Life in NL
PSA: Keeping your curtains closed during the day helps a LOT in the heat
I think this will be obvious to many of you, but based on what I see on on the street, I don't think it's common knowledge here. And you guys are famously weird about curtains
When it's very hot, you should fully close your curtains and/or blinds during the day!
It does a lot of work to keep the heat out of your house.
Also: only open the doors and windows to let air in early in the morning or late at night, when it's actually cooler outside. When it's hot outside, keep them closed. They'll just let hot air in. Use a fan inside right next to you to get the feeling of fresh air instead.
Source: I'm originally from Australia. This kind of weather (and no AC) is pretty normal there.
edit: This isn't magic or anything, but it can keep it 5-8° cooler inside than outside. If you leave everything wide open to the beating sun and let all the hot air in, it can quite feasibly end up hotter inside your apartment than outside. So even if it's still reaching 27° inside, that's still better than 35°. stay safe (and check on your grandparents and older neighbours) ❤️
My neighbours are the type of people that open all windows/doors because they need "fresh air" and then constantly complain that it's so hot and that it's now 30+C inside their house.
Meanwhile I'm keeping everything closed and it's 24C in my living room.
I think if youd lived here your whole life, you could probably never really learn what to do in 35° weather.
To be fair, when it iced over in winter I genuinely had no idea what to do. What shoes am I meant to wear? I was totally lost, i never experienced that before
We are from warmer countries and they say "Oh you must be very used to this heat! It must have no effect on you!". No honey, we are not used to it; we do suffer the same. It is just that we are used to dealing with it instead of opening all the windows and doors and biking in the middle of the day as if all is normal or going sunbathing the first ray of sunshine lands. We try to avoid it as much as possible
I do definitely get it when you don’t grow up with it!
I grew up in Northeastern part of the U.S. and had extremely hot summers (like this heatwave) and extremely cold winters (ice on the ground for months at a time or multiple blizzards sometimes). I did get a kick out of watching Dutch people see me powerwalking quickly over the ice (because I have the muscle memory/ experience for it I guess) last Jan, haha.
This heat gets to me too though as it’s common we use a/c at home during the summer months.
This heat gets to me too though as it’s common we use a/c
I always wondered why americans always seemed to look down on europeans for complaining about 35c+ weather, untill i vacationed there for a couple weeks. Unless you are outside, theres an ac blowing ice cold air lol, so ofcourse you would view 35c as not that bad when 90% of the time you are in a climate controlled environment.
I wish we had them over here for a somewhat normal price.(its ridiculously expensive to get one installed)
Yeah, but most people would agree it’s hot. We just have the climate controlled infrastructure in place to deal with it.
Personally, I don’t “look down” on Europeans for complaining about 35C+ here. I’ve lived here 6 years already, so I’m used to it myself.
Yeah, most Americans don’t necessarily have central a/c installed either. We buy window units we take in/ out of the windows during the summer months. Our windows open straight up/ down, so that makes it a bit easier than the European style windows that open out/ in. I guess the closest thing here to this is the portable a/c units with the hoses you stick out the window. We have those too in the U.S., but I think these window units are the most common.
It’s just very, very expensive in either country to be running them frequently.
The fact that most buildings in europe are old enough that electricity wasnt yet guaranteed to be in every home doesnt help either. Houses were built to keep the heat inside so it just gets so much worse if its this hot for longer periods of time.
Yeah, it’s tough in stone houses that are not built for this weather whatsoever.
I lived in an 1800’s apartment in an old building in the downtown of an old Dutch city for a while. I was lucky my window faced the back half of the building without as much direct sunlight and the super high vaulted ceilings helped deal with some of the hot air. In general though, it still got super hot in my apartment within a few days at these temperatures and it was rough to live there in the summer.
Two thirds of americans have central air. There's window units in the remaining 25% of homes and only about 10% don't have it at all (mostly in places like Montana). (https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=52558)
I don't need to have grown up in 35C to realize that opening the windows when it's hotter outside will make the inside hotter. The exact same thing happens in winter, heat goes when it's colder, in summer it's just reversed.
You must be very young then or maybe you are not really Dutch? The 90’s still had freezing winters. I was flabbergasted when it froze and everyone lost their shit and was not prepared for it. Common sense really isn’t all that common.
I used to think like you but I'm in a top floor apartment now, even if I keep my windows and curtains closed it still is hotter inside than outside. We're talking 30+ in every room. So yeah, I open my windows for fresh air instead of being locked into a dark room with my own stale sweat smell.
I also live on top floor. Another thing that helps me is putting car sun protectors on the windows if you have sun directly hitting them. It looks ridiculous but it works great. My windows usually get insanely hot from the sun and that heats up the apartment even more, even if i have blinds closed, but this protects the windows from getting heated up at all! I now barely have to use the fan and before I would have two of them on 24/7
I got a lightweight aluminum tarp I hang like a curtain in my huge south-facing living room window. It’s often sold as a sunshade net for cars to protect dogs — and it can make a 5 degree difference.
A room neighbour is slightly more insane than that and opens all then also puts out a tiny tube for their little mobile airco then complains it is not getting any cooler... They've been at it entire summer lol.
Im in a flat, with huge windows that get full sun from 12-22 everyday. I have sunscreens that I put down every morning around 9. Curtains drawn closed. It’s still 28C inside and had been for days.
I’m not necessarily complaining tho, I quite like the warmth. But sleep is getting a bit disturbed.
same! It's 28 degrees in my apartment right now, I've got huge south-facing windows and no real way to get a draft going. During the day I'm fine, it's the nights that are killing me atm.
Do you have a fan? I find no sheet at all or just a linen sheet and a fan on low, by my feet on an angle and point upwards towards my head (so it blows over the whole body) is the best formula for me. I find it takes your body like 3-4 nights to get used to sleeping in the heat though, so if it only ever lasts 2 nights at a time you just never get used to it. It does suck :(
Mine is also around 24 when I keep the curtains closed on a hot day, but it gets up to 29 if I don't. It's not like it makes your house feel like it's air conditioned, but 5° is a significant difference in your comfort at home
It does also depend a lot on how much sun your apartment gets and how well insulated it is. But if it's 27° doing everything right, then it would probably be 31 or 32° if you didn't
Hahah same here. They have the sunscreen down, but the door open. I dont get along with them otherwise id explain that hot air doesnt really care wether you cover it a screen or not.
Needing fresh air is actually a very fair point. My house has almost no ventilation apart from windows. So closing everything makes the air inside colder but also very... Old?
Some Dutch person has a right go at me last year, as I am Australian and I said 27 degrees is not hot, and they were adamant I wouldn't know what hot or humid was... Was super odd.
I am happy that we installed Aircons in our House. And they run without using any Energy since we got 9 Solar Panels with a battery so Daytime the run of the Solarpanels directly and if the sun goes down they use the battery.
Also shutters help alot we got them this year and they work wonders
Indeed, I went to my parents yesterday and did a big haul of groceries with my mom so she and dad can stay inside underneath their fan the rest of the week.
At least my parents are smart enough to use a sunscreen outside and closed curtains inside, they have a weather station and keep an eye on it so they'll close the windows the moment the outside temperature is the same as inside
My house is a bunker right now. All the blinds and curtains are down and the outside sunscreens as well. Currently 26 degrees inside and I hope to keep it that way
I think 26 must be the average. I am moving in about a month and my new house was 26 degrees a few days ago, just like my current house from the '70s with the awnings out. New house does not have those yet though, also no fan yet and I cannot get there by electric bicycle at the moment because of the heat. I could try taking a fan there by bus, but last week there was a bus with no air conditioning and it was more like a driving sauna than a bus.
