Britain - The Official Thread
- Thread starter Ross
- 12,481 comments
- 501,042 views
Robin
Premium
- 16,799
- United Kingdom
It depends on how well insulated the walls and ceilings are well as the thickness of the breeze blocks and cavity.
I can see the moths and other stuff baning against my windows right now, maybe in the cities there are generally less insects and other artificial light to tempt them away.
I'm not saying, I'm just saying.
It would be a national emergency here
- 31,122
- Hilversum
- Dennisch
You guys have air conditioned mobile crappers. You're not allowed to complain about the heat!
- 5,619
- Hampshire
- Spurgy777
Not sure what's with the strawman about things being written 200 years ago, but seeing as you mentioned me I suppose I'd better correct you. I don't find anything wrong with arguments coming from uni lecturers, it's just on occasion (not in this case might I add) your mentioning of them has come across as "my argument is correct because I've been told so" as if lecturers are irrefutable which is irritating and condescending. If they make a good argument that you agree with, then just make the argument and if it's correct it should win the argument on it's own merits, who makes it is completely irrelevant to whether it's right or not.
I couldn't care less if he agrees with you, I wouldn't have a clue if you were right or not, you could be saying that pigs can fly for all I know. I am curious why fruit was rebelling in Japan though.
EDIT: Is also worth noting that I could just get unnecessarily irritated by your mentions of lecturers so there isn't really a need for you to be so sensitive about it and keep bringing it up months after you were in a chat where I somewhat bluntly spoke about it (being unaware you were there).
Last edited:
- 4,722
- United Kingdom
It really is all about what we're used to and how ill equipped our buildings are to help us. As others have stated, we insulate our walls and ceilings for the winter and generally don't know a thing about air con. The slightest bit of heat 🤬's with our system.
I've had the luxury of working in warm climates recently then coming back to something slightly cooler and having enough time off to cool down indoors. I spent around 4 hours in a heated pool on Friday night in the dark and felt amazing. It all just depends what we're used to.
- 28,471
- Windsor, Ontario, Canada
- Johnnypenso
Insulation works both ways. It keeps the heat in and cold out or it can keep the heat out and the cold in. Sounds like your house would be perfect for airconditioning. Maybe one in a window upstairs might keep the whole house cool. They are cheap here, less than $200 for 8000 BTU's last time I looked. With Brexit looming I suppose it's $2000 there. It's unbearable here in the summer I don't know how anyone survives without AC
- 13,740
- Adelaide
- Neomone
- 12,783
- Cambridge
- Moglet85
- Moglet
30°C?!?
Good lord, don't come to Australia. You'll think you're on the surface of the sun.
30°C is a relatively cool summer day, it's a nice break from the 40°+ days. It's not that fun to work outside in three layers, but at least work provides free icy poles.
View attachment 753601
Now we just need a reply from someone from Texas and someone from Arizona and we've achieved the hot weather one-up hat-trick.
The difference is that you're generally more used to those temperatures and so more places are adapted to deal with it. The UK is designed to deal with colder weather and rain. In fact being outdoors in this weather is fine, it's nice to have some sunshine, but when you get indoors and no room in your house is cooler than 30°C/86°F (no A/C, no ceiling fans, lots of old houses) it starts to become uncomfortable.
Incidentally it's supposed to hit 35°C here later this week, and yesterday the hottest day of the year (33.3°C)was recorded in the small town on the edge of the forest where I go cycling. So it's probably a good job I haven't been out on the bike recently.
To be honest, this notion we are not designed for a week or two of summer, is ********. Ceiling fans are also fairly common in houses, I know I've lived in several with them.I never said we were good at it
I've also spent time living in Italy and the houses there are just the same as ours...
Are they? I've never had one in any of my houses and I used to move once a year. The only place I've ever seen a ceiling fan was in my friends' conservatory where it did bugger all
Don't worry... I don't think the KILLER HEAT will be getting you today
Unless your not designed to survive the insane temperate of 25c
- 12,783
- Cambridge
- Moglet85
- Moglet
Guess this is a poor source for information then.
Edit: I just realised, you said you live in Cambridge
you literally live in the hottest area of the UK (The South) and are complaining about warm weather I was expecting you to live somewhere Northern, where that might actually be a surprise
Last edited:
- 12,783
- Cambridge
- Moglet85
- Moglet
Guess this is a poor source for information then.
Edit: I just realised, you said you live in Cambridge
Ah but I'm originally from the Midlands so I'm used to temperatures a bit closer to the wall.
I'm not sure I'd consider Cambridge in the south either, but it's in a weird spot so it's hard to place.Cambridge isn't usually too bad in terms of weather, we usually get a lot of wind because of how flat it is. The East (and London) is currently a bit warmer than everywhere else, though.
EDIT: The Met Office are saying it'll only reach 28 today 👍
Last edited:
- 13,740
- Adelaide
- Neomone
Now we just need a reply from someone from Texas and someone from Arizona and we've achieved the hot weather one-up hat-trick.
The difference is that you're generally more used to those temperatures and so more places are adapted to deal with it. The UK is designed to deal with colder weather and rain. In fact being outdoors in this weather is fine, it's nice to have some sunshine, but when you get indoors and no room in your house is cooler than 30°C/86°F (no A/C, no ceiling fans, lots of old houses) it starts to become uncomfortable.
Incidentally it's supposed to hit 35°C here later this week, and yesterday the hottest day of the year (33.3°C)was recorded in the small town on the edge of the forest where I go cycling. So it's probably a good job I haven't been out on the bike recently.
No. Just no. Basic indoor temperatures that are comfortable for most people range between about 18 to 26 degrees. If you can't deal with four degrees higher than that without overheating, there is something physically wrong with you.
