days of nonstop rain broke the riverbank. Another 250 homes in the barrio were later condemned as uninhabitable due to the risk of further flooding. One wall of Montejo's home crumbled after the houses separating hers from the San Agustín River collapsed and floated away. The neighbourhood has been declared a high-risk zone and residents have been told to relocate. 'I was looking forward to enjoying my retirement after a stressful career but got only six months in my dream home before disaster struck. I still can't absorb what has happened,' says Montejo, who is now living at a neighbour's house with her daughter. 'My house is exposed and unsafe, and the rainy season is coming. But until the government sends engineers to stabilise the river, I won't know if my house will be salvageable.' Hurricane John battered the state of Guerrero at a powerful category-3 strength twice over one week last September, dissipating inland before rapidly intensifying again off the coast – in a phenomenon meteorologists have called a 'zombie' storm. The slow-moving Pacific storm dumped about a metre (40in) of rain over south-west Mexico, killing at least 29 people – mainly in Guerrero – in flash floods and landslides. The record rainfall came less than a year after category-5 Hurricane Otis struck Acapulco with 165mph winds that killed more than 50 people and caused widespread damage to infrastructure – devastating the city's tourism industry. Otis also upended thousands of trees, leaving parts of the coastline, mountains and riverbanks eroded and exposed. The destruction further increased the region's vulnerability to wildfires, flooding and landslides. It will take several years for the tourist industry to recover fully, according to Rodolfo Escobar Ávila, a local union leader, in part due to labour shortages caused by forced migration after the storms, as well as insurance disputes that have delayed some hotel and apartment repairs. Still, the tourist hub of Acapulco is mainly fixed and back in business, while working-class communities around the coastal city feel forgotten and highly vulnerable as another hurricane season approaches. 'The government has told us that it's not safe here, but we have nowhere to go,' says Wendy Silva, 33, a homeowner in San Agustín who worries about her two young children living in a house that is damp and full of cracks. 'The river was full of debris and the riverbank was weak from previous storms when John hit. We should not have been so exposed. We've never been a priority, and now we feel abandoned.' Six months after Hurricane John flooded San Agustín with mud and rocks, engineering work to stop further riverbank erosion and reduce the risk of future floods and landslides has yet to begin. Residents do not know where or when they will be relocated. Few households, if any, had private home insurance, which is rare among working- and middle-class Mexicans. Many homeowners received about 40,000 pesos (£1,550) in one-off payments from the federal government. However, this was barely enough to cover the clean-up, basic repairs and day-to-day expenses after the storm destroyed jobs and crops. The cost of building materials has also soared since Otis, which caused an estimated $12bn to $16bn (£9.2bn-£12.37bn) in damage. Silva's mortgage and insurance are part of a federal government programme for low-income workers unable to get private credit. Still, her claim was denied because the house was not damaged enough. 'It's absurd,' says Silva, who is part of the neighbourhood committee that meets government agencies regularly. 'We can't afford to leave.' Renters, such as Magdalena Nieto, 51, and her 81-year-old mother, María, did not qualify for any financial aid, nor did homeowners without individual land titles. 'I feel traumatised by what we went through. We get anxious every time I see a cloud,' says Nieto. 'I can't live like this.' Acapulco is a port and beach resort city on Mexico's Pacific coast, flanked by high-rise hotels and the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains. The city's location and geology make its 1 million inhabitants vulnerable to natural disasters, including earthquakes and tropical storms. Yet construction has expanded largely unchecked in high-risk areas, including entire neighbourhoods built on mountainsides and close to waterways. Some of them, such as the San Agustín River, were redirected to enable government-backed housing developments to be built. The climate crisis is now supercharging the wind and rain in hurricanes such as Otis and John. These storms rapidly intensified due to higher ocean and atmospheric temperatures, driven by the burning of fossil fuels. Otis was the strongest known hurricane to make landfall in Mexico – and among the most rapidly intensifying cyclones in the world, according to ClimaMeter. After the rains stopped, there were a record number of wildfires around Acapulco last year, fuelled by the upended trees that acted like kindling, according to the state's civil protection agency. Then John hit, and there were even fewer trees to absorb the storm water. Climate scientists warn that the severity of such storms and fires will probably continue to increase as the planet continues to warm. And as climate breakdown intensifies in Guerrero and other regions of Mexico where organised crime is pervasive, climate shocks such as drought, sea-level rises and floods could also worsen forced migration and conflicts over access to land and water. 'We are vulnerable in Acapulco because of our location, but human beings don't care enough about the environment or climate change. We're mostly to blame,' says Carlos Manuel Nino, 22, a builder in San Agustín whose parents' home was severely damaged by Otis. The family's income dropped after his mother stopped selling tamarind sweets in the hotel district after extortion demands. Large swathes of Mexico are highly vulnerable to global heating. Sandwiched between two oceans, the increased risks from rising sea levels, floods, drought and extreme temperatures threaten food production, biodiversity and scarce water supplies. Yet Mexico contributes only about 1.