Unable to cool home: Heat the new manifestation of inequality in Netherlands

Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far in the Netherlands. The night was not much better, with temps not dropping below 20 degrees in many places. In this type of weather, it makes quite a difference whether you live in a well-insulated house or in a city apartment that’s even warmer inside than outside. “Cooling inequalities becoming an increasingly bigger problem,” Marjolein van Esch told NOS.

Van Esch is a university lecturer in urban planning at TU Delft. “Ten years ago, we thought only of the elderly [when it comes to suffering from the heat], but it is also students and other tenants who are not able to change anything in their homes and are really burdened. Not only physically, but also mentally.”

In general, cities are warmer than the countryside. “Buildings absorb heat during the day and release it in the evenings,” said Esther Peerlings, who conducts research into this at Wageningen University & Research. Neighborhoods with low buildings and gardens cool much faster than high-rise buildings on narrow streets with little greenery. It can make a difference of 10 degrees Celsius.

Both researchers point out that tenants have the most trouble getting their homes cool, especially tenants in social housing. “You can adapt a house you own however you want. But if you want to install an awning on the outside of a rental, that is often not possible,” Peerlings said. “Landlords often think: why should I invest money in something I am not obliged to.”

According to Van Esch, there are people in the Netherlands who start dreading the summer as early as May and June. “Some homes are unpleasant to live in for three months. That affects their mental state. They get stressed, depressed, or can’t concentrate properly.”

In the past, the Netherlands built to retain heat in the cold winters. The typical Dutch through-house gets plenty of sunshine and is logically hot in the summer. “That is now turning against us,” Van Esch said.

Better insulation, ventilation, and sun protection can help. So can changes to the living environment, like more shade and more greenery in the neighborhoods. “We now see that people want air conditioning,” Van Esch said. “Air conditioning makes the problem worse. The air conditioning emits the heat outside, and then it only gets warmer.”