My daughter and son-in-law decided they would like a Swift box on their Elsworth, Cambs house. The only viable place was at the top of a west-southwest facing gable end.
[Postscript: On July 1st 2015, the "hottest July day ever", the temperature reached 32.8°C in the box - well within safe limits]
[Postscript 2: on July 23rd, A Swift enters the top box. There have been up to 7 'bangers' pulled in by the attraction calls]
by Dick
The design is a very similar idea to this box, which did not have a potential over-heating problem. This configuration contains just 3 nest chambers. West-southwest is not as bad as south, but the afternoon sun could well be a problem.
4 things should keep the temperature within reasonable limits:
• The front is 24mm thick - 2 layers of 12mm plywood.
• The shaped battens cover about half of the front and provide shade from sun directly into the entrances.
• It is painted white.
[Postscript: On July 1st 2015, the "hottest July day ever", the temperature reached 32.8°C in the box - well within safe limits]
[Postscript 2: on July 23rd, A Swift enters the top box. There have been up to 7 'bangers' pulled in by the attraction calls]
by Dick
The design is a very similar idea to this box, which did not have a potential over-heating problem. This configuration contains just 3 nest chambers. West-southwest is not as bad as south, but the afternoon sun could well be a problem.
4 things should keep the temperature within reasonable limits:
• The front is 24mm thick - 2 layers of 12mm plywood.
• The shaped battens cover about half of the front and provide shade from sun directly into the entrances.
• It is painted white.
• Air can ventilate into the space between the box sides and the eaves.
A wireless max-min thermometer has been placed in the top box to monitor the maximum temperature each day.
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
| The battens keep the entrances in the shade. The tweeter is attached to the bottom of the box with Velcro. [Postscript: the swifts pulled the tweeter off, so it has been moved inside one of the boxes] |
The detailed construction is illustrated in the pictures below:
