In article ,
"Doctor Evil" writes:

Through ventilation will keep the temperature right down.

Doesn't work. I spent most of the day in a modern very well insulated
house with plenty of throughdraft, but it doesn't come close to
counteracting the gain from the Sun's radiation. The throughdraft brings
in the high humidity which appeared yesterday too, which is more
responsible for the uncomfortable feeling than the high temperature.

Later in the afternoon, I went to an old (1895) house where the only
insulation is about 2" of fibreglass in the loft and pre-Part-L double
glazing, and it was wonderfully cool. IME, this is always the case when
it gets hot -- an old house with lots of thermal capacity wins hands
down over a new house with lots of insulation and no thermal capacity.

Out of interest, here is the temperature profile of the 1895 house as
logged throughout yesterday. Hottest part of the day was around 17:30,
where outside temperature reached 24.5, but inside (downstairs) it was
only 20.5 at that time, and although not apparent from the logs, the
humidity was much lower in the house too because of no throughdraft,
which made it feel like walking into a lovely air conditioned building
(which it isn't). The thermal capacity of the house prevented it from
reaching the outside temperature until nearly 11pm, but by then the
outside temperature was nearly down to the earlier downstairs
temperature anyway, so that was not uncomfortable.

May 27 Outside Downstairs Upstairs Bedroom 3
00:00:00 17.5
00:00:00 18.5
00:00:00 20.5
00:00:00 20.0
01:25:52 17.0
02:43:05 16.5
03:25:30 16.0
06:51:32 16.5
07:19:31 21.0
07:44:24 17.0
08:35:44 17.5
09:11:00 18.0
09:30:20 18.5
09:37:14 19.0
09:52:47 21.5
10:12:16 19.0
10:17:44 21.0
10:21:32 20.5
10:43:17 19.5
11:13:24 20.0
11:39:38 20.5
11:48:26 21.5
12:23:32 21.0
13:19:06 21.0
13:24:24 19.5
13:31:37 21.5
13:50:44 22.0
13:56:14 22.0
14:16:05 22.5
14:16:50 21.5
14:42:00 23.0
14:43:19 22.5
14:45:25 23.0
14:54:39 23.5
15:05:11 22.0
15:07:50 20.0
15:12:55 22.5
15:30:41 24.0
16:56:10 22.5
17:05:02 20.5
17:09:27 24.5
17:13:41 24.0
17:22:38 23.0
17:28:05 24.5
17:34:51 24.0
17:40:46 24.5
17:55:19 24.0
18:42:30 24.5
18:50:45 24.0
19:20:11 23.5
19:22:11 23.0
19:53:48 23.5
20:41:17 21.0
20:43:39 23.0
21:28:52 22.5
22:09:41 22.0
22:42:16 21.5
22:54:52 21.5
23:15:25 21.0
23:49:33 20.5

--
Andrew Gabriel