How to make my apartment feel less like an oven?

Post date: 2026-08-18 01:48:40

In the ground-floor apartment (in southern Europe) I've been renting since June, the indoor temps stay generally around 26/27 °C day and night (minimum 24/25) and 60-70% humidity. Outside these periods of heatwaves we've had this Summer, it's better to stay outside. I'm used to poorly isolated homes, so I don't get how this place retains heat THIS well, even when the weather outside is nice (and/or the nights are breezy). And for that matter, how the building hallways are always cooler than my apartment and the outdoors.

If it helps (and apologies for some ignorance around these subjects):

The apartment only has two windows and they are pointing south, so during daytime, it's safe to say the sun always reaches the house in some way. No trees high or close enough to block it. If I'm in the windowsill, I think I can feel the warmth in my face and the window is hot to the touch from inside the house.

In the living room, there's a grille/sink of sorts in the window wall, from the inside to the outside. But the temperatures are pretty similar in the adjacent bedroom.

There are no blinds or anything outside, the sun hits the windows directly. The building itself, which was built a few years ago, doesn't have them in any of the apartments.

There's a blackout curtain embedded in the window frame but that's INSIDE my house and I haven't noticed any significant improvements in the indoor temps by using them.

I've tried keeping the windows wide open for a few hours at night, when it was cool. My temp sensor showed an obvious improvement (from 27 to 24 °C) next to the window but no big difference when inside the room.

Thanks in advance!

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