Spot on, I live in Germany!
This kind of shutters are standard here and are actually great!
But during longer heat they still loose most of their advantage, as at some point the heat has just seeped through the massively build outer walls (and stays in the walls for a nice, cozy bedtime temperature of ~30°C on the upper floors…)
.
Not that I didn’t try the fan solution. Done properly, I managed to reduce the air temperature by about 1°C by early morning compared to the evening.
Where I live, excessive smoking seems to be thankfully mainly a thing of the past.
At least cigarettes.
Only one regular tobacco smoker in my building, but at least two or three smoking weed…
It mainly covers your base consumption.
Profit you make is the savings you have because you have to purchase less electric energy from your provider.
Typically pay for themselves within 3-4years for such an installation on south facing balcony in my region.
The rest of the 20years of its lifetime is just free money after that.
I have a two panel installation, saving me ~120€ per year.
No, this type of external shutters is standard for German homes, so tells not much by itself.
As for the efficiency: Buildings here are mainly designed for colder weather, with the intent to keep the warmth inside and at a constant temperature (thick, massive walls and insulation on the outside). And at this, they are very efficient.
But during the recent, unusually long heat waves, once the heat managed to seep in (typically after 3-4 days), you are basically screwed, as you have no chance to lower the inside temperature without AC.
Temperature stays high even at night, trapped in the walls.
Why?
The external shutters only help keeping the sun out during daytime.
Once the walls have heated up (which takes 3-4 days, as these are massive brick walls), you have a nice constant 30°C, day as night…
The only minor upside from the fact, that it also is one of the driest summers in my region so far:
No mosquitos.
Even the freshly imported Asian Tiger Mosquitos, which normally start roaming in July and need less open water, are almost completely absent (and they are only active during daytime).
Well, much better than the constant 32°C the neighbour in the topmost apartment had at the end of the big 10 day heatwave!
Especially when you manage to keep the humidity in a lower range.
Balconies are pretty much standard in German housing.
Actually, interestingly they are common especially in poorer neighbourhoods (the notorious “Plattenbau-Siedlungen”).
The photo was taken in a mixed neighbourhood, with self-owned flats interspersed with social housing in the same apartment blocks.
So the argument doesn’t apply in this case…
I also have pot smoking neighbours. But at least they are really nice!
(I get to eat all the crazy excess foodstuff they buy while getting the munchies… 😁 )
But it cools down again rapidly at nighttime, other than the apartment that essentially keeps on staying at the same temperature.
I assume that’s what they are trying to profit from here.
While the sun is still up, it doesn’t make any sense at all staying in the tent.
Better stay in the apartment with the blinds down and some fans running, as in most cases it will still be cooler inside than outside during daytime, and only switch to the tent during the night.
I sometimes do sleep in a tent outside in the garden (Not out of heat reasons yet, but because of fun events with the kids).
I wouldn’t worry about being woken up by the sun, as what will actually wake you is not the sun, but the relentlessly enthusiastic birds chirping away at the top of their lungs almost an hour before sunrise already ;-)
Maybe just save up $200 and buy a portable AC unit instead of a ten
I own one. The portable ones have a rather limited efficiency. Ours brought the air temperature down to 23-24°C in the sleeping areas during the daytime.
After switching it off for the night (the things are incredibly noisy…), temperatures quickly rose to 26-27°C again (at least at reduced humidity due to the AC).
And that was in a ground floor apartment…
And opening windows doesn’t really help any more if the minimum outside temp still is >20°C during the night and the air is basically motionless.
Hammock would be the way to go!
Was thinking so myself.
You would have to deal with the noise, though.
It is an urban area, so quite some people packed into a limited space, all with their windows open during the evening and night (or sitting on their balconies or in their garden patches having lively conversations until past midnight…)
So I was happy not having to resort to that measure in the end :-)
I think it might be some kind of minimal beach camping tent, like this one:
https://www.ironsnow.com/products/ironrain-camping-tent-beach-play-tents-2-person-waterproof
Had to probably do with a tiny one, as it would be the only one to still fit the limited space.
The opening would be directed at the balcony door.
So no ventilation issue, but you might have do deal with some mosquitos (but those thankfully haven’t been much of a problem here this year as it has been also exceptionally dry so far…)
I remember seeing a similar effect when conventional lights became forbidden in the EU, followed by energy saving devices suddenly becoming widely available for decent prices.
EU expectation was now saving 80% of the power used for lighting.
Reality was that people instead just started putting up twice as many lights, and each with maximum available luminosity instead of the few dim ones they were content with before…
No, doesn’t ring a bell.
Most likely because it was overshadowed by a series of those kind of attacks here in Germany where I live during the recent years.
One of the first and more severe happened only a few months before the one you mentioned and started a serious review of Christmas market safety measures in particular:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Berlin_truck_attack
Nonetheless there again was a severe one at a Christmas market not to too long ago:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Magdeburg_car_attack
And a bunch of similar but less severe incidents and also attacks in other European countries.
Those are the ones that primarily came to my mind, news of similar US attacks probably just got drowned in the noise.
So today learned that it sadly also is a thing in the US…
There are also rental companies over here, probably useful for covering increased demand during huge one-time-events.
Most smaller communities help themselves by just parking a bunch of heavy cars or trucks across the streets leading to their events.
It is a somewhat ugly looking solution, but also works.
You mean, not everyone in the world is using a multiple-wireless-thermometer and -hygrometer arrangement to determine the exact optimal millisecond to switch from one complex apartment window configuration to the next?
As a German, I am really confused by that idea… ;-)