Living in an oven

[Pat in Pattaya]

How do you cope with it? Stay at home with the air con blasting, living the dream?

[transam]

No, I built our place in an area where it has access to a breeze, not surrounded by concrete..

[saakura]

Early morning today i went for a jog in the Lumpini park, and after a nice coffee & breakfast at Au Bon Pain reading the Bangkok Post, back home now. After a good shower and another coffee (yes, with AC on), i intend to go with my family to Central for lunch, weekly shopping at Tops Market, car wash, optical shop etc and back home by 2pm for a nap. 4-6pm badminton with son and other friends in our condo court. Dinner at home 7pm cooked by my wife. Then relax time till i sleep by around 10pm as i wake up early everyday 5am. Not enough time in a day!!

[Crossy]

13 minutes ago, transam said:

No, I built our place in an area where it has access to a breeze, not surrounded by concrete..

Ditto.

 

Wide eaves, lots of through ventilation (and fans), multitude of shade plants, no aircon except in the bedroom at night.

 

It's definitely sizzling out in the sunshine mind, I'm happy to watch it from the comfortable shade.

[worgeordie]

Thank God ,don't live in a condo,I don't have A/c ,because I don't like it,

our house is surrounded by trees and shrubs,with several water features,

sleep with windows open,same in daytime downstairs,only wear sarong

in the house,very comfortable at the moment,very small fan blowing,

best to try and live with what the weather throws at you,than trying to

control or fight it,been British was never brought up with A/c's,while

Americans they view them as an essential,must have.

regards Worgeordie

[JLCrab]

I live in a rural area and, even though I have 2 working air conditioners in the house, when it's real hot, I prefer to use floor fans and take lots of bucket showers. When the TGF comes over -- I call her a one-woman water shortage -- she does much the same and she can take all the bucket showers she wants as long as I get to watch (and that is quite a sight).

Edited May 20, 2018 by JLCrab

[transam]

5 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Ditto.

 

Wide eaves, lots of through ventilation (and fans), multitude of shade plants, no aircon except in the bedroom at night.

 

It's definitely sizzling out in the sunshine mind, I'm happy to watch it from the comfortable shade.

Ditto...

Folk who buy a place on one of those concrete estates where the houses are only a few feet apart will probably have a problem...

[MaeJoMTB]

22 minutes ago, transam said:

Ditto...

Folk who buy a place on one of those concrete estates where the houses are only a few feet apart will probably have a problem...

Got one of those, no problem air con works fine.

We just use a fan most of the day.

[akirasan]

Our house we are in now is an oven. It's an old Thai style raised wooden house with paper thin walls and a tin roof. I'm currently looking at ceiling fan options. 

After 2 years it's gotten easier. If I know it's going to be a hot day I start drinking water early and keep it up throughout the day.  

[Peterw42]

41 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Ditto.

 

Wide eaves, lots of through ventilation (and fans), multitude of shade plants, no aircon except in the bedroom at night.

 

It's definitely sizzling out in the sunshine mind, I'm happy to watch it from the comfortable shade.

I would agree but I find it baffling that most new-builds dont do much in the way of design, ventilation, insulation, shade etc. There is something fundamentally wrong with a design, airflow or materials, if it ends up hotter inside (or under) a structure than outside

Edited May 20, 2018 by Peterw42

[transam]

30 minutes ago, MaeJoMTB said:

Got one of those, no problem air con works fine.

We just use a fan most of the day.

The only place I need the expense of A/C is in my bedroom, but my bedrooms are upstairs. That floor gets hot but is a heat buffer for downstairs (open plan) where only ceiling fans are needed, plus three sets of "French" doors which can be opened if needed...

[jak2002003]

Move house OP.  Get a house with insulation in the roof and prober ventilation. With that you won't need AC.

 

I only have the AC on in the bedroom in the hot season at night.  During the day, and the rest of the year I just use fans.

 

Really, you will never get used to the warmer temperature here if you live you life going form one super cool AC room to another, and your AC car, AC shopping mall, etc.

 

When you go outside wear a hat... this really makes a big difference to keeping cool too.  Wear clothes of a natural fibres so your skin can breath and moisture evaporate (and of course not black top in the daytime). 

 

Taking a cool shower and drinking a cool drink will help obviously.  

[IsaanFam]

It is really easy, 24x7 aircon on 16 C.

[Peterw42]

2 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

Move house OP.  Get a house with insulation in the roof and prober ventilation. With that you won't need AC.

 

I only have the AC on in the bedroom in the hot season at night.  During the day, and the rest of the year I just use fans.

 

Really, you will never get used to the warmer temperature here if you live you life going form one super cool AC room to another, and your AC car, AC shopping mall, etc.

 

When you go outside wear a hat... this really makes a big difference to keeping cool too.  Wear clothes of a natural fibres so your skin can breath and moisture evaporate (and of course not black top in the daytime). 

 

Taking a cool shower and drinking a cool drink will help obviously.  

All great advice, I would also add diet, avoid stodgy European food, live like a Thai person and go out at night sleep in the heat of the day etc.

[geriatrickid]

1 hour ago, transam said:

Ditto...

Folk who buy a place on one of those concrete estates where the houses are only a few feet apart will probably have a problem...

You make an excellent point. There is a concrete gated housing project in Hua Hin that  boggles the mind. Everything is paved over. I mean everything. There are houses, but there are no yards per say, just semi walled enclosures which are cemented and asphalted over. Few shade trees. The place gets so hot during the day. I don't know what the developer was thinking

[transam]

1 minute ago, geriatrickid said:

You make an excellent point. There is a concrete gated housing project in Hua Hin that  boggles the mind. Everything is paved over. I mean everything. There are houses, but there are no yards per say, just semi walled enclosures which are cemented and asphalted over. Few shade trees. The place gets so hot during the day. I don't know what the developer was thinking

There are loads of them near me, they "look" very nice, but, folk forget that concrete absorbs heat, so you can never get rid of it unless a good rainfall....

