gejohesch

Thanks! I tried my best to navigate this issue and, frankly, it's not straightforward! I like your line "So it is possible to make an inexpensive paint of barium sulphate and reduce the heat gain by a very substantial amount. you can have any colour you like as long as it’s white." So, yes, white paint (and the barium sulphate nano particle type you mention). I guess it's the outside that should be painted, rather than the inside of the house? Sorry for asking, but I'm not an expert and I would prefer to avoid assuming too quickly, and then wasting my time (especially if 30 coats are required!). What do you think of tiling the exterior of the walls? I guess that would add to the thermal mass and possibly be useful somehow?

That's also where I'm coming from : every little help helps! I guess the foam improves the wall insulation. At least, the wall looks good from an aesthetic point of view ! It ends up being cheap too, I guess, maybe a couple of 1,000 THB for an entire wall, and rather easy to put in place. So, that's an idea I will keep in mind.

I very much agree with you. In fact, 28 Celsius only feels good to me when I come in from a warmer place, but it quickly feels not so comfortable after all. My "sweet spot", if I may say, is around 25-26 or even a bit lower (23-24 about) if working (like being in an office space). It's actually amazing how sensitive one can be to a single degree difference! At the moment, I keep all windows open at night in our daily living space, to capture the relative coolness of the early morning (28 degrees) - with screens on to keep the bugs away, of course! In my view, (1) = keeping a house cool in a hot climate has much in common with (2) = keeping a house warm in a cool/cold climate. It's just that the heat transfer one tries to reduce is in the opposite direction (from outside to the inside or the reverse). Therefore, one of the first things I think should be done is to reduce to the maximum all possible gaps, like around the window and door frames, to avoid cold air to getting out or coming in (depending whether (1) or (2) situation). Then comes the question of all materials around the inside-outside interface that could be considered as good conductors, and that will effectively transfer heat across the interface. Sure, metal is an issue then; the aluminum window frames feel down hot at the end of the afternoon! Sure, glass is a relatively poor conductor, but then : relatively to what? If it was such a poor conductor that I would not have to worry about it, then why can I not hold a glass of hot water in my hands? Or why do we need double (if not triple) glazing to keep houses warm (or cool)? The fact is that in double (triple) glazing, the space between the glass panes is filled with argon, a gas which is considerably less conductive than glass. Also, if you consider an insulating flask made of glass (Thermos), the real insulator is not the glass but the vacuum between the two walls of the flask. Once a given material (metal or glass) gets warm, it starts radiating out energy, hence heat transfer to the inside (situation (1) = our problem here in Thailand). So, yes I agree with the AC's, but before I install the AC units, and to make their work easier (and less costly), I would like to explore ways of: - a) reducing the "gaps"; - b) reducing how warm surfaces such as window frames and glass panes, but also walls actually get warm; - c) reducing the extent to which those surfaces will be radiating heat to the inside of the house. a) is easy (plug the gaps); b) I have done everything possible around the house to provide as much shading as possible (trees, plants, roof). So there is not much direct sunlight hitting the house. The surfaces in question nevertheless get warm because of the ambient temperatures. As someone said above, the walls in Thailand are not very helpful (concrete blocks + a bit of cement + metal). Is there a way to paint or coat the window frames that would reduce their heat absorption? Would cladding the exterior with ceramic tiles provide some degree of insulation? I'm thinking of why house are tiled up and down in Portugal - there should be a reason other than purely decorative! c) Inside of the house then, same question about painting / coating the window frames. I'm not interested in putting films on the glass panes, since there is no direct sunlight anywhere anymore. Ouf! I know this is rather long, and I apologize for not having addressed all the points made above. It's a complex matter and it takes time to discuss!

Allow me to disagree with some here. When I touch the walls, especially at the end of the day, they feel warm. When I touch the window panes (glass), they feel very warm. That's exactly as radiators feel (the type used in cold countries). And heat radiates, that's simple physics, is it not?

To you and nigelforbes just above. Thanks, what I take from you is the idea of installing bamboo slats on the outside. Btw, it's not just about blocking out direct sunlight and heat, it's also about insulating against the outside temperature even if there is no direct sunlight! It's a matter of heat radiation! I have done everything I could so far with planting trees around etc, reshaping the roof completely (adding space between the roof and the hanging ceiling for better ventilation + replacing the roof sheets with sheets + 5cm insulation), and putting insulation rolls (5 cm) on the hanging ceiling before closing up again. What remains, mainly, is the heat radiating from outside to the inside.

