I fully intended to fight a wargame today, but the heat in my toy/wargame room, which is in our house's former loft, was well over 32°C from mid morning onwards. (At one point the thermometer on the clock in the room registered the temperature as being 36°C!) Even with the blinds drawn, the windows open, and a tower fan going full blast, it was just too uncomfortable to remain there for more than five minutes.
It looks as if it might be a bit cooler tomorrow, but thanks to the insulation that building regulations insisted was fitted when the loft was converted, it is likely that it will still be too hot in my toy/wargame room to fight a wargame. The weather forecast for the next few days is that the temperature will begin to drop to about 24°C by the end of the week, and if it does, I hope to fight a wargame by next weekend.
It looks as if it might be a bit cooler tomorrow, but thanks to the insulation that building regulations insisted was fitted when the loft was converted, it is likely that it will still be too hot in my toy/wargame room to fight a wargame. The weather forecast for the next few days is that the temperature will begin to drop to about 24°C by the end of the week, and if it does, I hope to fight a wargame by next weekend.
Bob
ReplyDeleteI live in a warm part of the US, Florida. Those temperatures are normal for us. To keep my house comfortable I run my 4 ton reverse cycle air conditioner at 22.7C all year long. You need a small window unit for hot days in the loft.
Ron
RonMorris,
DeleteThe UK rarely gets really hot weather, and as a result, we are not geared up for it. (We aren't too good at coping with really cold weather either!) Fitting air conditioning in our three storey house would be very expensive ... and would only be used on a few days each year.
What makes it worse is the local microclimate, which traps air pollution in our part of London. For example, when I looked across London from our house - which is atop one of the tallest hills in the city - there was a heat haze, the top level of which was tobacco brown in colour due to the air pollution.
All the best,
Bob
Should have lived in the NorthEast 50 years ago. Town called Consett - iron and steel. Furnaces pushed out rust high into the atmosphere. Consett was sort of in the country, when you approachedyou just saw a reddish brown column around the place like a scifi force screen. Park your white car, go back in 2 hours it was a rust colour. And that was every day of the year.
DeleteRob Young,
DeleteI am old enough to remember what is was like before the Clean Air Act came into force. The smell and taste of the air during a smog was quite sickening, and I can remember washing being covered in black smuts when the wind was blowing in the wrong direction.
The output from the coal-powered power stations and the factories in the East End did little to help the situation, and it has only been since the change to other power sources and the deindustrialisation of east London that coal-based pollution began to diminish ... to be replaced by pollution caused by petrol and diesel engines.
All the best,
Bob
Yeah it's 33.8 here at the moment (but it's Texas in August so no shock) I agree with Ron a small window unit will do
ReplyDeleteDon M,
DeleteI've just looked at the cost of buying a window air conditioning unit, and the cheapest I can find is £350.00 ... which is a lot of money to lay out for something that will only be used for few days each year.
All the best,
Bob
Did manage a shortish solo game but could have gone longer... except, yes, my shed passed the 100F mark so I thought 'that's enough' and left. (I still think F rather than C)
DeleteDont forget the electricity you will use Bob better just to wait until the weather changes.
DeleteHere in the North East I have given up painting until things cool down. My paint is drying too quickly on my palette.
Rob Young,
DeleteYou did well to manage even a short wargame. I try to use Centigrade whenever possible, but still find myself thinking in Fahrenheit.
All the best,
Bob
Independentwargamesgroup,
DeleteI'm not sure how much more electricity an air conditioner uses than a simple tower fan, but I suspect that it is quite a bit more.
As for painting when the weather is like this ... it's not the speed at which the paint dries that I have a problem with; its the sweat running into my eyes that causes me trouble!
Roll on the cooler weather!
All the best,
Bob
Definitely too hot for any gaming related activity, even here in relatively cool Bristol.
ReplyDeleteSteve J.,
DeleteAccording to the weather forecast, your part of the country should be getting cooler a couple of days before the eastern part of the country.