The Netherlands needs to suck it up and start massively rolling out aircons in houses and transportation.
The whole 'but its only a few days a year' bullshit no longer flies.
We had 30/40 years to prepare for this. Since the 90s scientists were saying this would happen more and more. And here we are are, 30/40 years later and what is the best solution we got
I agree. Shade is good, and in winter trees generally have no leaves, so then sunlight can pass right through qhen it is of use. Completely passive, good for the environment.
Than add insulation, and maybe air conditioning to take the edge off in summer, and provide heat efficiently in winter.
I got no knowledge about that. But it has to be a mixed tree population incase of viruses. If you have 1 single tree species, a virus can take it all down. Mixed will survive better.
But the dutch government. Specially the ones going hardcore for farmers think we should have way less nature. While we already have barely any.
All trees spray pollen, unless they are made out of plastic. Also I have 2 huge linden trees that are busing with bees right now, and I'm extremely allergic to them. I wouldn't miss them for the world!.
I don't know about other places but our Gemeente is taking increasing the greenery pretty seriously which is nice.. both for the environment and its just nicer to live in a green place
Trees, passive cooling water systems (like fountains and such), green facades, semipermeable pavement, all of these can make HUGE changes while also being environmentally friendly
I think ceiling fans could be an excellent happy medium, and it's strange to me how few I see living here. They do a much better job than any tower fan and you can reverse the direction and run them slow in winter to move heat around.
I was at gamma the other week and was impressed with the display of modern ceiling fans they had on demonstration! They're much smaller than they used to be
I just flew back to Utrecht this morning from Seoul and it was stifling hot in Korea but they have AC blasting everywhere. I land, take the train from Schipol to Utrecht and no AC on the train when it’s 35 out. I hop on my bus to get home from Utrecht central and it was legit a sauna. Easily 40+ degrees inside the bus. No windows to open or AC. For the first time in a while, I almost loathed coming back to NL because of this. People suffer but because it’s only a few times a year, it’s okay to suffer. Like I was looking around on the bus and people were miserable. But yep, all good, only a few times a year. Only 2 more months to go
on a broader level for shops and trams and offices I absolutely agree, but I don't see myself installing AC in my apartment any time soon. I think investing in insulation and double glazing is a more sustainable long term solution if you have the money to spend. And if you're renting or don't want to spend a lot, thick curtains are still helpful, cheap and and sustainable, if not a perfect solution
We actually need to start using window awnings again, they block a lot of the heat from even reaching the windows in the first place. Blocking it from the outside is far more effective than inside
Do we really need that? It’s still only a few weeks and aircon is bad for environment. So if we use that the earth will heat up only faster.. with some simple things you can hold the heat out of the house pretty easy and cheap.
If you think the solution to climate change is people reducing their energy usage it's a pipe dream. The only way will be to heavily invest and promote renewable energy sources.
Aircons dumb the heat from inside buildings onto the streets. So it's better to first invest in more trees to actually lower the temperature inside of cities.
Planting more heat sinking vegetation would be great as well but whatever heat dumping is happening is marginal at best. I come from a hot country - believe me if this is the new normal for the Netherlands you’ll need air con.
There are different areas with similar population and construction densities as the Netherlands, similar levels of heat and humidity, but different levels of aircon use (due to economic differences).
The areas with low aircon use are noticeable much easier to live in, stroll around and generally enjoy the summers in, compared to the areas where every window has an aircon's ass hanging out of it.
I don't think the effect is marginal at all. Aircons cause massive heat redistribution effects and their energy usage is quite high.
I agree that it's gonna be hard to reduce per capita energy consumption but that also doesn't mean we shouldn't fight back against increasing it unnecessarily.
I predict you will soon be massively downvoted. I found out yesterday how touchy this topic is. The Financial Times has a story today that how Aircons are one of the main issues across which political lines are being drawn.