I'm not usually in Thailand around April, but this year it turned out I could not avoid it, and I'm shocked with he heat levels. It's around 40 Celsius every single day, temperature does not drop below 28 Celsius in the early morning, and no rain in sight to cool the climate down for weeks, where I am in Isan! I've done some work in my wife's village house over the years, but not enough, obviously. I noticed that the walls and especially the windows radiate heat inside like mad. It's like we had radiators all around us, not a good idea... One wall is tiled up half way up on the outside and the sections that are tiled up feel a bit cooler on the inside than the untiled sections. So maybe tiling up more is a good idea? But more importantly, the window panes are damn hot. Replacing them with double glazing windows would be expensive and there would be the added problem that probably no one around would ever have installed such things. So I come to the idea of placing insulating films on the windows: does anyone have any experience with that in Thailand? Obviously, one solution would be to install AC units. We already have one in the bedroom and it's great! For the rest of the house, I will consider 2 or 3 AC units at some stage but not in the immediate. And btw, the AC in the bedroom has to fight its way against 2 of those heat radiating windows anyway, so back to the question : what can I do with those windows?

I had a similar experience some 10 years ago. I would like to make 2 points here. 1 - Australia is (after all) an island, and like all islands, it tries to control to the maximum what comes in and could upset the local eco-system. This is perfectly understandable. Australia even attempts to control what goes from one state to the other, which is also understandable given the size of the country. 2 - Having lived a few years in Australia, I observed multiple times a rather different attitude on part of the police forces and assimilated, when compared with other countries I know. An attitude that I am temped to call "carceral". It's easy to think that comes from the well-known fact that Australia was mainly settled (after the aborigines) by convicts, being considered as a penal colony by GB. (I'm not Australian, btw). My experience then. Flying from Melbourne to Perth, me + wife went through the usual controls. The dog got excited sniffing around my wife's bag, and rapidly zoomed in to her toiletry bag. The lady officer asked what was in it, and as my wife could not think of anything out of the ordinary, the officer got very aggressive and threatening, with words like "we will find it, you can be sure of that!" - typical. After a good 5 minutes searching through the bag and further angry and threatening behaviour, she could still not find anything special, and she grudgingly had to let us pass. One day later, in Perth, my wife found what the dog had been sniffing up. She had picked up small flowers she found lovely, while in Melbourne, and put them into her toiletry bag. There were 2 tiny wilted petals left in the bag when we flew to Perth!

Same experience here, after a while working in M. I was ready to move up to Thailand, so much more exciting and worth putting up with some of the well-known "Thailand eccentricities"

Maybe there are statistics showing that tourists (or any non-resident foreigners for that matter) spend much less per day between days 31-45 than between days 1-30? Remember, what is wanted here is money money money, and there are always suspicions that non-Thais are not seen as desirable....

You forgot : frequent modifications to the rules!

Thai logic... or (total) lack of

There is a risk with long haul flights as well. I've been asked 2 or 3 times in the past to show an onward reservation when checking in at different airports in Europe (never tried from the UK - saying this as many here are Brits, it seems). Luckily, every time, I actually had one such reservation ready at hand.

2 or 3 weeks later…. Here is an update on my project. I attach 5 pics to illustrate. Pic 1: I decided to use “blocks” on the pillars, anchored on metal rods. The rods are hammered into 1 1/2 inch holes (about) that were drilled in the pillars (with a bit of chipping off here and there, but nothing that could not be easily repaired with cement later on).These are the standard grey “blocks” found everywhere in Thailand – as can be seen lying on the wall, ready to be put in place. Pic 2: Away from the pillars, I used red bricks. At the ends of each bricked up section, where the wall is interrupted by the “decorative bars”, the bricks were cemented on to metal rods that were welded onto the metal frame of the “decorative bars”. Pic 3: The resulting wall addition : grey blocks on the pillars, red bricks away from the pillars. Pic 4: To add further strength to the blocks, I bricked them up – making use of the space still available on the pillars. Pic 5: A view from the street side. As I was working with a local handyman, there was a bit of variation in the work. On the left side, sets of 2 bricks were used (glued together beforehand using Bestbond glue). On the right side, single red bricks. Nothing wrong with a bit of inconsistency, it adds charm to the construction! ????As for the segments with the “decorative bars”, I screwed in acrylic sheets (3mm thick). I had to leave space open across the “golden spires” because they protrude either side of the frame. I forgot to mention that we mixed a bit of bonding product (TOA) with the cement. I liked the cement texture that way, it’s easier to use I find and it is supposed to give extra strength to the cement. This gives a good idea of what I managed to make. It’s not finished yet, I need to think of the “cosmetics”, i.e. rendering with cement and eventually painting up like the existing wall underneath. I think that 1) the construction is very solid – no risk to get knocked over by strong winds; 2) it ends up being pleasant enough to the eye; and 3) it will not completely protect the house from the heat of the sun (but my wife is already pleased with the extra shadow ????), nor completely protect the house from the rain (but it will stop some of it for sure!).

I'm a EU citizen. I flew in to Thailand mid January and stayed 45 days, in line with the visa exemption scheme. For personal reasons, I need to get back to Thailand early April (again by air). My question is whether the visa exemption period will still be 45 days, and not changed back to 30 days as it used to be previously. I need to know that so I can book my flights accordingly. My understanding is that I can enter Thailand several times a year if flying in - whereas it's limited to twice a year if by land. I will most likely want to come back to Thailand, again, later in the year, most likely end August to September or October, either on a visa exemption period or maybe that time I will arrange for a TR visa for a longer stay i.e. beyond 45 days. Another question then is whether that makes sense. Thanks in advance for your comments!