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The top four emitters, China, the US, India and Russia, combined account for more than 57% of global CO2 emissions. The city's mayor, Abelina López Rodríguez, says: 'Latin America and the Caribbean are very vulnerable to climate change, but what happened in Acapulco should be a point of reflection internationally. 'The president of the United States should stop threatening us with tariffs and, as one of the world's biggest emitters, focus on mitigation and reducing emissions rather than just telling us to adapt,' she says. 'If not, climate change will continue to provoke migration because there will be places where the land can no longer produce food.' Sign up to Global Dispatch Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development team after newsletter promotion In the mountains about 40 miles (70km) east of Acapulco is the small village of El Campanario, where most families are subsistence farmers raising pigs and chickens, and growing maize, squash, watermelons and hibiscus. Virtually every household was affected by Otis and John, which lost them two years of crops. Families had to sell animals, spend their meagre savings to buy maize and find extra money on top of the federal compensation to pay for repairs. 'We are rushing to get the repairs done before the rains come, trying to make the house a bit stronger and safer than before,' says Reina García, 37, who has a collection of containers to catch the water leaking through the cracks caused by the storms. After each hurricane, the city administration went from house to house in affected communities to carry out a census for the federal government to allocate compensation. Brenda Jiménez says no one was home when the census workers came to El Campanario, so the family received no financial aid. Otis destroyed their wooden supports and roofing panels, devastating the family's outdoor cooking area and bathroom. The main house also lost its metal roof, leaving unprotected concrete slabs. 'We have no privacy. I have to keep watch for people coming down the mountain when my children go to the bathroom,' says Jiménez, 33. 'I don't know what we'll do if another hurricane hits.' Her father-in-law, Mario García, 66, did receive government help after Otis and is trying to improve on his tiny one-room wooden home, which blew away entirely. But he ran out of money, leaving an unfinished roofless shell of concrete blocks. 'We're so isolated on this mountain; if another storm comes, I worry we might die,' he says. In Acapulco, some experts fear that the city is not investing adequately in climate resilience – or taking difficult political decisions to reduce the risk of future devastation by restricting new development in areas at high risk of floods, landslides and fires. 'This has always been a high-risk area, but our vulnerability to storms, floods, heat and fires has increased because of climate change and over-development, which have reduced our natural protection,' says one scientist, who asked not to be named. 'We know the lessons, but the decision-makers are not willing to change building regulations or invest the money needed in adaptation and resilience.' Extreme-weather events expose and exacerbate existing inequalities and challenges, including organised crime. Acapulco has long been a conduit for cocaine arriving from South America en route to the US. Violence, including murders, has flared up amid fights over territory and, more recently, extortion rackets. According to informal reports, Otis led to a brief truce between the city's two main organised crime groups, mostly due to widespread power and communications blackouts and road closures. However, looting, extortion and attacks on public transport then surged again, despite 25,000 troops being deployed to the area after the storm. Several thousand troops are still in the area, but violence and extortion continue to heap pressure on people as they try to recover from the hurricanes. 'Otis and John demonstrated how the presence of organised crime and narco-politics weakens the state's ability to prevent and respond to disasters,' says Erubiel Tirado, an expert in organised crime and human rights at Mexico City's Ibero University. 'As Mexico experiences more climate impacts, weak governance and the lack of development could generate even more social conflict and insecurity.' Another community designated as high-risk and uninhabitable is La Libertad, where a landslide killed two residents on the fifth day of rain from Hurricane John. On one mountain road, more than a dozen houses were flattened or swept away by a landslide – in an area rumoured to be dotted with clandestine graves. Residents extracted some vehicles from the muddy debris but others remained stuck along the route of the landslide, which left a snaking scar visible from miles away. Six months on, partially crushed houses, trees and debris still dangle precariously off the unpaved road as rocks continue to fall. Residents recently pooled resources to build a small wall, bridge and drainage system, but these makeshift structures may offer little protection once the rains begin in May. Federico Cuenca, 63, who has lived in this informal settlement for 40 years, says: 'Many agencies came here after John and made a lot of promises, but six months on, we're in the same risky situation. Civil protection told us this mountain might collapse; we're scared for our lives and want answers.' The mud ruined Cuenca's vehicles, and much of his metal workshop was damaged or swept away. His son, daughter-in-law and grandson have moved out, too scared to remain, but Cuenca and his wife, Luz María, do not want to leave. 'We are working on a plan B, and maybe we leave for the rainy season each year,' says Cuenca. 'I love this mountain and the home we built. But it's no longer safe.'
