Keeping cool in the modern world...

Hi, I live in a recently-built apartment block, on the third floor with a west facing aspect, which gets the full force of the sun from about 2 pm until sunset. During the recent hot weather, the temp in the flat passes 25 degrees by the late afternoon, often peaking at 30. I find this quite unpleasant and am considering my options to reduce the temp in the flat. I've observed that the top floor flats across the block appear to have some sort of external roller blind sun screen, whereas the flats on lower levels don't have them, so I'm going to ask the property managment co. for info about them to see if there's the option of fitting one and of course there's a quick & easy option of buying a portable aircon unit, but I was wondering what my long term options might be if these sort of summer temp.s are going to be common... in particular I was thinking about under-floor piping, usuallly associated with heating, but could such a system be used to cool the rooms as well? And can anyone tell me of any other options to keep my rather-too-hot rooms cooler in summer months?

Fit black out blinds or curtains. and close them when the sun is strongest

Warming a thermal mass (a concrete floor) and as the heat rises it's warming the air above it and then the space. Cooling the floor would really only give you a cold floor.

Can you open windows on two sides so as to create an airflow?

Exterior blinds or shutters would help; the shortcoming of curtains and internal blinds is that they don't stop solar radiation from entering the flat.

RigidRaider said:

Exterior blinds or shutters would help; the shortcoming of curtains and internal blinds is that they don't stop solar radiation from entering the flat.

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Blackout blinds are made of certain materials that will reduce or block solar thermal transfer. You will always get the heat transfer through the glass but that's not what really heats the room, it's the direct sunlight heating the internals that raises the temp the most. You can also get solar control blinds that are made of reflective materials so you can tailor the amount of heat/light let through.

Thanks folks - sounds like the way to go is investigate the blind / screen option. re trying to get air moving, I tried a couple of things earlier in the current heat wave, i) switching on the extractor fan that's built in to the apartment - it's only three rooms (plus a couple of bathrooms) and there's a central fan switch sited in the meter cupboard, which I presume is what extracts air via the vents in the kitchen area and the two bathrooms. It runs at about 50 watts and did absolutely nothing to the temperature, according to the three thermometers I have around the place. ii) I propped the door to the apartment open one very hot day. It opens into the corridor shared with four other apartments, but again that seemed to do very little to get air in the rooms moving and obviously isn't a great idea with respect to security.