Heat stress due to solar radiation in the house 

On Wednesday 19 May, the Woonbond organized a webinar about heat and heat stress. It was striking that more than half of the participants (55%) needed the landlord to tackle the heat problem in their home, and that almost a quarter (23%) had to deal with a landlord who did not cooperate. A burning question from these participants was: How can I get the landlord to take action?

 

Coolness is not a right

Energy advisor Siem Goede of the Woonbond explains: “Dutch law only stipulates the right to heat, but not the right to coolness. The landlord is therefore not obliged by law to do anything. A landlord who does not cooperate will have to convince you.

That can sometimes be very difficult.”   

In recent years, the Rent Assessment Committee and the court have ruled in favor of tenants that the temperature in the home was rising too high and the landlord had to do something about it. In these cases the heat was classified as a 'defect'.

 

Heat also in spring and autumn

There are a number of methods to determine whether the heat in your home is a defect. The simplest method, which is also accepted by the Rent Assessment Committee and the court, is the Temperature Exceedance (TO) method.

The TO method assumes that heat in the home is a deficiency if the indoor temperature exceeds 26.5 degrees Celsius for more than 300 hours a year, while the outside temperature is at least 6 degrees lower. This can happen in the summer as well as in the spring and autumn, and sometimes even in winter.

 

It is of course important that as a tenant you also take measures to ensure that the temperature does not rise too high. Tips can be found on the webpage: 

How do I deal with heat in the house?

And at the end of this article you will probably read some of these tips.

 

Outdoor blinds are home improvement

“Temperature exceedances are usually caused by intense sunlight,” says Siem Goede. “The solution is usually to install external sun protection, such as awnings, awnings, slats or screens.

In addition, good ventilation and blowdown facilities are needed to expel the warm air from the house at night.”

These adjustments to the home fall under home improvement. The landlord may request a rent increase for this or pass on costs in the service costs.

 

Keep a log

Do you want to demonstrate that it is really getting too hot in your home? Then apply the Temperature Exceedance (TO) method. You can do this yourself very easily. Keep a log, for example in a notebook, in which you note the date, time and temperature in the house. You can usually read this on the room thermostat. Don't have a room thermostat that indicates the temperature? Then purchase a room thermometer. Occasionally take a photo of the temperature on the thermostat or thermometer, preferably a photo with date and time format.

The data on the outside temperature can be found on the KNMI website. Choose the weather station closest to your home. It is most convincing for the landlord, but also for the Rent Assessment Committee and the judge if various tenants from a complex have kept a log.

 

Position of the Woonbond

The Woonbond argues that legislation and regulations should be amended to prevent and combat heat in homes. “We are increasingly confronted with heat waves,” says fellow energy adviser Anne Ubbels.

“And with increasingly better insulated homes that keep the heat out for longer, but are also more difficult to cool down once they have warmed up. So the problem will become more frequent if nothing changes."

 

Tips: What can you do about heat yourself?

• The most important thing is that you ensure that your home does not heat up too much by preventing the sun from shining into your house. This works best with sun protection on the outside of the glass: a parasol, a shade cloth, a sheet, (espalier) trees, an overgrown pergola. If you have a sunshade or shutters or shutters, let them down on time. Also make sure you keep windows and doors closed during the day.

 

• In addition, it is important to ventilate well at night, when it is cooler outside than inside. Open windows and doors together. Set the ventilation to the highest setting. If you have a heat pump on a heat-cold storage installation, you can set it to cooling.

 

• A lot of stone and asphalt in the vicinity of your house also creates heat, while plants and water provide cooling. If you have a garden or balcony, remove as many tiles as possible and place as many plants as possible. Façade gardens also provide cooling.

 

Source: www.woonbond.nl

 

Tips for a cool house in the summer

It doesn't just seem like our summers are getting warmer. That's just how it is. Are you prepared for the day the sparrows fall from the roof? Our refreshing tips will help you get more sleep at night and keep your home a lot cooler.

 

Tip 1: Keep the heat outside

It's easier to keep heat out than to get it out of your house. Take advantage of these tips to keep your home cool without air conditioning.

• Close all windows and doors in the morning. Curtains may also be closed and awnings, screens or shutters may be lowered. This way you keep the sun out. An awning provides additional shade. What doesn't heat up doesn't need to cool down.
• A flat roof often gets red hot. It is certainly worth growing plants on it, a green roof. Takes a while, but then you also have something! In the meantime, you can keep the roof wet, for example with a garden hose.
• Hang your laundry outside. Dries quickly and smells fresh. A tumble dryer gives off a lot of heat, just like an oven. You can't wait for that with that heat. 
• Cooking also releases heat. A BBQ is therefore highly recommended. Do you have no energy for that at the end of the day? Make a fresh salad in the morning when it is still cool. Wonderful with this weather!

