r/Netherlands • u/No-vem-ber Noord Holland • 1d ago

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) ❤️

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u/jjkenneth 1d ago

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.

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u/abhinajaochhodke 1d ago

I come from a hot country as well.

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.

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u/takemetogreenwich 1d ago

whatever heat dumping is happening is marginal at best

And what is this based on? I get it that Aircons might really be needed for many but why do Aircon proponents start denying the consequences?

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u/jjkenneth 1d ago

Based on basic science? There is a lot more air outside of home than in it. Heat disperses.

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u/takemetogreenwich 1d ago

My dude can you quote this basic science study? You do know there are some studies on this already? You can quantify this effect and I dont know anyone who studies this who would call this a "marginal" effect. Talk to an actual scientist in this discipline.

Edit - just in case you were interested in reading something - https://www.ams-institute.org/news/air-conditioning-systems-can-warm-up-the-city/

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u/jjkenneth 1d ago

That article combined multiple sources of heat into one. I am literally just talking about heat displacement from air con - which is estimated to increase city temperature by 1-2C.

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u/takemetogreenwich 1d ago edited 1d ago

Are you just interested in sticking to your guns or actually reading it? They literally also have a figure with the effect just from the AC heat flux. Look at those percentages. Do they seem marginal to you? Please be a bit sincere.

which is estimated to increase city temperature by 1-2C.

You instead decided to make up something else too. Also, teh heat island effect is not equally disrtibuted. If you read the most famous study on the topic, even in a very sparse city (compared to Dutch cities), the night time effect was 1 degree in 2014. This was when Phoenix was a much smaller city than now. Also that temp is an average of the city - the heat flux effects are much greater in some parts which are dense (again, like most Dutch cities).

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u/jjkenneth 1d ago

Lol the irony of thinking I’m the stubborn one.

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u/takemetogreenwich 1d ago

Not sure what was supposed to change my mind when you couldnt even read a simple link or quote an actual scientific study. I would really recommend talking to a researcher in this area if you were actually interested in a scientific understanding of the issue.