GROWING up in a hot country is not all it’s cracked up to be. A sweltering expat childhood in Italy is one of the reasons I was so keen to get back to the mother country: mild weather, wet mists, reliable cloud coverage and unobtrusive summers. Bliss.
Recently, however, the South of England has been hotter than noon in Naples. It’s intolerable, especially given how ill-equipped British houses are for keeping heat out. Our houses go up and up. So does heat, and most of us sleep on the top floor.
I live in a typical 1930s terrace conversion. In my house, air-conditioning is simply impractical. Not only is it bad for my already massive carbon footprint, I don’t live in the kind of neighbourhood where you can leave a hose sticking out of a half-open window. And shutters, nice as they are, would look ridiculous in my house. But a fan? Now there’s an idea.
By fan I don’t mean some 9in office supplies number, wobbling away on the kitchen worktop and blowing all the minicab cards off the notice-board. I mean a big, whirling, ceiling fan, like the sort you get in the movies. I mention this idea to a couple of friends and they recoil in horror. What if it wobbles off the ceiling? What if one of the kids sticks a hand in it? Clearly neither event is desirable. To guard against the former, I decide to go for quality. As for the latter, I happen to think that a fixed object 8ft off the floor is somewhat safer than a rapidly rotating and highly unstable blade attached to an electrical flex.
But finding a high-quality ceiling fan is easier said than done. Most DIY stores seem to stock only nasty, faux- plantation models. Specialist lighting shops tend to carry only one excruciatingly expensive designer number, usually from Italy, with an eight-week wait. Eventually I found the American Fan Company (www.americanfan.co.uk, 0870 8034025). The AFC stocks Hunter fans. Hunter claims to have invented the ceiling fan in 1888; it uses high-grade components and its designs are streets ahead of its rivals. They range from an ornate Art Deco reproduction model to more contemporary, brushed-steel models. After much dithering, and a very long conversation with the infinitely patient Niki, I chose the Merced (£155), a compact, stylish model with just three blades and an integrated light.
The fan arrived two days later. Getting it fitted was a bit trickier. One look at the instructions and I knew this was not a DIY job. So, after several false starts with electricians in the Yellow Pages, I enlisted the services of The Handy Squad (08000 121212). Its man, Fagner, arrived bang on time and set to work with gusto. Here I must sound a note of caution: make sure your ceiling is in good nick before you start. Mine wasn’t, and Fagner had a bit of a time of it. In the end, though, with much determination, the occasional untranslatable word in Portugese and a foul-smelling pot of super-filler, he succeeded in securing a solid base for the fan. And up it went.
The result is a triumph. Not only does it look beautiful, it’s completely silent and wobble-free. It doesn’t blow the air about like a portable fan; instead it circulates it almost imperceptibly, so the room feels cool and fresh without any draughtiness at all. It’s wired up to the old light socket, so it’s very energy-efficient, consuming less power than a 100-watt bulb. I’m already planning one for the bedroom. Poor Fagner.
SARAH VINE
THE sitting room of my London flat faces south, heats up all day and by the time I get home is absolutely stifling. So I’m getting plantation shutters that will, I hope, let in air, keep out the heat and sunlight and look gorgeous.
The good thing about these shutters (apart from the Out of Africa look) is that you can fling the windows open to let air in, and because the louvres sit inside a fixed door frame on the inside of the window they don’t bang or flap, and burglars can’t just casually walk in and lift the silver. You can add window locks to the magnetic catches for added security, and as I’m on the first floor I’ll be able to sleep with the french windows open.
They are not cheap, but no more expensive than decent curtains, and are obviously a great improvement on net curtains for privacy. The louvres on each section or panel can be operated independently, so you can precisely control the amount and direction of light and ventilation.
Most efficient of all would be external shutters because, as Peter Clegg of the architects Fielden Bradley Clegg points out, the vital thing is to keep the heat out of the room in the first place. “Once the heat from the sun has come through the glass, all you are doing by closing interior shutters or curtains is trapping it in the room,” he says. “Only external shutters, closed down, will keep heat out.”
In the Britannia Basin regeneration area of Manchester, a new development has retractable external shutters on all windows and balconies and would look entirely at home in a suburb of Madrid.
We asked companies to quote for shutters on the french windows (1,500mm by 2,100mm) and the plain sash window (900mm by 1,500mm) in my sitting room.
Shutterley Fabulous (www.shutterlyfabulous.co.uk 0845 6442873) makes custom fitted shutters in American poplar or elm from sustainable plantation forests. Cost: £1,150 in any of its standard paints or stains; add 10 per cent for a custom finish.
The California Company (www.thecaliforniacompany.co.uk 0845 1235661) sells hardwood shutters that you fit yourself. Cost: £501.
Premier Shutters (www.premiershutters.co.uk 0845 2002743) offers budget shutters in LDF (low-density fibreboard) at a fully installed price of £967.50. They can be painted in any finish, including Farrow & Ball and Fired Earth, for an extra 15 to 20 per cent.
External shutters are a good deal more expensive and much harder to find — the Manchester ones were tailor-made by joiners. External Shutters (www.externalshutters.co.uk 01276 470192) make all its shutters in aluminium for durability and finish them to look like wood. Their Classic range with fixed louvres would cost just over £2,000, fitting extra. Adjustable louvres would be another £500.
Another option is awnings from Appeal (www.appealawnings.com 0800 0184499). I could have pretty Dutch canopies on each window or an awning stretching across both windows. Both would be retractable and operated by remote control and I could also have sun and wind sensors fitted which would automatically lower or retract the awning if I’m out. Cost, fully installed: canopies £1,200 each; awning £2,700.
If you want to install internal or external shutters, first check with your local council to find out if you will need planning permission.
JANE WHEATLEY
THE HIGH COST OF AIR-CON
