On Summer Heat and Proper Hydration

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I was very sad to see that tomorrow’s evening storm is cancelled due to lack of interest. I am very interested in rain falling heavily from the sky. I want it to drench and cool the minergie building within which I live. I want the cool air to help make this building I live in liveable again.

This morning I woke at 6am or so, to go for a group run at 0800 with Décathlon Chavannes and the conditions were good. It was around 23°c and felt like 25°c, so nice and fresh. We ran, and during the run the temperature rose a little. When we got to the forest it felt nice to be sheltered somewhere nice and cool. Evapotranspiration is fantastic for cooling down humans during a heat wave. It’s especially good that we could end the run in the shade.

The point of today’s blog post is that when I was about to start writing today I suddenly had a headache, so I tried to cool myself with a fan, but that didn’t remove the headache. I tried to drink but that didn’t help. After a few minutes I went to the freezer and removed a frozen bottle of coke filled with water.

I wrapped the bottle in a towel and then went to my bedroom, turned on the fan, and hugged the ice bottle to attempt to cool myself, and nap. It worked, to some extent and this is where we get to the point of my blog post.

We hear people say “Don’t run” and “Don’t stay in the sun too long” but the symptoms of heat stroke that I got today were while sitting in front of a laptop indoors, in the shade.

It’s worth highlighting that the building has reached 32°C in the living room and the bedroom, so it is now really warm. So warm that the fan doesn’t provide relief.

When I lived in a 1970s home, finished in the early 80s I would go for a bike ride, or a walk, in the heat, and I’d get home to the cool cavern of an old building. In contrast today I come home to the stifling heat of a Minergie building.

In the old building I came home to 21-23°c in summer and winter. With Minergie you come home to 25-32°c depending on how long the heat has lasted. When I lived in an apartment during the 2003 heatwave I opened windows on both sides, and when it was hot I let the draft cool me and it worked fantastically well.

The issue with a Minergie building is that if you do this, the structure will grab the heat, and store it. As soon as you close the windows at dusk, and until you open them at dawn the building actively radiates heat. This means that you have to keep windows and doors closed. You’re stuck in stale air.

Today, the symptoms of heat distress that I got were hours after the run finished, brought on by the sick building. In my eyes Minérgie is flawed and potentially deadly during a heat wave because it traps heat, and there is no way to get rid of it, except through heavy rainfall cooling the structure, and waking at dawn, to aerate for an hour or two, before sealing everything up for the rest of the day.

Ventilation works fantastically well. It gets the building to drop a degree or two, which, for comfort is great. The issue is that the stifling heat returns the moment you close everything to avoid more heat entering. If architects and engineers used common sense rather than greed, they would design buildings to be warm in winter, and cool in summer.

If you are cold, you can wear more clothes, but if you’re sweltering you can’t do anything except drink water, electrolytes and flee.

I suspect that the issue isn’t with the heat of my apartment, although it doesn’t help, or the Outside Air Temperature (OAT) but rather with the reflex to drink enough.

I stepped outside a few minutes ago. We’re heading towards 36°c and the wind is warm. We’re in perfect forest fire weather, and it’s especially important to hydrate well. It’s important to sip regularly, and ensure that we are hydrated.

This morning my “constant sipping” instinct failed me. I am now hydrated once again.