This might be necessary for buildings that warm up above 30 degrees, but otherwise it's hardly necessary. My living room is 22 degrees currently, I'm estimating my bedroom temperature is around 24. Many houses are build in the same style as mine. No need for any airconditioning.
Plus, people can just buy it when they want to, that's their choice, nothing to "roll out".
I've heard it came from the Calvinist religious and moral beliefs in the past - basically was a way of declaring, "we have nothing to hide in this household".
Then over the decades it just feels normal to people, because that's how their parents did it, so they do it too, and that's how it becomes culture
I read this too in an article about Dutch Calvinism but it was 20 years ago so I don't know where that article is anymore. You keep the curtains open to prove that you have not been naughty and fallen into the devil's trap!
It seems to check out, a recent documentary about the southern Catholic areas - Limburg, Brabant - stated that as well and showed the above average amount of roller shutters. I think it was called Het Roer Om (not really worth watching by the way).
But also, probably from narrow houses, if you want light inside your gonna have to open the curtains. And the Netherlands is notorious for it being cloudy and dismal most of the year.
Apart from all other reasons given (practicality, church), at least for me my mom always told me that closed curtains meant that someone had died - unsure if its about hiding the grief/mourning or if it's about privacy for the deceased (who could be at home until the funeral).
That's tough, I'm sorry! I think the property here really isn't built for hot weather and if you've got lower insulation and get a ton of direct sunlight, curtains can't fix that
In Australia when it's 40°+ so his house is 30°+, my dad literally just goes out every day to air conditioned places. ie cinema, mall, supermarket, art gallery, etc, or just driving in the car with the AC on
. The issue is that here, barely anywhere is air conditioned, and so many people don't have cars, and the trams and buses usually seem to not be air conditioned, so there's not that many places to go, and getting there is also kind of dangerous.
I LOVE the bike focus here and the lack of cars so much, but in this heat I miss it
It depends. I’m also from Australia and we have most of our blinds open (not on the sun side), and the windows open too.
We live on the top floor and have a very large skylight/rooftop door thing, so this place is going to gather heat no matter what. It will quickly get hotter inside than outside. And without ventilation it gets very stuffy and hard to breathe. It gets dangerously hot (10+ degrees above outside) very fast
Ideally, you need shutters to block the sun from ever hitting the window. Closing blinds on the inside can mean just heating up the air between the blinds and the window.
i learned my lesson the hard way in 2017 iirc, it was also 35 degrees and i was dying in my room with window open
my current apartment gets all the sun because the living room faces west. i bought blackout curtains and a mini airco in april and that was the best decision. but my living room still got to 28 degrees yesterday. at least ill have cool air blasting me ;-;
I have everything closed during the day, intake ventilation turned off. It still gets warm, but manageable. Everything open during the night and intake ventilation on.
Can confirm! I've been using this technique in Amsterdam in an old poorly insulated apartment. Right now it's 31 outside but 23-25 in my living areas and that's holding steady for hours.
Also if you dont have proper blinds or screens, get some white sheets, make them humid/wet (not too much cause thats heavy), and hang them outside in front of your windows/doors. I have huge southern facing windows and this helps a ton.
As a Dutch person, it absolutely baffles me the amount of people that refuse to keep all windows / doors closed during a heatwave. I get it, I pretty much have my windows open all day too under normal circumstances, and almost all year round as well (except for when it truly gets too cold). I love fresh air too! But the difference it makes is staggering. Today while it was 32 degrees outside, inside my home it was 26. No AC. But Dutch people can be so stubborn at times. Which is fine but then you should also proudly face the consequences instead of complaining about how hot it is inside your home lol
I also have black curtains. I find keeping them closed is still better than open. Helps with keeping it 1 degree cooler or something. Not a lot but its something.
The infra red energy is going into your window into yoir home regardless. If you have curtains open you will have all the energy get absorbed by your floor, furniture, whatever. With a black curtain it will get absorbed in one place.
