The Heat is On
We were stuck for ideas for our blog post today so we decided to go for a walk. Outside. At noon. With no shade. It was 100 degrees. Did we get inspiration? Yes - and all of it sweaty!
As we strolled, we were reminded of the wonderful cooling effect of trees. Whenever we passed under one, the temperature dropped 10 degrees. The reasons are twofold: first, tree leaves reflect heat and second, they transpire water through their leaves, which creates a great evaporative cooling effect.
Compare that to walls, roof overhangs and other hard surfaces. Although these surfaces provide shade, they also soak up heat and radiate it back at you. You only need to stand in the middle of a parking lot of a big-box retail establishment colonizing Mérida’s northern suburbs to understand how horrible this is. For that matter, touch the bedroom ceiling in your concrete house around 9pm and you’ll feel heat radiating through the concrete.
All of this is timely reminder for us given that we have been debating over the last week about whether to remove one of the bitter orange trees in rear garden. Last week, in the luxury of cooler weather, our instinct was to chuck it. After all, we have two others, and there is only so much naranjada we can drink.
But today, at the start of the hot season, we are firmly committed to keeping it. Even if we don’t use all the fruit, we will certainly enjoy its cooling power and its ability to keep our AC bills down.