Lucky you!
All the best,
Bob
I could see the London heat haze from my part of South London this afternoon...makes me glad I don't have to work in central London too often these days. Managed a bit of basing this evening but it's still too hot!
ReplyDeleteAlastair,
DeleteEven on a normal day, I find the need to have a shower as soon as I get back from visiting central London. What it must be like today, I cannot envisage!
At least you managed to do something tonight, which is better than I did.
All the best,
Bob
Cheaper air conditioner = drape damp/wet towel in front of fan/window and keep damp as required. Humidifies the air and drops temperature. Of course, anything but refrig air con is practically useless once temp pushes 40'C or above. Then, modify your behaviour and drink water through the day (but beware of flushing the salts away by drinking too much). Finally, a wicking 'sports' teeshirt. Should be good for a few turns...
ReplyDeleteAdelaide Gamer,
DeleteThanks for the useful suggestion. It made me remember that we actually have two fans that direct their flow over a water reservoir (a sort of poor man's air conditioner) in storage from a couple of years ago. I'm going to get them out and see if I can get them working, as that should make a bit of a difference.
I'm keeping my fluid intake up - but not too much - and wearing the lightest cotton shirts that I have.
All the best,
Bob
Yeah, that's too hot to do much, especially in places not equipped for it. We're getting similar temperatures the next couple of days. Painting is on hold.
ReplyDeleteFitz-Badger,
DeleteIt's the sudden change from normal to hot over a short time that I find difficult to cope with. Given time to acclimatise, I know from experience that I don't have problems if the temperature goes up gradually, but a sudden increase of six or seven degrees over a couple of days is just a bit too much.
All the best,
Bob
Bob,
ReplyDeleteI've solved the sweat in the eyes problem by buying a set of toweling headbands, the kind that you used to see worn by tennis players. Remarkably effective as long as you remember to use them: I normally leave a couple in the car in case they are needed when I'm out (and I really need to get the car's air conditioning repaired, until now it's not seemed worth the money). They don't stop the paint drying on you brush though.
I'm a bit surprised that your loft is so bad given the insulation. Uninsulated lofts are notorious for collecting heat but, in theory at least, the insulation should keep out heat as well as keeping it in. Of course you have to keep all doors and windows closed and the windows should only be north facing!
This may sound like facile theorising but my workshop at the bottom of the garden - where I put in a lot of wall and roof insulation to ensure it kept warm in winter without costing me the Earth in electricity - has remained pleasantly cool for the last few days. The uninsulated garden shed next to it is like an oven.
Adelaide's suggestion sounds a good one. I think it's effectively a simple version of what the Americans call a swamp cooler, much more energy efficient than normal air con and you are already using the electricity on the fan. It would be interesting to know if it works in practice: physics says that the latent heat of vaporization of water is about 2,260 kJ/kg but I can't get my head round what this might mean in terms of temperature reduction.
Mike Hall,
DeleteA sweatband sounds like a good idea, and I might invest in one if I see any on sale later today. Luckily the Lexus' air con unit functions well (almost too well at times!), but when the one in my Prius went wrong last year, I had it fixed ASAP ... and I was very pleased that I did!
The insulation probably is keeping the house cooler that it might have been, but the outside brickwork of the walls is very warm to the touch, even at nine o'clock at night. It does not help that the windows face south-west, and the back of the house gets the sun for most of the day. This is great in winter ... but not so great in summer if it gets hot.
I have considered having an insulated shed built in the garden for use as my toy/wargame room, but the 1:10 slope would make it very expensive to build because the base would need to be built to compensate for it ... and the quote I got for that was more expensive than the shed was going to cost! As we might be moving home in the next couple of years, I'll probably leave things as they are, and look for somewhere with a flatter garden or even a suitable outbuilding.
I think the fans with water reservoirs we already own are similar to what the Americans call swamp coolers. They certainly sound as if they are.
