Bottesford

Last night it finally went on. The building is centrally heated so I just open the hot water tap and it flows all round the apartment. I can then open any radiator as required (usually after being bled as air gets trapped in as we're top floor!). So far I'm just running it around the apartment without radiators to take that chill off. Soon as we get any sun it'll be straight off as it heats up rapidly up here.

Don't think I'd like night working. Make it near impossible to socialise with those on 'normal' hours plus my body likes regular routine as much as possible. Will stick to my day job! Now we're into the gloomy part of the year, I find these programs very useful for controlling monitor brightness: Flux (http://justgetflux.com) dims the display as the sun sets to an orange colour which is much better on the eyes. Especially useful when it goes from bright, low sunshine to pitch black during the working day. Dimmer (http://www.nelsonpires.com/software/dimmer/) again dims the display but at your control. Especially useful for dismal days (like today here) when it just won't get light. Although the sun is up (and Flux is in 'day' mode) the screen is just too bright unless you're in a brightly lit room - which I prefer to avoid as it's depressing having the lights on all day.

Apart from the bonus extra hour on Sunday I sure ain't looking forward to the clock move. Darkness then really does infect 'daytime' instead of just evening & night. Also means spending the last couple of hours working in darkness which does my head in!

The only good bit about this clock move is the extra hour to play with on Sunday. Otherwise its annoying and makes the evening commute much more dangerous all of a sudden. Glad to be missing out on that now I work from home!

Now rapidly approaching the time when darkness infects the working day. Changed a bit this year to creep up on me as I work till 6pm instead of 5pm now. Previously the clock move dumped me into work darkness whereas now i'm starting to struggle to see as it approaches. Few more days then the lamp must go on during the working day, and remain so until February sometime. A depressing change that's for sure!

Back in my shorts today on this muggy but sunny 22c day. Starting to think we'll go straight from summer to winter all of a sudden at one point!

I think that's because it can be very nice to be very warm/hot... relaxing with very little on, air all around you with a cool beer on. But I don't mean that hot like when wearing a winter coat then walking into an overheated shop or the London Underground for example - that's nasty hot. The atmosphere of hot conditions can be very pleasant too and it isn't always a mad dash to keep cool- just go with it... Cold is different, it's hard to warm up once you get cold so few people sit outside with not much on and bask in it.. You keep indoors or wrap up well then keep moving. No heating here although did need to shut the windows today as its got very windy so even at 16c this evening it gets chilly fast on the 5th floor. With forecast of 24c on Thursday we won't be needing it for a while yet!

Well yes true it is entirely dependent on your house & comfort levels. In my old house in Nottingham air con would be ludicrous - we didn't even use a fan once in 5 years. Even in the few days of hot weather we had in that 5 year period it never got above 25c during the hot part of the day (10am-2pm due to it facing south east - after that you had to open windows to let the heat in!). But central heating - well only the months of July & August were completely free of it with it generally running mid/late Sept to late April/early May. And this was just to keep it at 21c during occupied times of day. But here in Berlin it a whole different ball game. Heating is done centrally for the apartment block but I can shut off the inlet valve. Which I did many times in March and finally early April and not touched it since. Windows open aplenty although tend to close some in evenings as it cools. Yes Berlin is warmer in Nottingham although not by that much at this time of year. But that being said... I still can't imagine using air con in the UK when its only 20c out!

It'd be a quiet thread given that air con isn't really necessary in a place that rarely sees any hot weather. I admit being tempted by one this summer when it was 30+ by day and mins were around 22c but with maxes of 20c or less? No that would be very wasteful of energy.

Yes I have noticed this effect too. Both in my office back in the UK and here it often feels hotter inside during August/September than in June as the lower solar angle covers more of the room. This is despite it being that bit weaker - it just covers more objects so warms more of the room contents. Might also be that it covers me in more sun too so you deffo feel warmer then.

Well I'm basing this on average people given the sorts of temperature most public spaces are heated to. If you find 18c too hot then walking into most pubs, shops, buses or other public buildings must be hard going!

21c is 'room temperature' and is the most comfortable for the average human being neither too cool nor too warm. A house in range 18c-22c is reasonable with bedroom/unused rooms on the cool end and sitting rooms on the warm end. Any cooler and you can risk health and it'll end up damp (like my old place did when it fell cold during the middle of the working day) and any warmer you're wasting energy (well unless its that warm out of course, then its great!).

For first time this season I felt the chill on any exposed body parts while in bed. Never something to relish that's for sure! Looks to be warming up a bit again here later in the week so should be ok ... for now.

Down to single figures last night so windows all closed up until sun warmed it up nicely today. No heating yet, nor has the building had it switched on yet.

The only good thing about the clock move is the extra hour on Sunday! Otherwise its a pain in the backside and downright dangerous in the evening rush hour. Back in Nottingham it always coincided with the highest traffic volumes of the year- students in their first term, kids coming back from half term and all the xmas shoppers. And all suddenly plunged into darkness when many are not used to driving in the dark. Vile time for a cyclist I can tell you! Made worse by many cyclist who'd forgotten (I assume) that it gets dark now so don't have any lights on!

Try gardening in the dark - its not quite so easy to see things. Try painting in artificial light - the colours are all wrong. Try cleaning the house in artificial light - can't see the dirt! Unless you have daylight simulator bulbs in your workspace some close up work/hobbies are much more difficult to do. It's exactly why my dad always did the decorating during daylight hours - so he could see what he's doing!

Evening darkness is rapidly approaching the 'pain in the bum' line whereby you don't have time to get home & eat before it gets dark.... Once sunset moves before 7pm the noose really starts to tighten.

Well the wind stopped being from the east for first time all week over here - maybe something to do with it!

It sure does seem the east coast is the most frustrating place for weather in the UK. Any easterly drift and its mostly dreadful. Even as far inland as Nottingham you just knew when the wind was from east as low cloud and that nippy breeze were in place. But the same places (Nottingham included) had a great sunny winter back in 2011 (I think - am forgetting the dates now!) when it was very westerly driven and so many on here were complaining about the mild grey weather... This week not seen a cloud since the weekend (which was very cloudy) and its been 24c everyday. Looks to continue until (of course) the weekend when rain begins to show up on the forecasts...

Do you try to keep all the lights off during hours of darkness too? To fully absorb your fix!

Ya know... think I'll skip....

haha yeah I used to have that issue in my office. First tiny bit of sun then you shut the damn thing out! Of course it is at eye level in winter so completely blinding so I do understand... but in the end I installed 'solar shields' (bluetak + cardboard!) in strategic places so we got tons of sun but without being blinded. Did sometimes feel like being in a sun shower with it blazing all around your field of vision.. just had to be careful not to move your head in the wrong place....

For sure sunlight increases happiness. We've not seen the sun for several days here - it's just humid with slate grey skies and it really doesn't make you feel very active or happy. We are in some way programmed to like sunlight since it provides life - without it we wouldn't last long!

The purpose of this thread still running is for people to post their reviews or summaries of how summer went. Same applies for all four seasons. The thread will fade naturally when there's no more to say. 27c here today - and sunny too - deffo summer weather!

Nottingham suffered from the North Sea muck loads - especially in spring & early summer. To say the weather is better at this location is an understatement... even after the poorer August its been a lovely year of weather! Gardening has been great - I've been eating 4 big sweet yellow peppers per week for 2 months now and no sign of them slowing. Last year in Nottingham I got 3 in total by time the plants succumbed to cold in early October. And last year I used a greenhouse - this time they're exposed completely! And so many chillies... so many...