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Someone put up a tent on their balcony to escape their heat-trapping apartment during the night.
(discuss.tchncs.de)
Third extended heat wave within 6 weeks.
The previous one exceeded 40°C, and the buildings not yet had time to completely cool down from that one before the third wave hit.
I was considering putting up a tent in my garden myself, but as I own a ground floor flat, the indoor temperatures did, with the help of some additional cooling measures, thankfully not exceeded 27°C.
They don't have windows or fans or what?
Maybe just save up $200 and buy a portable AC unit instead of a tent
I own one. The portable ones have a rather limited efficiency. Ours brought the air temperature down to 23-24°C in the sleeping areas during the daytime.
After switching it off for the night (the things are incredibly noisy...), temperatures quickly rose to 26-27°C again (at least at reduced humidity due to the AC).
And that was in a ground floor apartment...
And opening windows doesn't really help any more if the minimum outside temp still is >20°C during the night and the air is basically motionless.
I have a split one. And an obnoxious neighbour who smokes pot and complains a lot.
I also have pot smoking neighbours. But at least they are really nice!
(I get to eat all the crazy excess foodstuff they buy while getting the munchies... 😁 )
This lady (and I use the term loosely) smokes so much pot that she's become paranoid as hell. She doesn't eat. She only drinks vegetable smoothies.
Sounds like a reason to get some earplugs
That's good advice for people who have $200
When it's 40°C outside during the day and 27°C during the night the apartment doesn't get the chance to cool down and fans only move hot air around. Portable air conditioners keep the dead alive with their noise while also cooling about as well as a wet rag. I totally understand the desperation of just sleeping outside during the night.
That's what I was talking about, move it out the window
I've tried this many times over the years but when the walls are already heated up and the temperature outside stays high during the night it makes very little difference to confort levels. The heat just radiates from the walls and heats the inside air all night. Until I got proper air conditioning installed I just suffered during the summer.
That does work (mainly at night). But it's annoying when the walls don't cool down. I've found that it's better to have very large windows because they don't retain the heat (just close the blinds during the day).
Have you used a portable AC made in the last decade? They're quiet / on par with central AC these days. I have a Midea one and unless it's on full-blast, it's hardly noticeable beyond the sound of air moving
The cheap ones are noisy
I bought one used for 95€. It's a real blessing after working in the sun all day. It does cool down the apartment but the noice thing is true in that it does make some noice. But I don't mind it when it's a constant humm, nice to sleep during that
Has a balcony; $200 is too much....
Balconies are pretty much standard in German housing.
Actually, interestingly they are common especially in poorer neighbourhoods (the notorious "Plattenbau-Siedlungen").
The photo was taken in a mixed neighbourhood, with self-owned flats interspersed with social housing in the same apartment blocks.
So the argument doesn't apply in this case...