All the best,
Bob
Sweatbands were originally my wife's idea and she initially made a few out of pieces of an old towel and some elastic. It's fortunate that she's good with a needle and thread - not that much skill was needed in this case - and always has things like elastic to hand. I later bought a set of five which are working well.
DeleteI've found that I do need more than one in this weather as they will eventually get too wet to work (but then I sweat distressingly easily).
Mike Hall,
DeleteNone of the places we shopped in today had sweatbands on sale, so I'll have to wait to buy one. I also perspire quite profusely and may well gave to buy more than one sweatband.
All the best,
Bob
Bob,
ReplyDeleteTotally off topic but I subscribe to your blog on Feedly and it gave me two entries for today, this one which it says was 7 hrs ago and another from 10 hrs ago about the Battle of Almansa. The latter included a mass of interesting photos but when I clicked on the VISIT WEBSITE link I got to you blog okay but got the message "Sorry, the page you were looking for in this blog does not exist."
I've no idea what is going on - and don't expect you to explain - but if this entry exists somewhere can you possibly supply a link as I want to look at the photos more closely?
Mike Hall,
DeleteI am preparing a number of blog entries that cover my visit to the Toy Soldier Museum in Valencia, and the one about the Battle of Almansa is one of them. I inadvertently published it ahead of time, and withdrew it as soon as I realised what I had done. It still needs a few bit added to it, but I hope to upload it to my blog on 4th September.
All the best,
Bob
Looking forward to reading the series of postings on the museum.
DeleteMike Hall,
DeleteI plan to write quite a few blog entries about the museum's exhibits in order to give a reasonable - but by no means comprehensive - coverage.
All the best,
Bob
Hi Bob,
ReplyDeleteI can understand your conundrum with the heat there in London...though I'm having a bit of a chuckle - as in our Summer I look at the temperature and say: "It is only going to be 32DegC here to-day...thank goodness!" My Shed can reach 42DegC and it is a bit hot to get things done...Springtime is great as is early Autumn. Keep the fluids up there. Cheers. KEV.
Kev Robertson (Kev),
DeleteIt's all to do with what you are used to and how you adjust. I've known people from much warmer climates than we have in the UK complain about how hot it is in London because the air is so stale tasting, there is no breeze to mitigate the heat, and the humidity and smell - especially on public transport - can be quite overpowering.
It will soon be autumn ... and then we will the rain to complain about!
All the best,
Bob
Hi Bob, sorry to read that you are struggling with the heat. Here in Valencia it has also been incredibly hot, but luckily being up a mountain does give us pleasant Mediterranean breezes. My painting lamp has been showing 30 degrees recently and I have coped with the use of a wet palette which could also be useful to those UK painters commenting above maybe? Keeps the paints open for far longer and slows down the skinning in hot weather.
ReplyDeleteLook forward to the Valencia toy museum feature Bob, I think you have mentioned it previously when you were here. It's somewhere we have not visited yet but intend to next time we are there.
Aircon - I can't imagine how we would cope without it, although we only tend to run it in the evenings and overnight!
'Lee,
DeleteMy experience of Spain (which is based on several holidays and regular if short visits) is that the people have adapted their lifestyles to suit the climate, and not tried to live the sort of lifestyle where they work and eat when the weather is at its hottest. For example, restaurants don't usually open for evening meals until quite late ... often at the time when a UK restaurant is turning people away because they are closing!
Your wet palette sounds like an ideal solution to the 'paint drying too fast' problem. I'd be interested to know if there are many UK figure painters that use it as it sounds as if it might be easier to use than my existing method.
The museum in Valencia is a 'must see' for anyone who enjoys looking at huge numbers of metal figures. You could easily spend all day there just looking at the displays because there are just so many of them.
We have friends who live in Spain for six months each year, and they extol the virtues of their air con and could not live there without it. Like you, they tend to only use it when it gets very hot and/or humid, but it makes life more than tolerable when they do.
All the best,
Bob