In many parts of the world, people build their houses at the edge of desert areas. They may need to endure brutal heat and could have only a couple months of respite during winter. In some cases, temperature may soar beyond 100 degrees. Although they don’t need to have something as elaborate as systems for houses in cold areas, it is important to know that keeping our house cool in desert areas could prevent deaths. Heat waves that struck a poorly ventilated house can cause the interior temperature to get higher than the exterior. There are things that we need to do to make our lives in near-desert areas more enjoyable.
One important thing to consider is that we need to have proper hydration in dry, hot areas. It is essential to make sure that we could hydrate ourselves easily inside the house. These should be multiple water containers in the area that are connected to the tap and refilled automatically. We may even install a house-wide reminder system that emits a pleasant chirp noise so we will drink a glass of water each hour.
Another life saver during heat wave attack in desert areas is a proper air conditioning system. Simple fans are often useless, because they could only circulate and redistribute the already hot air.
Our body could struggle during the peak of summer and an air conditioning could bring the temperature into a more manageable level. To avoid straining our air conditioning system during very hot days and save energy bills, we could set the thermostat only at normal room temperature, instead at lowest temperature. Outdoor activities during the summer may need to be limited, so we should improve our interior to make it a more enjoyable area. In this case, people would need to stay indoor most of the time, like people in very cold areas during winter. If we want to have social events and barbeques, we should do it when the sun has come down. One way to cool down our body is by having a swimming pool in the backyard. There should be enough shades in the backyard to avoid sunburn.
Strategically positioned trees could also make our house cooler. We should know the exact positions of sunrise and sunset during the winter; and plant a tall tree with plenty of leaves to block sunlight. In this case, during the summer, our house can be protected from sunlight much of the time, except during mid-day. Windows can be covered with non-conductive and reflective cover to prevent intense sunlight from entering.
In general, staying inside is the best strategy to avoid extreme weather and we should make sure that the whole family can be protected. There are different methods that we can choose to avoid overexposure during the hot summer. Making our house more convenient during the summer should be a quite easy thing to do and we don’t have to choose more expensive methods.