Maybe not as effective an institution as could be desired, however it's an excellent platform to vent out issues and to see where the various countries stand on important international issues. Not that useless at all!

That says it all

In which bubble are you living? It's all over the news. Just at random, from a 2 minutes google search: Russian lawmaker warns Poland is next in line for 'denazification after Ukraine' | Fox News and that on Fox News of all possible sources, the "News" where people like Tucker Carlson are spilling their pro-Russian propaganda every single day. Russian Analyst Says to Nuke Yellowstone (businessinsider.com) bne IntelliNews - Russian foreign minister speaks of Moldova as the “next Ukraine” He mentions Moldova would be the next country "the West" plans to bring under its "domination", which will of course give Russia the pretext to attack that country and to "denazify" it. Because in the Russian raethoric, anyone who dos not bend the knee to Putin is a "nazi"! As for causing a nuclear tsunami to destriy the whole of the British Isles, it's been repeated so many times over the last few months... Now, of course, you may argue that these are all fake news. Like people arguing that all the pics of devastation in Ukraine are fake, or caused by the Ukrainians themselves. This has become as improbable as the earth being flat or the universe having been created 6,537 years, 3 months and 22 days ago (or sthg like that)? Up to you, but be sure to be on the right side!

Ans btw, I don't buy that BS about Ukraine being Russian land by right because of the historic origins Russia. Yes, it's true that at the beginning, and more or less until the Mongol invasions, there was the so-called "Kievan Rus' ", with embryonic northern branches such as Novgorod and Moscow. Russia per se started developing later on, centered on Moscow. Does that give Russia a rightful claim on Ukraine? No way! As a matter of fact, Ukrainians can just as well claim Kievan Rus' as their origins! Just imagine that the French population of Quebec would claim that, their historic origins being in France, that does give them the right to deny France the right to exist!!!!! That's just an example, one can just as well consider the anglo-saxon population of the USA deciding to aggress Europe because "that's where they came from"? What sort of madness is that?

There may have been some wrong done by the Ukrainians, who knows? I certainly don't know. But regardless, nothing can justify the barbaric aggression against Ukraine. And it has become clearer by the day that protecting ethnic Russians is only a pretext, what with all those delirious and repeated statements that "Moldova will be next, and/or Poland" and also "we will bomb Berlin and London" and recently even "let's nuke the San Andreas Fault and the Yellowstone mega-volcano to kill as many Americans as possible", in any odd order one would like? This is madness like has not been seen before. Regardless of any wrongdoings by the Ukraine, and possibly NATO and/or the EU etc, no, absolutely nothing justifies the Russian aggression and demented raethoric. I used to have sympathies for things Russian, I find it difficult to keep my sympathies alive!

Maybe, but demonstrates clearly how isolated Russia has become, in spite of all their BS raethoric and the pseudo-diplomatic drivel of Lavrov

I'm not going to mention your "experiment" to my wife, she might get the wrong idea.... ????????

Hmmmm.... thanks for your useful comments. The wall as is is certainly very strong, been there for several years and never moved - it is "anchored" by several pillars along its length (on average 1 every metre of "full" wall), a massive pillar at one end (leading to the gate on the other side) and at the other end by the wall that separates us from the neighbour. I will make sure the "addition" is made strong. Certainly, I will use the existing pillars as a base to reinforce the brickwork as much as possible. Maybe I should consider placing metal rods at each end of the brick sections to add further strength?

"rain water seeping through the wall" As said many times already, that is not the problem. It's a perfect tight and solid wall. The problem is that it only about 2m high in its "full" sections, and 1m high where it gets interrupted by the "decorative bars". It is a wall that separates the compound from the street, it's not the wall of the house itself. The problem is that when it rains - and it tends to rain rather violently around here - a lot of water washes over it into the compound.

You're right, but I'm not expecting to stop the rain altogether, just to get less of it coming over the wall. Plus, the intention is also to provide some extra shade. Finally, we are planning to renovate the roof next year or two, and by then we will make the eaves a bit longer, that should also help a bit. Nothing is perfect unless one puts up the price. Being in Isan, I'm happy with half-way solutions. Sure, my wife's 2-houses compound needs a lot of work up, but it's already a very lovely place, spacious, clean and pleasant. ????

Thanks. True, sand / cement mortar gets used for a good reason. But in my case, I'm not going to build a house or .... a Roman bridge with the bricks ????. I'm only increasing the wall height by 40 cm, and in sections varying between 1m and 3.5m with reinforcing pillars. I'm not designing to resist artillery fire! I mention "Roman bridge" because Romans were the inventors of cement and mortar, believe it or not Roman stuff is still being studied for their quality, I remember reading about it recently, sthg about how they got some component at the right temperature before mixing or sthg like that (I did not go too deep into the explanations).