Electric storage heaters in cold countries work on the same principal, heat up the internal "bricks" to hold the heat to keep a place warm.....

[JLCrab]

12 minutes ago, transam said:

There are loads of them near me, they "look" very nice, but, folk forget that concrete absorbs heat, so you can never get rid of it unless a good rainfall....

Electric storage heaters in cold countries work on the same principal, heat up the internal "bricks" to hold the heat to keep a place warm.....

I have a problem when it gets real hot in that I have to turn off all the fans and the air-conditioner in the room if I want to do any music recording or else the mics pick up the noise. How do you handle it?

Edited May 20, 2018 by JLCrab

[jenny2017]

We've got three aircons at home, but we only use the one in the master bedroom from time to time. 

 

  Last year, I had 13 lessons in rooms without air, many of these lessons were in a new building without any fans. And it wasn't in a small village where they don't have money....

 

   After 15 plus years of living here, you'd think that "you're getting used" to the temperatures, but I'm afraid that there's only a difference from hotter to hottest. 

 

  

 

    

 

   

[tebee]

22 minutes ago, geriatrickid said:

.... I don't know what the developer was thinking

How many houses can I squeeze  on this plot probably ...

[BEVUP]

1 hour ago, MaeJoMTB said:

Got one of those, no problem air con works fine.

We just use a fan most of the day.

Same here 

Put the aircon on at 5 pm when we shut doors from mossies (wife habit as the mossies cling to the screen doors trying to get in ) 

Have grass around half the house - Not like the Thais that will concrete all & extend half the house to the fence & live in that all day

[MaeJoMTB]

55 minutes ago, transam said:

The only place I need the expense of A/C is in my bedroom, but my bedrooms are upstairs. That floor gets hot but is a heat buffer for downstairs (open plan) where only ceiling fans are needed, plus three sets of "French" doors which can be opened if needed...

Same.

[EVENKEEL]

One A/C in bedroom is much needed. Rest of day is fans with open doors, until evening when the skeeters attack.

[JLCrab]

My hearing is bad. I thought the guy said three sets of French whores downstairs. That would definitely cool things off.

 

But that's Diana and Lionel -- what's that got to do with you and the Mrs?

Edited May 20, 2018 by JLCrab

[robblok]

I can afford an aircon so I have one in 3 rooms. Bedroom, gym room, and livingroom. I work in the livingroom i put it on 28 degrees and it works for me. 

 

My house certainly is not an oven we got a nice park just in front of the house but not much breeze. I used to live in an other house in the same village but it was centered in a different way it got far more sun. That house was an oven. 

[JLCrab]

Yes -- it's called a screen reader.

Edited May 20, 2018 by JLCrab

[RichardColeman]

Due to costs, we currently live on one of those 'concrete estates' in Pattaya - and even my Thai wife says house is like an oven.

We rarely have the aircon on in the house - since the houses are built so badly the cold air is gone in 5 minutes. 

There is a room in the middle of the house that we tend to go into if it is too hot and we - me, the baby and the wife - tend to have an air conditioned siesta to cope with the worst of it.

 

Personally I think a fan and a wet flannel is the best solution for those really bad days.

 

That said, our house rent had just fallen by 500 baht a month to 9,000 - 2 bedroomed house with community pool - so maybe the world cup can be air conned now !! And anyone saying go jump in the pool all day - in the words of Albert Steptoe, I'd be as 'black as a gorillas goolies' if I did that in this sun ! 

[CGW]

2 hours ago, Crossy said:

Ditto.

 

Wide eaves, lots of through ventilation (and fans), multitude of shade plants, no aircon except in the bedroom at night.

 

It's definitely sizzling out in the sunshine mind, I'm happy to watch it from the comfortable shade.

I live on a 3 Rai lot with very few neighbours, garden planted to maximise shade & for six months of the year have no need for AC apart from the bedroom, the other six months it is far more comfortable with AC, through breezes when it is close to 40c outside along with high humidity? not getting it, by 09:00 we close up the house and keep what "cool" we have, supplemented with AC run at 28c to keep heat & humidity down.

[Rimmer]

Several off topic videos have been removed, please stay on topic which is about:

Living in an oven

[jenny2017]

 When the thermometer hits 39 degrees Celcius in our living room, I've got the feeling that I'm inside of an oven, yeah. 

[55Jay]

Yeah, not much you can do about the concrete jungle moo baan outside.   

 

Did some initial projects to our little ground floor 3 bed 2 bath Gable roof convection oven, with an eye toward heat mitigation:

• Install security screen doors for front patio and kitchen entries. 
• 17" exhaust fan in 2nd bathroom window end of the hall.
• 10 vented eave boards to open attic void from the bottom. 

Next on the list:

• Passive heat outflow from attic void.  Leaning toward vented tiles along roof line ridge, not Whirly birds.
• After that, blown in attic insulation to slow attic heat migration through the gyp board ceiling. 
• Extensions around roof line perimeter to keep more sun off exterior walls and windows.

The front and side garden areas weren't paved over, thankfully, and there are a few mature Ficus trees helping to shade front of the house from direct sun. 

 

That little 17" exhaust fan does remarkably well pulling air in/through the house, but nowhere near as good as Dr. Naam's "whole house fan".