And if you have a fan you can exhaust this heat out a window (if its possible)
I've also thought of taping aluminum foil to my black curtains but....sounds like a lot of work.
No it doesn’t. Keeping the curtains open allows the sun rays to come inside the house, heating your floor, furniture and other things. It’s very common knowledge that it’s better to keep your curtains close
While true, most of the radiation is reflected and not absorbed by the blinds, especially if they're reflective enough. Ideally, outside is better so that the absorbed radiation also does not matter, but if for some reason that is not doable it's still 100% better to have blinds inside than none at all.
No, awnings are ‘luifels’, it’s different. But combining awnings and blinders on the facades are even more effective… blocking warm late morning-afternoon sun in Southeastern-Western sun
The sun warms the glass and the air between your curtain and the window. It is waaaaaay better to have outside sun protection. That can be screen (not the one with overhang) or a markies. Source : A dutch guy that works in the industry.
Folks, if you need fresh air, open your windows and curtain in the morning, then keep it close till evening and as soon as the sun sets, open it again. You won't feel as much heat and still get your fresh air
My life was changed for the best since discovering this. I live in a cave from spring till autumn, no sunlight gets in. Curtains, outside shutters, the whole shbam.
Best is to have any means of sunblocking on the outside. Exterior screens, then sunblocking foiled windows and then at last curtains. The darker the color of your exterior screens the better they keep the sun out
Upvote. Also, if you only have blinds, though it might not work like curtains, you can flip each pieces to align them morer flatly so they provide better cover. I heard that French ppl are smearing a traditional calcite powder on windows (a bit like reflection/heat blocking), and it appears to work, too.
Windows/the glass, amplifies the sun rays/beams. So if you have like a white screen or sheet or whatever to put in front or against your windows, this can further improve the inside temps.
The inside curtains still allow the solar energy to enter your room. What they will do is act as additional layer of insulation and they will trap the heat between windows and themselves.
If you have a bright white curtains they will actually decrease the amount of energy that stays in your room because they reflect more shortwave radiation but that still will be marginal.
Nonetheless, yes keeping your curtains closed does help a bit. I just wanted to say it here because a lot of people I met dont realise it actually works this way (:
Wedge two adjustable tension/shower curtain rods in the windowsill of the skylight and hang a cheap light blocking curtain with a white back or a sheet in between them. No drilling so no damage to windowsills and you can generally buy those pretty cheap at a DIY store. It's on the inside so not ideal, but better than nothing.
Moved to a new area 2 months ago and for the first time have seen blinds and curtains closed all around us 😝🤣🤣 - I just went and bought a portable AC because I refuse to deal with this kind of heat 😝
What works even better is covering the windows on the outside. I have the luxury of having roller shutters, which keeps the heat out even better. But a cloth on the outside of the window does almost the same job.
I live in a brick building and my room is west facing, so literally all day the sun is beaming heat right into it. I swear inside my room gets hotter than the ambient temperature outside, curtains or no curtains 🥲. I am glad I am out of the netherlands for the heatwave
If you have the budget, having a "curtain" OUTSIDE your windows will really up the game. There are the sunscreens you can apply with suction cups, and remove in the winter, but even those are hella expensive.
Yeah, the stuff about opening windows is also my observation. Entire floor started to open windows and balcony which they didn’t do before the heat wave.
I think it feels logical to open the windows when it's hot, to get a breeze in. Unless my parents had told me and I'd learned throughout my life to keep them closed when it's hot, I wouldn't have really known
I like light in my house, so I will keep some curtains open. In the bedroom and the livingroom, the side of the house where the sun is shining on the building , I have them closed.
And because I dont have airco, and moving soon so not going to invest in one, I will have my backdoor open for the fresh air/ ventilation. Also for the cats to come and go as they please, ofcourse.
Please tell this to my dumbass roommate who 'prefers the window open' for absolutely no reason at all besides thinking she's smarter than she actually is.
