# coping with the heat



## karenangell (Feb 6, 2011)

Hi to all, I was just wondering how everyone copes with the hot weather when you initially move out to spain. When at first you arrive it must be lovely but does it get too much or are most of the houses apartments etc air conditioned. We are moving out to nerja next september, and ive heard its a very high humidity town. Have been there losts of times before but we always go in the cooler months like december and january which we find lovely. I do love the heat dont get me wrong just wondered how everyone coped. At the moment in england we are having temperatures of 28 which i love but the nights are a problem to sleep. 

regards

karen


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## agua642 (May 24, 2009)

Hiya, Heat you either love it or hate it! I don't think you ever get used to it, you have to learn to live with it fans & air-con needed. However it does drain energy from you! And when it does eventually rain, it's lovely


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## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

karenangell said:


> Hi to all, I was just wondering how everyone copes with the hot weather when you initially move out to spain. When at first you arrive it must be lovely but does it get too much or are most of the houses apartments etc air conditioned. We are moving out to nerja next september, and ive heard its a very high humidity town. Have been there losts of times before but we always go in the cooler months like december and january which we find lovely. I do love the heat dont get me wrong just wondered how everyone coped. At the moment in england we are having temperatures of 28 which i love but the nights are a problem to sleep.
> 
> regards
> 
> karen


Well ....... imagine having day after day temperatures in the 33 - 38 area with the odd 40 thrown in, and temperatures at night that sometimes dont drop below 25 - 28. Thats often the case here in the summer, and maybe why a few expats I know actually go back to the UK in those months

We are lucky generally as we are on a mountainside and get a cool breeze, so we leave the front and the patio doors open and get a through breeze. At night we have fans on, and try to avoid aircon, because if you have it on you have to have it on all the time. Switch it off and you warm up pretty quickly. It's not cheap.

During the day of course you can always pop into the pool to cool down, although in the summer that gets up to the early 30's.

At night we have a ceiling fan on, and that does the job really well. Having air circulating is a plus. Mossie nets up at the window means that you can leave the window open also.

If you have a lap top by a cool bag for under it. I already had one overheat. The sides of the pc come off in the summer and an external fan sits by it.

Drink lots of water. You WILL dehydrate if you are not careful, and that can cause headaches


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## Seb* (Mar 22, 2009)

karenangell said:


> Hi to all, I was just wondering how everyone copes with the hot weather when you initially move out to spain. When at first you arrive it must be lovely but does it get too much or are most of the houses apartments etc air conditioned. We are moving out to nerja next september, and ive heard its a very high humidity town. Have been there losts of times before but we always go in the cooler months like december and january which we find lovely. I do love the heat dont get me wrong just wondered how everyone coped. At the moment in england we are having temperatures of 28 which i love but the nights are a problem to sleep.


It all depends a bit on location and shape of the house, insulation etc. Some people can easily cope with a Fan and some open doors and windows, others can just open everything in the morning and then close the house up and it stays relatively cool all day. Overall I would say, it gets very hot and you should really have at least one room fully airconditioned, just to be on the safe side. Don't forget the really unbearable heat lasts only around 6-8 weeks, mostly during August.

Our situation:
We are located on a hill side, relatively close to the sea. So when we have a decent wind coming in, even the hottest 38ºC. are bearable. Problem comes up when there is no wind, then it gets really painful and we have to use aircon. We have a mobile aircon unit, which gets used in one room during the worst time.
At night the temperature often doesn't drop below 24ºC. and the only solution is to have enough windows open to get a draft when wind is going, in addition we have a fan running all summer, which helps a lot.

Over the years you will get used to the heat, so 25ºC. actually feels cool - but you will still suffer, when it gets too hot


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## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

Fortunately it very rarely gets into the high 30's here, mostly high 20's. Therefore we do not have a problem


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Humidity can be a bigger problem than high temperatures. If you run air-con all the time it gets expensive, dries out your throat, and your body never really gets a chance to adapt. We have a portable air-con unit which we use in the bedroom to cool it down for an hour before we go to bed, but other than that, we rely on fans, cold showers and keeping the house as cool as possible. 

It's important to keep windows closed when it's hotter outdoors than in, and use blinds and/or thermal curtains on doors and windows while the sun is shining directly on them.

Copy what the Spanish do: do your shopping, housework etc early in the morning, take a siesta in the afternoon and don't go out till it cools down in the evening.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

I love the heat - the hotter the better!