30°C is warm but not outside of the ability of the human body to cool itself. At 40°+ the ambient temperature is above your body temperature and the only way you're cooling yourself is through sweating. That's when people start to randomly drop dead because they haven't kept on top of their hydration. Even 35s can be dangerous to the young and elderly, but not really 30°C.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44935152
Japan is having a heatwave. The UK is having unusually warm weather for the UK. Being one step away from a national emergency is insane. Sit down, have a cold drink and take stock of what it actually means for the weather to be a threat. You're fine.
As I recall, I was in the UK earlier this year when it was snowing and people were losing their rag over that too. It was like two inches of snow and people were getting sent home. Is it possible that the UK as a nation just isn't really that mentally equipped to deal with any weather outside of cool to medium warm?
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/28/europe/uk-weather-snow-intl/index.html
- 28,426
- Glasgow
- GTP_Mars
This year has been one of quite remarkable weather in the UK - and I certainly wouldn't describe 'The Beast From The East' as 'two inches of snow' - it was more like 12-18 inches with sustained high winds and blizzard conditions. It was very unusual, even for Scotland. Our problem isn't mental preparedness, but the fact that this kind of weather is relatively rare and thus we don't have the means to deal with it properly when it does happen.
And yet, now we are basking in what is likely to be the hottest (and driest) spell in recorded history. It reached 30 deg C in my office at its peak, and while it wasn't especially uncomfortable, we also have no air conditioning (again, air con is not as commonplace as it is in warmer climes) and hence there was no respite from it. Hence it doesn't surprise me that people in the UK (well, the North anyway) are ill-prepared for prolonged hot spells, because frankly they very rarely happen here.
- 12,783
- Cambridge
- Moglet85
- Moglet
It seems that people missed my initial post so here is the important bit again: "it starts to become uncomfortable"
I know I'm not in danger unless I go do something stupid
I was out in direct sunlight for most of the day on Saturday photographing a car show, it was just a bit sweaty. I've been out cycling in 30° direct sunlight and just had to have some extra water.
- 13,740
- Adelaide
- Neomone
It seems that people missed my initial post so here is the important bit again: "it starts to become uncomfortable"
I know I'm not in danger unless I go do something stupid
Yes, and my original reply was to this:
Britain one step from national emergency as level 3 heatwave alert is issued
As someone who lives near the East Anglia region this should be fun, upstairs in my house is already unbearably hot when it's about 29° out. We keep all of the curtains shut but can only open our windows a small amount once we get home because we have indoor only cats and don't want them to jump out.
"One step from national emergency as heatwave alert is issued." "Upstairs in my house is already unbearably hot when it's about 29° out."
I didn't miss your initial post. It was very clear. I and others pointed out how ridiculous it was. You've since tried to downplay it to try and make the people who pointed out that it was a massive overreaction to some unusually warm weather look silly.
Now you've spent the whole day in it you know that it's not actually that bad, eh?
- 28,471
- Windsor, Ontario, Canada
- Johnnypenso
IMO there's a big difference in 25-35 C in a dry heat and with high humidity. Here in the southernmost part of Canada we often have very high humidity. I don't know if you guys use this scale over there but we have something called the humidex which estimates what the temperature feels like when you account for the humidity. A dry 30C feels great and you feel like you can wear pants if you want to. A humid 27C can feel like walking into a sauna. I've been to Vegas when it was 40C+ but dry as a bone and it was a piece of cake compared to 32C here with high humidity. Same with Mexico, Aruba, Trinidad, Tobago etc. High heat but low humidity is much more comfortable than the sauna we often live in here. Personally I find anything over 26C not acceptable inside in the summer. I have AC and ceiling fans in most rooms and keep it around 24C most of the time.
- 12,783
- Cambridge
- Moglet85
- Moglet
I think you've mis-read my posts here. These go hand in hand:
"Upstairs in my house is already unbearably hot when it's about 29° out."
"when you get indoors and no room in your house is cooler than 30°C/86°F it starts to become uncomfortable."
External temperature =/= temperature indoors. Inside I find it starts to become uncomfortable at about 30°, "unbearably hot" refers to my home once the temperature rises to 29/30 outside.
My internal temperature gauge was sitting at 32° after I had opened the windows to let some cooler air in. We can't do this overnight as we live on a main road. Therefore any temperature over about 29 makes my house unbearable to me.
Last edited:
- 28,471
- Windsor, Ontario, Canada
- Johnnypenso
- 12,783
- Cambridge
- Moglet85
- Moglet
It's an early 1900s town-house converted from an old shop and a house that used to back on to one another. It gets very cold in the winter but we deal with that by using extra portable radiators. Unfortunately there's not much more we can do when it gets hot besides have a fan trying to cycle the air through the bedroom.
EDIT: I've just remembered that the hot water boiler is in a cupboard upstairs, that may contribute towards it getting so warm. It doesn't seem to help in the winter, though.
It's an early 1900s town-house converted from an old shop and a house that used to back on to one another. It gets very cold in the winter but we deal with that by using extra portable radiators. Unfortunately there's not much more we can do when it gets hot besides have a fan trying to cycle the air through the bedroom.
EDIT: I've just remembered that the hot water boiler is in a cupboard upstairs, that may contribute towards it getting so warm. It doesn't seem to help in the winter, though.
Oh ok, I was going to say I've lived in newer houses that have had ***** insulation so they get cold in the winter and warm in the summer, the last house I lived in was a 300yr old farm house that was cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
Like I said, I've spent a decent amount of time in Italy and there are houses like yours, where they are too hot inside in the summer and too cold in the winter.
The flat I live in now in the Centre of brum has floor to ceiling windows, that look great but you can feel the draft coming through them in winter and they make the flat like a green house in the summer. But, it's not really that hot in the grand scheme of things, so I just don the shorts, crack a window and grab a beer
