Keeping Rooms Cool

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 49, 28 February 1938, Page 11

Keeping Rooms Cool

The coolness and airiness of rooms in summer will mainly depend upon cleverness with the arrangement of the windows. The first essential is to keep sunshine off the panes themselves. All glass attracts, and some kinds are purposely designed to admit the sun’s heat. A flat with one wall nearly all window-glass, though so pleasant at other seasons, can become a veritable oven in summer unless shade is provided. A good protection is an awning or outside canopy-blind. Variety of Styles. Some new o ies are mounted in light metal frames that will fold flat against the window; others which open on the umbrella principle, will shade a whole verandah or porch at both frQnt and sides, and, in any case, give an illusion of added sizeHo the room. Both types are mado in awning, with special green openwork material, to fit openings of any siz e and shape, and can be opened or closed from the inside of the room by a touch on a lever. Thin inside blinds in light colours—for preference, apple green—are well worth getting, if only for the sake of furniture and curtains. They act as dust-filters, and are much less trouble to wash than a roomful even of loose eovers! Moreover, strong sunlight takes the colou r out of dark woods and is not good for many fabrics, causing those threadbare-looking side hems and “weak spots” that show up when the summer curtains come back from the cleaners. A Cooler Effect. Outside blinds, acting as insulators, should be as thick as possible. But once the heat has entered the room, thick fabrics hold it; therefore both curtains and inside blinds must be very light. Oiled silk is ] particularly cool-looking, and satisfactory when protected from the sun. When net or muslin is used, a cooler effect is obtained by draping it across the panes than by drawing it straight. Draw all blinds early in the day, before th 3 room starts to become too hot. At night, green lights at the window help greatly to suggest freshness. A narrow may be run along the top of the frame or arranged so that it shines on the curtains, or a standard lamp, placed on the ledge beside the small, portable electric fan that has been especially designed for medium-sized rooms. Green bulbs can be used with parchment, white or yellow walls or shades, but do not combine them with pink or red, for the light will then be greyish.