I moved to Sicily from the UK - here’s what I’ve learnt about keeping your home cool during a heatwave.
Lost sleep. Low motivation. Feeling irritated. If you had to work indoors or be at home with small children during the record-breaking May heatwave, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
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Homes in northern Europe, where the heatwave struck, are built to keep the heat in, not let it out. So many houses or apartments became ovens during the high temperatures, which exceeded 30C in some places - more than 10C above the average for May.
In a report published by the UK’s Climate Change Committee earlier the same month, they recommended that air conditioning be installed in all care homes and hospitals within the next 10 years and in all schools within 25 years. While some sections of the population, such as the chronically ill, disabled or elderly, may need the quick cooling that air conditioning brings, for most healthy people, alternatives will be more than good enough.
There are many reasons to avoid air conditioning. In an average UK home, installation will cost £2,500 (€2,895) per room - an eye watering amount for average earners, and totally out of reach for low earners. The climate impacts are astounding. Air conditioners use more electricity than any other appliance in the home. They consume 10 per cent of global electricity (together with electric fans) and leak potent planet-warming gases into the atmosphere. On the hottest day of the year in some parts of the US and the Middle East, 70 per cent of peak residential electricity demand is for cooling spaces.
Spain has built a vast network of climate shelters - free public spaces such as libraries or museums where anyone can go to stay cool, sit down and have a drink of water. While the rest of Europe is catching up to organising these cool spaces, it makes sense to think about how to keep your home cool during hot days and nights.
Many homes in Sicily don’t have air conditioning
I moved from the UK to Sicily six years ago, one of the closest places in Europe to Africa. I was surprised at how many homes here don’t have air conditioning. That was until I understood the basic principles of keeping a home cool, so that even a fan might not be needed.
While the recent heatwave was all that my British friends and family could talk about, the heat rarely comes up in conversation here. It’s just seen as a fact that we have to work around, using methods passed down through the generations.
Surviving the heat is baked into life here. From how you build a new house to the schedule you work to at a new job, the heat is expected so you plan around it from the get-go.
Despite Sicily always having been hot it is the same as anywhere else in that heatwaves are getting more frequent, extreme and laster longer due to human-caused climate change. Quitting fossil fuels is the most effective way of getting on top of spiralling heat and we must all continue to lobby our governments to prioritise the climate crisis and take the necessary action, such as stopping fossil fuel subsidies.
But in the short term, a bit of forward planning could make the next heatwave where you live much easier to handle.
Drawing on my own experience and advice shared by others, here are my top tips for how to keep cool during a heatwave.
Keep the windows closed and covered
While it may seem counter intuitive to keep windows closed, as that would seem to keep heat trapped inside, it’s the right thing to do - on one condition. The windows must be covered from outside or inside, or even both, to keep the heat out and keep the internal temperature as low as possible.
While I used to find it odd that my mid-50s Sicilian cleaner would close all the curtains before leaving my house, now it makes perfect sense. Keeping curtains, blinds or makeshift window coverings closed makes a huge difference to the temperature inside the house.
There are very cheap ways to cover the outside of windows, like wallpaper liner taped on, big bed sheets trapped in the window closing or with bamboo or wooden garden screens. If you use bed sheets or towels, make sure they’re a light colour for added reflective power. For more expensive but permanent options, get awnings or shades installed above the windows, or shutters fixed on top of them.
Keep your clothes - and sheets - damp
Have you ever worn a t-shirt while in the sea or pool to protect yourself from the sun? Well, some people do the same but while sitting at home - and they don’t stop at t-shirts.
Writer and editor Sally Moss is no stranger to spending hot days sitting at a desk but she has found a free way to keep cool. While giving her advice to sustainability expert and author Solitaire Townsend, Sally said she makes a top wet, wrings it out so that it’s damp rather than soaking wet then wears the top while working. The idea is that as the water evaporates, it cools down your skin. Sally says this trick keeps her “properly cool for hours, no fan needed” and that it “seriously improves” her quality of life. You could do the same with a damp hat or bandana or piece of cloth around your neck.
Don’t stop at your clothes. Make a sheet or any large piece of material damp then hang it in a doorway. As air blows through the sheet, it will cool down the room.
Siestas are sensible, not lazy
Spaniards are known for their love of a post-lunch nap - what they call a ‘siesta’. While some judge this as a lazy habit, it’s actually very sensible. In many hot countries, everything stops in the early to late afternoon - shops and businesses close while adults join children and babies in having a nap somewhere cool.
Sicilians take the lunchtime pause very seriously. While it can be irritating for me as I can’t get errands done on my lunch break, it definitely works. Locals emerge from their homes around 4pm and start the “second shift” of the day. They go back to work and often stay there until 7 or 8pm. Working when the sun’s gone down makes a lot more sense than trying to work with a sluggish brain during the hottest hours of the day.
For added benefits, eat a sweat-inducing spicy lunch before your nap. As Indian-born impact executive Namrata Chowdhary says, “There’s a reason indigenous foods from tropical countries typically have more ‘heat’ than temperate ones”.
When you wake from your siesta, take a tepid shower - known to be more cooling than cold water.