Jo xxx


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## karenangell (Feb 6, 2011)

thank you for all the replies. I do love the hot weather but find i do perspire a lot more when im abroad, i suppose ill get used to it when i finally move. I wondering how my five year old son will cope if we move to an area where theres a beach nearby and a communual pool then i spose it wont be a problem. The sun does make you feel better here in england the temperatures are barmy, and im in the unfortunate position of having to work all week at the mo which i find uncomfortable as most english houses are not equipped for really hot weather and i do housecleaning for a living. We have been having temperatures of 28 all week here in essex !!! phew!! 
xx


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

karenangell said:


> thank you for all the replies. I do love the hot weather but find i do perspire a lot more when im abroad, i suppose ill get used to it when i finally move. I wondering how my five year old son will cope if we move to an area where theres a beach nearby and a communual pool then i spose it wont be a problem. The sun does make you feel better here in england the temperatures are barmy, and im in the unfortunate position of having to work all week at the mo which i find uncomfortable as most english houses are not equipped for really hot weather and i do housecleaning for a living. We have been having temperatures of 28 all week here in essex !!! phew!!
> xx


will you be planning to work here in Spain?

working in the heat is horrid - well, for me not the heat so much as the humidity, which has been dreadful this year in my area


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

karenangell said:


> thank you for all the replies. I do love the hot weather but find i do perspire a lot more when im abroad, i suppose ill get used to it when i finally move. I wondering how my five year old son will cope if we move to an area where theres a beach nearby and a communual pool then i spose it wont be a problem. The sun does make you feel better here in england the temperatures are barmy, and im in the unfortunate position of having to work all week at the mo which i find uncomfortable as most english houses are not equipped for really hot weather and i do housecleaning for a living. We have been having temperatures of 28 all week here in essex !!! phew!!
> xx




Having a beach and a communal pool only helps it doesn't solve the problem it only helps when you have time to visit them, as living in Spain is not all sunbathing lol
In Gran Alacant the communal pools actually close in the afternoons or at least they have signs up telling you the hours you can visit.


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## spanishhopeful (Jan 28, 2011)

You really do adapt to the hot weather. We left the Uk and lived in Australia for over 5 years. When we first arrived the summers were a nightmare had to have air con! but as the years went on we got more used to the hotter summers and didnt have to put the air con on until it reached the mid - high 30s. When we moved to spain we had just come from the hottest summer in australia 97 days of temperatures over 37 degrees so the Spanish summer was like a nice spring day to us  the problem we had was that now the temperatures are in the high 20s we are all wrapped up and finding it cold 

So if you do move over here you might find the first summer or 2 uncomfortable but believe me your body will adapt and you will get used to it.


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## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

I recall having lived in foreign parts for five years, returning to an English winter in the mid sixties and working outside Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, I then realised had acclimatised to tropical climates.

Here if the daytime temperature goes below 20ºc out come the scarves, gloves, fleeces, boots, woolly hats, makes us smile.


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## karenangell (Feb 6, 2011)

When we initially come over i will not be working at first, my hubby will be commuting to the uk about every 6weeks or so to oversee his business is going ok. He has a sport business and its going very well been going for seven years and growing fast. We get a good income from it so we will live of that at first and any savings we have will be there as a bonus. We also have just recently bought a mobile home here in england its very nice. We bought it with the idea that we could come back to england and that would be our base rather than renting out etc. We will be renting in spain ar first for a year or so and then see about buying we are not in any massive hurry. Our home in england will be rented and that revenue will pay for our spanish rent. We have always wanted to go to spain so we are going to do it, we have done all our homework and we know we will get lots of hiccups and teething problems. We will stumble on the language at first but we are very determined to make this move work for us we have been planning this move for four years. We do know that it all wont be plain sailing, and i know i will miss things back here, like for instance the banter in shops and the little sayings and some of the food but we will try our best to make it work. Our little boy is five i would like him to have a spanish way of life to speak the language etc, but who knows wots around the corner, all i know is that you have to be positive in life,otherwise you wont get anywhere.

karen xx


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## spanishhopeful (Jan 28, 2011)

karenangell said:


