For 48 hours, a veritable “heat dome” has hit France. Everywhere in France, temperature records have been recorded by Météo France, and it’s not over. An exceptional situation due to its precocity at this time of year. Temperatures that are difficult to bear for 55% of French people, due to “of the poorly insulated housingpoorly ventilated and devoid of solar protection and outdoor spaces” in which they live, deplored the Housing Foundation (formerly the Abbé Pierre Foundation) in a study published last summer.
On June 26, the Housing Foundation presented new figures on “there summer energy poverty ». A situation “emergency” which led her to work, with deputies from different political sides (Together for the Republic, Ecologists, Socialists, La France Insoumise) on a bill aimed at accelerating the renovation of “kettle housing”, by analogy with thermal strainers, these very poorly insulated housing rated E, F and G on the energy performance diagnosis (DPE). This text will be tabled in the National Assembly on June 25.
Heat wave: this false good idea for cooling your home could one day cost you dearly
LED lighting and ceiling fans
While the Housing Foundation assimilated last year the housing kettles at “zero degree of public action”, the Minister of Housing, Valérie Létard, wishes to develop the DPE so that it better integrates the notion of summer comfort. The ministry must make proposals in this direction during the summer. In the meantime, you regret having once again postponed the installation of air conditioning in your apartment because of its cost. It’s forgetting “that there are some simple tricks and works thanks to which we have identified a deviation of 7 to 10 degrees between the outside temperature and that of a home during the summer period”underlines the startup Little Worker, specializing in property renovation.
Start with the BA BA, that is to say with limit heat emissionsin particular those, very important, from household appliances. For example, avoid running washing machines and dishwashers on full blast at 3 p.m.! And opt for lighting with LEDs (light-emitting diodes), which emit less heat than traditional bulbs. Do you find the fans that your in-laws installed in the ceiling of their living room outdated? You are wrong. “Thanks to its blades, the ceiling fan brings in fresh air and quickly cools the room, down to minus 6 degrees”assures Little Worker, greeting a “ecological, low noise and aesthetic solution”don’t mind.
Heatwave: this forgotten solution cools your home at a lower cost
Cover windows
More broadly, the ventilation, “often neglected, allows, thanks to controlled air circulation in the home, to regulate the humidity of the air and to benefit from real comfort throughout the year”assures Little Worker. So make sure your VMC (mechanical ventilation) is working! Another not very complicated measure to sleep cool if you are about to move in: “eco-design”. It’s simply a matter of taking care not to set up your bedroom in a room facing south. And too bad for the view of the garden! Don’t forget about curtains either, even if it is more trendy today to display bare windows: “L’occultation allows the heat to be trapped between the curtain and the window”recalls the start-up. Concealment is also used outside: also specializing in energy renovation, the company Hello Watt offers “systematically” to its customers the installation of shutters.
Concerning the windows themselves, “opt for double glazing is beneficial for maintaining indoor temperatures, both in summer and winter.recalls Little Worker. We grant you, this is more expensive work, perhaps to be considered for the summer of 2026. The same goes for the insulation of the walls and roof, however “crucial for keeping your home cool during the summer”insists the start-up.
Insulate with biosourced materials
This suggests investing, “as far as possible, in biosourced insulation»the most effective in guaranteeing a significant thermal phase shift, that is to say the time taken by heat to pass through a material. The longer it takes for heat to pass through the insulation, the cooler the home remains. For example, wood wool guarantees eight hours of phase shift, twice as long as expanded polystyrene.
