How many individuals in your area are at risk during the hot weather season? The heat waves ruining the nation these days due to its scorning heat and can lead to a person’s heat exhaustion, dehydration, heatstroke, and death.
According to the world’s statistics, 90 people died in Quebec due to heatwaves. In 1995, at the land of Chicago, an extreme heatwave also occurred in the area that killed over 700 people.
When the electricity goes out, which is commonly happens during extreme weather and temperatures – the issues will become larger and stronger. When electric fans, refrigerators, and air conditioners can’t give any relief and solution – the question is: how long can your home survive in the heat and provide a comfortable temperature to suit the scorning weather outside?
This is where hours-of-safety will intervene to identify the difference between danger to safety.
Crucial Hours to Understand
The distinction between 20 hours of comfortable and safe in-home current temperatures and only five hours is the dissimilarity between life and death for delicate and weak populations. It creates a difference between keeping off heatstroke until the electricity is returned, giving time for the families to arrive and offer support, or providing some time to evacuate the area.
The first thing that you must do is to understand your homes when it comes to hours-of-safety it can give when the electricity is turned out to lessen the number of people exposed to the extreme hot or cold weather.
While there are factors to identify metrics for the flexibility of the electricity grid, there are some works that need to be done on how long a building can be able to keep a standard temperature level. Also, homes may differ depending on their ability to keep comfort during these scenarios, and you need to begin making your homes prepared for the best. Luckily, with the help of insulation specialists, it can make your home safer and more efficient while giving other advantages like lower electricity bills.
Smart Residential and Buildings Can Create a Bigger Difference
Governments and policymakers should know how to create better community safety and resilience by providing a solution that will cater to their needs. Luckily, building industries can take part in preparing the cities to be more resilience to the extreme and scorning heat and cold through implementing multiple effective strategies.
Experts identify passive survivability as when a building or residential home can keep livable even if resources like water, electricity, and heating fuel are turned off. If a house or building considers its hours-of-safety can aid in enhancing the passive survivability rate of the said building and hose, which can lead to saving more lives.
The primary thing that identifies how many safety hours a home can have during the extreme weather when the electricity goes out is two factors:
- How well insulated your home is
- How much air leakage does your home has between inside and outside
Passive strategies like a tighter envelope and more insulation can offer support to make residential homes and building more resilient and efficient in both hot and cold weather. Installing features like cool roofs, and thicker walls can enhance the current capability of the building or homes to be livable even when the electricity goes out.
