The heatwave, not happy with melting us the first time, is back with a vengeance. And while many have bitten the bullet, installing aircon or buying elaborate fanning systems, you, like me, might be doing your best with a cheap standing fan you hauled home from Argos last week.
While the white, 16” circular fan is a welcome addition to the home that I cart dutifully with whenever I settle in a different room, it does have its work cut out, particularly in our bedroom.
We chose to sleep in a small room at the top of our Victorian conversion with a West facing window. The room is compact but cosy and has been a great respite from the chaos of the rest of the renovation. But we patted ourselves on the back far too soon.
The moment the temperature creeps about 25 degrees, that room begins to warm up dramatically. By 30 degrees, the air is thick and almost shimmering with heat as the heat from both the floor below and the flat below that rises and gets trapped in the sloped ceiling. And that afternoon light, so lovely and dappled on other days, just increases the mugginess tenfold. Each night, we fall asleep in a hot box of our own sweat, unable to open the window because of the freight trains that constantly screech by.