The Guardian
07-03-2025
- The Guardian
‘I'm ready': why John is determined to weather Cyclone Alfred in his tent despite authorities' warnings
From John's spot on the foreshores of the Redcliffe peninsula he can see dark clouds moving over Bramble Bay, obscuring and then revealing the distant towers of the Brisbane CBD. It's early Friday afternoon and the wind is steadily picking up, flapping the polyester floor of his tent. The police have checked on him daily and council workers have urged him to seek refuge in one of the three evacuation centres in the Moreton Bay council area, as Tropical Cyclone Alfred threatens landfall for a second day in its delayed and circuitous path to south-east Queensland. But John is planning on riding out the storm in his tent. 'I'm prepared, I'm ready, I'll be staying here,' he says. 'Someone left me some sandbags, so I'll put sandbags on each tent pole. I've got a timber bed in there and I'm 105kg. Seriously, if the tent collapses, I'll just be trapped inside there until [the storm] passes.' Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email John is not the only rough sleeper who is opting not to head to an evacuation centre, despite the warnings. Shane Moran is planning on seeing it out in his ute in the car park metres from John in Pelican Park. Shane doesn't want to go to an evacuation centre because he doesn't 'handle crowds very well'. 'Some people are going to go behind the buildings there, out of the wind,' he says, pointing to a service station and some apartment blocks on the Hornibrook Esplanade. Shane had been living in rental accommodation at nearby Scarborough until about a year ago, when he could no longer afford the rent rise. The pair crack some bleak jokes about John being blown away in this tent and he continues the banter by asking for rich compensation for his 'photoshoot'. 'Mate, what we need is a house,' Shane says. A number of rough sleepers are refusing to accept accommodation, says a Moreton Bay council spokesperson, who is imploring them to do so before it is too late. 'Rough sleepers will be risking their lives in cyclonic conditions if they don't accept these offers and move soon,' she says. 'A cyclone brings gale force winds, making it dangerous for people to move around the city. The time will come when Council, SES or Emergency Services cannot assist residents as it is unsafe.' Other homeless people have sought refuge in or near Moreton Bay's evacuation centres. Like Cheryl Kelly. Cheryl is parked out the front of an evacuation centre in nearby Rothwell in a van she shares with her dog Georgie. She is grateful for the support of the people running the evacuation centre, but she doesn't want to shelter inside, just yet. 'I've lost a lot of confidence,' she says. 'I look homeless and I don't belong in the public and I'm putting myself down a lot, especially after you had your own home for six years and showering regularly, all the time.' But Cheryl has taken advantage of a portable shower at the centre. 'It was nice to wash your hair and everything,' she says. Others can afford the kind of caravans that make life on the road more comfortable. Linda Benge and her husband sold their family home in Regents Park after it copped more than $100,000 worth of damage in the 2022 flood. They bought a large motorhome, and now flit between two caravan parks on the Redcliffe peninsula, counting down the days until they retire and can hit the road. 'We love it,' Linda says. 'We absolutely love it.' At least, she does under normal circumstances. On Friday, she's more apprehensive. 'It's the unknown, that's what I'm worried about,' she says. 'It's the wind. I don't know if it's going to pick up the cars, whether it will pick up the motor home? Do we move it around for shelter?' It isn't just van and tent dwellers who have sought refuge in evacuation centres. Brisbane's RNA showgrounds welcome many people from across the city and beyond for the Royal Queensland Show – or the Ekka, as everyone calls it – every August. Now its sturdy, red brick convention centre is being prepared for a very different kind of crowd. As Alfred looms off the coast, the city council has designated the convention centre its sole refuge shelter. Here, people can ride out the storm, while flood evacuation centres used previously are not strong enough to withstand cyclones. However, as of Friday morning, only a handful of people in the city of 2.7 million had taken up the offer. Ruth sits alone on a bench in front in an empty courtyard in the RNA, a serene figure amid the largely deserted streets as most people heed the advice of authorities and stay indoors for another day of waiting out the weather. She spent Thursday there as well but went to her home on the south side of the river after Alfred's expected landfall was delayed. 'I'm in a suburb that has a lot of tall trees,' she says. 'It's beautiful, but not in a cyclone'. In Brisbane, community service providers are also offering shelter specifically for those sleeping rough. Micah Projects at Kurilpa Hall and the Emmanuel City Mission are sheltering more than 100 homeless residents. Both centres are packed with hastily assembled informal beds scattered around the floor. Emmanuel has separated women and men in different parts of the building, and is offering people multiple cooked meals a day and has a volunteer registered nurse on call. John Bragg says he was able to sleep at Emmanuel last night despite the crowding by sticking some bits of paper towel in his ears. 'If it wasn't for these people, there'd be a lot of people on the street. You know, people die out there in weather like this,' he says. 'If we didn't have places to go and people to support us we'd be in a bit of a struggle wouldn't we?' Amal, who has taken refuge in Kurilpa Hall, grew up in India, where he saw what cyclones can do. He says India had been forced to dig 'mass graves' for hundreds of poor people wiped out by wild weather in the early 2000s. Emmanuel Operational Manager Tim Noonan sees the irony in the fact that the city's homeless are much safer during the cyclone than they usually are, and they will have to return to the streets once the storm has passed. 'Normally, they live with uncertainty. But in this tragedy, they've got certainty,' he says. 'They've never been somewhere [where they were] looked after; [now] we're allowed to care for them. 'We've got to care for them every day like this'.
