Heat-Related Illnesses - And How to Avoid Them

We all love to spend time outdoors on a beautifully sunny day - in fact it can be good for you to spend limited time in the sun due to the good source of Vitamin D that is found in sunlight. But when we overdo it, complications can arise that can not only have a negative effect on your day, but your overall health in general.

We all understand that staying out of the hot day’s sun and putting on enough sunblock to cover our skin is a necessity for people of all ages, but the sunshine isn’t the only hot-weather effect that can cause us potential problems. Heat is one of the simplest things to overlook in the hotter months, and here is why you should be wary.

Overheating In the Home

Many people associate overheating with marathon runners or football players who are working hard in the sun who succumb to heatstroke or heat-related illnesses, but more people each year are taken to the emergency room for heat-related illness from simply being at home, inside.

The most deadly form of heat-related illness is heat stroke. Heat stroke occurs when the body gets too hot, overheats and is unable to cool down. The mechanism for sweating - the body’s natural remedy to regulate heat fails and the body starts to shut down rapidly.

Heat stroke was credited for around 500 fatalities in 2011, with that figure set to rise year on year. With many authorities struggling to handle the numbers of heat-related illnesses and deaths, prevention is the key to tackling this rising toll. Knowing when you or a loved one is overheating is the best way to prevent any further troubles from occurring.

What Are The Signs?

Before you or a loved one comes down with a heat-related illness such as heat stroke, you will notice a few signs of overheating that can be treated quickly to prevent anything serious from occurring. One of the first signs of overheating is the feeling of being uncomfortable.

As the heat rises, people become uncomfortable, irritable and stressed. Further along, overheating affects the ability to concentrate, leading to dizziness and an inability to focus.

If you are feeling any of these symptoms, take a break from any work you may be doing, seek shade if you are outdoors and take on fluids; preferably cool water to help the body regulate heat properly. Sweating is a good sign that your body is working hard to regulate your heat, but if you are retaining heat and not sweating, seek emergency treatment immediately.

If you are indoors and are suffering from the heat in the hotter months, there are many things you can do to prevent your home overheating on a hot day. Make sure you are taking on water on a regular basis, stay in the cooler parts of your home, and invest in a home cooling system to regulate your home to prevent overheating.

Keeping a Cool Home

One of the best things you can do to keep our home cool is to invest in one of the new home ventilation systems available on the market. These innovative cooling systems help regulate the heat in your home, venting the hot air out of your roof to keep your house cool and comfortable in even the hottest of weather.

Keeping a cool home in the hottest months is a great way to ensure your family doesn’t succumb to the stresses of summer, and allows you to create a sanctuary away from the sun. Ensuring that you take a break at regular intervals when working outside, applying plenty of sunblock and hydrating yourself regularly will allow you to enjoy summer, not hide take a vacation from it.


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How Roof Space Ventilation Can Save Power in Your Home

Cutting back on energy and utility consumption is a good way to save big money relatively simply. Our daily lives have increasingly relied on technology and electrical devices to bring us some of the creature comforts we enjoy, but also at a cost to the environment. One of the best ways to help save you money and reduce your energy bills has been to install a roof ventilation system, but how do they work exactly?

Many modern properties that are well insulated offer great energy savings in the colder months of the year due to their ability to retain heat within its walls. While this is a great advantage when looking to reduce your heating bills, in the summer months this heat retention all but works against your homes’ air conditioning cooling system.

Disperse That Trapped Heat inside Your Home

Proper dispersal of heat through the means of a roof ventilation system can ensure that any unwanted trapped heat inside your home can be dispersed efficiently and rapidly to allow your home to cool quicker, in turn allowing your air conditioning and cooling system to use and need less energy overall.

One of the most popular roof ventilation systems in Australia features thermostatically controlled dispersal and cooling abilities that allow your home to be switched to your preferred temperature on demand. This rapid way of cooling your home will bring with it a more relaxing and comfortable environment to live or work in all year round.

A professional roof ventilation system offers a huge decrease in power consumption compared with a home which does not employ a modern cooling system. The savings on your electricity bills alone can be significant. Whilst energy saving around the home may only go so far, heating and cooling your property are one of the largest additions to your household utility bills.

Small Investment, Big Return

An energy efficient roof ventilation system fitted by a trusted supplier may seem like a significant investment at first, but are available at surprisingly affordable prices. For this relatively small initial cost, a roof ventilation installation offers big returns on energy bill savings. Many new eco homes employ these techniques to achieve their status, and along with lighting, heating and cooling systems make up the majority of your homes turnover cost.

With thermostats to control the temperature at your fingertips, you will no longer need to constantly adjust your heating and cooling system separately. An integrated system can constantly regulate the warmth or coolness of your home makes it simple for anyone to use. With the summer months seemingly getting hotter, why not allow your home to get a breath of fresh air with an Australian made roof ventilation system today.

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How Improving Cooling Efficiency Can Increase Productivity

Studies show that global warming and increasingly hot summers are having a negative effect on worker productivity. However new technologies such as Advantec’s roof ventilation system can make cooling efforts much more efficient and help people feel more comfortable and productive at certain workplaces.

There’s no doubt that when people are excessively hot, we’re not going to be doing our best work. We become more irritable and become prone to heat exhaustion and even heat strain in some cases. But it’s our comfort level that we’re most likely to notice initially.

Obviously, the degree to which heat will be a factor will depend on the type of work. Outdoor labourers or factory workers will need more rest time between work to maintain their wellbeing on a hot day than office staff, for instance. However, on particularly hot days, the productivity of both sets of workers will become diminished considerably.

A study has shown that the optimal temperature for work is between 23 and 25 degrees Celsius, however there are different views on this; some believe that this is slightly too warm. Be that as it may, the research indicates that we are more prone to reductions in productivity as a result of temperature increases rather than temperature decreases. This might be due to the fact that we can always put more clothes on as it gets colder, but there are only so many clothes we can take off in the workplace.

Air conditioning can obviously help a lot, however on hot days this puts a great strain on the energy bill; cooling a large office or factory space can become very expensive. So even if you’re able to salvage worker productivity, you see the cost of this on the energy bill.

This is where roof ventilation technology can lend a hand in certain working environments. Research indicates that much of the difficulty in maintaining a comfortable temperature in homes and some commercial premises comes from the fact that the roof space of the dwelling is excessively hot. If it remains this way, your air conditioning unit is going to be fighting an uphill battle as the temperature of the roof space effects the rest of the building greatly.

Advantec’s Heat Dispersal System flushes the heat out of your roof space until it sits at a temperature of 28 degrees. This can decrease cooling costs by more than 20% and makes for a much more comfortable environment. The best part is that it only turns itself on during hot days; if it’s cold, you want to maintain that heat so the HDS will not be active.

Of course, this technology is not applicable to all workplaces; factories and buildings in which there is no space between the roof and ceiling unfortunately cannot accommodate the HDS. However, for small offices, homes and other commercial dwellings, this product is well worth a look.