Natural air conditioning: How does Gites / Apartments Les Glycines stay cool in summer?
You can help keep indoor temperatures during the summer with “natural air conditioning”, a sustainable and effective way to keep the gites cool.
So, how does natural air conditioning work?
There are a number of factors that ensure that the gites remain cool in the summer:
- Our Provencal house from 1870, like many old Mediterranean houses, has thick stone walls. The thick walls absorb the heat from the sun and release it at night.
- In summer, the windows and shutters of a Provencal house are closed from 10 am until sunset. This helps keep the sun’s heat out and the cool air in.
- After sunset the temperature drops by about 15 to 20 degrees. Windows and shutters are opened so that cooling ventilation can take place. After an hour, the shutters can be closed, but the windows remain open. A nice bonus is that there are hardly any mosquitoes, thanks to a rich bio-diversity and a low humidity.
In summary:
The combination of thick walls and keeping windows and shutters closed/opened and the difference between day and night temperatures provides natural air conditioning.
How do you keep your gite cool?
Very easy: all you have to do is ensure that the windows and shutters are closed from 10am and opened again after sunset.
