Be careful, during a heat wave, it is better to adopt methodical ventilation by closing everything during the day.
The month of August is just starting and we are already in the third heat wave of the year 2022, with 27 departments placed in heat wave orange vigilance on August 2. These high temperatures can be stressful, especially when temperatures break records, like this year, by exceeding 35 degrees Celsius.
How to best protect yourself? You can of course use a fan (following our guide) and hydrate yourself regularly by focusing on good drinks (plain water, as a priority, with at least one glass per hour, and especially no alcohol). But your priority must also be to keep the maximum freshness in your interior.
Although it sometimes seems counter-intuitive: you must at all costs avoid leaving the windows wide open all day, even to get some air, because it will be hot anyway and the mercury will rise, without place of possible refreshment. Good ventilation management is one of the official recommendations of Public Health France during heat waves each year.
Do not open during the day
During the day, keep all the windows closed and also leave the shutters/blinds completely closed – to prevent the heat from entering and limit the light rays entering your home as much as possible. Do not open as long as it is warmer outside than inside. Ventilation should take place when the outdoor temperature is lower than the indoor temperaturewhich is easily verifiable by comparing the current weather (via the temperature displayed via Google for example) with the degrees in your rooms.
In general, the lowest temperature arrives around 4-5am and continues until around 7am, when the mercury begins to rise again. The ideal is therefore to open late at night and to start closing everything from 8am.
With this strategy, you can easily get about ten degrees of difference between the outside and the inside for a while. Of course, the temperature will still rise slightly in your rooms over the course of the day, to a level that will vary depending on the quality of insulation, but also on the use or not of electronic devices and possible round trips. forcing you to open and then close the entrance or garden doors (these are limited round trips, therefore).