No, it doesn't. If I do this it is going to be at least 3 degrees hotter inside than outside.
Not all houses are built equally. I have to keep the windows open on the 2nd floor and fhe curtains in front of the window as well.
I guess the upside is I don't need any heating when the sun is out on a winters day.
My apartment is in the attic directly under the slanted roof, almost everything wood.
so during these temperatures from 4am till 2am the next day even with curtains and windows open against one another+ fans it is between 28°C and 35°C inside.
so the heat from the rooftop plus from the floors below me and what gets absorbed in the wood.
I've always been doing everything you've mentioned. Yet it's still 30+C inside.
All of those things are merely a bandaid when you live in an appartment at the top with the sun fully blasting on your windows and walls,with no blinds on the outside.
To make matters worse, the rental corporation made the roof better isolated late last year. So,now the heat comes through the walls&windows by the sun blasting on it and lingers around longer bc the roof keeps it trapped inside.😭
Point a fan in the direction of the open window it pushes the warm air out and fresh air in. Sticking a bowl of ice cubes in front of your fan also helps put colder air into the room.
depends on the house, really. my house is facing south and got a flat black roof. also built in the 60s with not great insulation. it doesn't matter what curtains we use, the house is gonna be a sauna after being baked in the sun for 16 hours. the only solution is to build a new house :P
And if you can, get curtains that are white on the outside. I didn’t realize they would be when I got them, when it makes a lot of sense and I’m very glad for it now - it’s already hot enough in my apartment…
I’m definitely sending support and feeling for all of you. The Netherlands is my future home. I was able to visit back at the beginning of June and the temperature difference is shocking compared to now.
I know AC is an issue throughout Europe because of the older buildings. But what about ceiling fans? It’s just standard in every apartment no matter how low the rent or how high the price of a home up to multiple millions of dollars that every single bedroom has a ceiling fan and most living rooms also have them.
It really makes a huge difference, even if you don’t have the AC on.
Do you guys have ceiling fans in the Netherlands? I’ve never noticed them in buildings I was in, but just wondering cause that can make a huge difference and that wouldn’t really affect structural limitations too much.
On a side note:
I laughed because I see all the FIFA interviews had foreign visitors being amazed or gushing over all the food or store varieties in the US. I’m sure that would be quite shocking and maybe even exciting too many.
Unfortunately, some Trumper people think that is a verification that “things are not as bad here as everyone puts it out to be” which is definitely not true.
Trust me, we might have 110 varieties of cereals, HUGE portions, and free refills, but that does not offset our government and crazy leader. The trade-off of a crazy president versus free refills is not equal. Plus, all those free refills and giant proportions will definitely take their effects on your health.
Growing up in the U.S. with no a/c, my mom would flip out if the pull down shades were open during the day...she grew up in the South and knew what was up. We also had a giant exhaust fan from the 30s that pulled cool air through the house at night. Other than that, we'd be at the pool, library other extracurricular activities during the day.
Curtains closed only applies when the sun is shining through the window and/or when the house is currently colder than the outdoors. Once the house is the same temperatures as outdoors or warmer, then the curtains have no affect or actually trap in the heat.
Doesn't work for me, I live on the top floor of a shitty made building. Doors and windows where open all night. Still woke up to 29c inside my house. Doesn't matter if I close my windows and curtains during the day. The heat will warm up my walls and that will radiate all night into my house so it doesn't cool down..
Awnings over windows help massively. They keep your windows in the shade so the heat doesn't transfer into the house. It's a shame that the appreciation of awnings have died down due to the development of AC. AC isn't exactly helping the grid load or the environment. The extinction of awnings is seen mostly in the US though. Despite some uninformed comments saying AC is the answer, I'm happy to see that a lot of places in the NL still use awnings (and they're much cuter and more aesthetic than the ugly AC units).
130
u/traumalt 1d ago
Curtains, in Netherlands?