> When we initially come over i will not be working at first, my hubby will be commuting to the uk about every 6weeks or so to oversee his business is going ok. He has a sport business and its going very well been going for seven years and growing fast. We get a good income from it so we will live of that at first and any savings we have will be there as a bonus. We also have just recently bought a mobile home here in england its very nice. We bought it with the idea that we could come back to england and that would be our base rather than renting out etc. We will be renting in spain ar first for a year or so and then see about buying we are not in any massive hurry. Our home in england will be rented and that revenue will pay for our spanish rent. We have always wanted to go to spain so we are going to do it, we have done all our homework and we know we will get lots of hiccups and teething problems. We will stumble on the language at first but we are very determined to make this move work for us we have been planning this move for four years. We do know that it all wont be plain sailing, and i know i will miss things back here, like for instance the banter in shops and the little sayings and some of the food but we will try our best to make it work. Our little boy is five i would like him to have a spanish way of life to speak the language etc, but who knows wots around the corner, all i know is that you have to be positive in life,otherwise you wont get anywhere.
> 
> karen xx


At least you have a plan of action that is a lot of peoples stumbling block, you have done your research and hopefully will be prepared for mostly what is to come.

Where abouts are you coming to?

Best of luck to you hope it all goes well.

Pete


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## karenangell (Feb 6, 2011)

spanishhopeful said:


> At least you have a plan of action that is a lot of peoples stumbling block, you have done your research and hopefully will be prepared for mostly what is to come.
> 
> Where abouts are you coming to?
> 
> ...


We are going to see about living near nerja or areas around there as we thought it was a pretty town.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

spanishhopeful said:


> You really do adapt to the hot weather. We left the Uk and lived in Australia for over 5 years. When we first arrived the summers were a nightmare had to have air con! but as the years went on we got more used to the hotter summers and didnt have to put the air con on until it reached the mid - high 30s. When we moved to spain we had just come from the hottest summer in australia 97 days of temperatures over 37 degrees so the Spanish summer was like a nice spring day to us  the problem we had was that now the temperatures are in the high 20s we are all wrapped up and finding it cold
> 
> So if you do move over here you might find the first summer or 2 uncomfortable but believe me your body will adapt and you will get used to it.


I've adapted to the summer heat but not the cold in winter. My OH is the other way round. At the moment we have a blanket just on my side of the bed!


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

As someone has said, it all depends on where you live, what kind of place you live in, your lifestyle and so on.
If you live inland, it's usually hotter in summer and cooler in winter. The heat is rarely unbearable on the coast.
We have aircon but have never used it as we have spacious rooms most of which have windows on two sides so we just open them for the through draft.
We don't need to heat the house in winter until about five or six p.m. 
A pool is a necessity imo although people manage perfectly well without one - it depends on your preference. Obviously better to have your own as some urbs. only open the communal pool from June to September and close it after eight p.m. . It's rather nice swimming by moonlight.
If you think the heat could be a problem you need to consider where you live and what kind of house/apartment as a lot will depend on your choice.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

MaidenScotland said:


> Having a beach and a communal pool only helps it doesn't solve the problem it only helps when you have time to visit them, as living in Spain is not all sunbathing lol
> In Gran Alacant the communal pools actually close in the afternoons or at least they have signs up telling you the hours you can visit.


yep - most communal pools throughout Spain do - the Spanish like a bit of peace for siesta time -& so would you if you overlooked the pool!!


most are open roughly 10am to 10pm with 2 hours closed 3pm - 5pm.............which isn't much good to you if you work Spanish hours


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

xabiachica said:


> yep - most communal pools throughout Spain do - the Spanish like a bit of peace for siesta time -& so would you if you overlooked the pool!!
> 
> 
> most are open roughly 10am to 10pm with 2 hours closed 3pm - 5pm.............which isn't much good to you if you work Spanish hours



My point exactly. I want to swim when......I want to swim.
Plus the fact that for aesthetic reasons and consideration for others I prefer a private pool.
We are not overlooked so we can bathe starkers which of course you can't do in a communal pool but I have no illusions about how I look in swim gear and have no wish to inflict the sight on other innocent bathers...


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Most private pools are so small though, you can get from one end to the other in three or four strokes.

I still prefer swimming in the ocean - and it's open all hours.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Alcalaina said:


> Most private pools are so small though, you can get from one end to the other in three or four strokes.
> 
> I still prefer swimming in the ocean - and it's open all hours.



Ours is a decent size....at least ten strokes from end to end. A friend has got one that is very small, though, more like an open-air bath.
I would never swim on the sea off our local beach -it's got a dangerous undertow and I'm not a strong swimmer.
I grew up by the Dorset seaside so a beach is no big deal although I love walking and sitting there at night.


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