Chronic medical conditions can change their body responses to heat.Their bodies don’t adjust as well to sudden changes in temperature.Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson recommends her recipe for peanut noodles for a fridge-friendly dinner during hot weather.In hot weather, it’s best for older adults to stay indoors and avoid strenuous activities because: Stick to heatwave-friendly meals of salads, cold soups and sandwiches. Using the oven or a hob will rapidly increase the temperature in your kitchen. “Keep all the cool air in that room and store it up for when you really need it,” says Professor Hannah Cloke, a climate scientist at the University of Reading. “Cool rooms” will usually be north facing, but give them a helping hand by keeping the curtains closed and electricals switched off. In doing so, you will naturally discover the room that stays the coolest during the heat of the day – designate this as your ‘cool room’ where members of the household can retreat for respite. Keep internal doors closed during the day to stop warm air seeping into every room in the house. People with air conditioning units in cities are therefore helping to make the outside air temperature warmer, making the heatwave worse for those unable to afford their own air conditioning. Meanwhile, while they blow cool air into a home, they dump warm air outside. They use a lot of electricity to run, putting extra strain on the power grid, and the refrigerant gases they rely on to provide cooling are highly polluting. Portable air conditioning units are an option, but they are expensive and bad for the planet. Prices start from around £40, and they cost about £1.30 per day to run. The water the evaporates, taking some of the heat from the air with it, leaving the fan to blow cooler air around the room. They use a process known as evaporative cooling, where water is drawn from a tank to wet an absorbent sheet. Popping a bowl of ice cubes in front of the fan, or leaving wet laundry to dry in the same room, can help to further cool the air temperature, he says.Īir coolers are another option. “A fan works wonders,” says Professor George Havenith, professor of environmental physiology at the University of Loughborough. Leave a fan onįans increase the body’s ability to sweat out excess heat by boosting air flow through a room. Windows are most effective at letting in fresh air when there is a through draft, so where possible open windows and doors on the opposite sides of the home to let fresh air blow through. “If you haven’t been able to open your windows overnight, do it early in the morning or late in the evening when it’s cooler and you might at least get rid of some of the heat accumulated through the day.” “Really try to do this purge ventilation when it’s quite cool,” she says. If necessary, this kind of “purge” ventilation can also be done first thing in the morning, says Julie Godefroy, head of sustainability at the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers. The best time to open windows is overnight, experts say, so your home can “flush” out the warm air while you sleep. Wife of OceanGate CEO descended from couple who went down with the Titanic 22 June, 2023 Borrowers left exposed by mortgage stress tests that weren't required to factor in inflation 22 June, 2023 Tech giants Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg agree to face off in cage fight 22 June, 2023 Be smart about opening windowsĭuring the hottest time of the day there is little point opening windows – all that will do is allow warm air to rush inside.
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