 

Tip 2: Too late? This is how you cool down

Have you got the heat in yet? When the sun goes down, of course you open everything wide again. Logically. But there are more tricks to keep your head and house cool.

• Take in the cool breeze from outside in the morning. Open all windows and doors for a while, before sealing everything again.
• Is it really unhardenable inside? If you do open a window, hang a wet sheet in front of it. That's how you cool the air.
• Can not you Sleep? Then cool off with a cold shower. That is often enough to lower your body temperature so that you do fall asleep. No polyester bedding, but bedding made of satin, linen or cotton feels nice and fresh at night.

 

Tip 3: Still too hot? Fan in the house.

Sometimes it stays hot for weeks on end. Then a fan in the house is recommended.

This is how a fan helps the best.
A fan only uses 15 kilowatt-hours per year. A good investment if you are looking for refreshment. Use it smart! Open the window, put the fan in the doorway and let it blow into the hallway. Because the fan sucks the warm air out of your room, you pull cool air in through the window. Exactly what you want.

 

Source: to an article on www.essent.nl/kennisbank

 

Ventilate or ventilate

Airing is the complete renewal of the air in a room in a short period of time.

You can do this by opening a window and/or opening a door.

You usually do airing for a short time and you can warm up the fresh cold air fairly quickly.

Airing is not a substitute for ventilation.

The effect of thorough ventilation on air quality has completely disappeared within a few hours.

 

Ventilation is a continuous weak air flow in which the supply of fresh air and the removal of polluted and moist air takes place through different openings.

Ventilation sometimes occurs unconsciously through cracks and by opening doors. This already happens if, for example, you open and close the door when you go out or in. That is a nice bonus, but it is especially important that you use the ventilation facilities that have been installed in the home for this purpose.

It is essential for ventilation that there must be both a supply and exhaust air in every room.

 

Source: Comfortable and healthy living; a brochure of the Woonbond

 

Hot days? Saving water even more important

On hot days, we all consume millions of extra liters of drinking water. To water the garden, fill baths and take an extra shower. If that lasts for days in a row, it is possible that our daily supply is going very fast and less water comes out of the tap. Hence our appeal: try to be extra careful with water on hot days.

 

Saving water in hot weather

Normally, the average Dutch person consumes 120 liters of drinking water per day. In the summer, on hot days, this sometimes rises to 150 liters. We only use a few liters of it to drink. And you should definitely keep doing that, because tap water is and remains the very best thirst quencher. Drinking water consumption could be a bit less in other areas. With the tips below you can easily save water.

 

• Shower a minute shorter

We get it: a nice refreshing shower is a relief in warm weather. But on average we take a shower for more than 8 minutes and use 70 liters of drinking water. That can be (much) shorter! Every minute less saves almost 2,200 liters per year.

 

• Spray smart

If you start watering in the middle of the day, almost all the water will immediately evaporate again. The best time to water is therefore very early in the morning

(before 7 a.m.) or in the evening (after 10 p.m.), so that the water has time to soak in. A little drought isn't bad at all for many plants. This is how you stimulate root growth. 

• Avoid the water rush hour

It is rush hour on hot days between 07:00 and 09:00 and between 18:00 and 22:00. Because a lot of water is then required at the same time, the water pressure can drop. Therefore, shower briefly and postpone less important matters. Such as, for example, car washing, spraying and the use of the washing machine and dishwasher.

 

• Don't let the water run off

Do you fill a bath in the garden (or the bathtub) with tap water? Then don't just let it run away. You can easily reuse that water to water your plants in the garden. 

 

• Also use a rain barrel in the summer

Rainwater is free and perfect for watering plants or cleaning the car. And did you know that you can also clean your windows with it? In the summer it rains less often, but there can be heavy downpours, which can replenish your rain barrel. So make it easy on yourself and purchase a rain barrel.

 

• Use the flush interrupter on the toilet

A third of the Dutch never use the flush interrupter of the toilet. A shame, because that saves you half.

 

• Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth

When you brush your teeth for two minutes with the tap open, you flush more than 2 liters of water down the sink.

 

• Replace leaking and dripping faucets

A leaking tap sometimes costs thousands of liters per year. So a big waste of water! You can save a lot of water by replacing old faucets.

• Choose the car wash

Happy with a shiny car? At home, a wash costs an average of 75 liters of water. In a

In a water-saving car wash, that's only 15 litres. Moreover, they often collect the leftovers of detergent, oil and dirt there, so that they do not end up in the environment.

As a drinking water company, we supply about 140% of the normal amount on hot days. Logical too. We all take a refreshing shower more often, we water extra in the garden and let children play in a bath filled with tap water. And because we often do this all at the same time at certain peak times (between 7 am and 9 am and between 6 pm and 10 pm), this can lead to lower water pressure.

 

Source: www.vitens.nl/over-water/water-besparen