Beating the Heat: Why Can't New Builds Have Air Con?

It sounds like my recent build flat. Lots of triple-glazed glass which makes it feel like a greenhouse. It took all of two successive 22°C days to heat up to 29°C indoors despite me keeping all the blinds shut, tall fans on and opening up windows at night. It takes a long time to cool down. The prolonged heatwave we had in the south a few years ago was awful, I think the flat got up to 35°C. I felt so ill and now feel anxious if I see prolonged hot weather forecast.

I don’t think air con is environmentally justifiable in this country but I’d really welcome outside shutters like on the continent. Blocks like mine should be built with them as standard.

I’m in the USA and we do have aircon. Our heating system is completely different to the the UK though - we have blown air through the floors, no radiators. Blown air gets heated in the winter and cooled in the summer. The major downsides are that we can’t really control the temperatures in individual rooms much apart from closing vents, and it can generate more dust. It’s also pretty drying on the skin.

I had a metal one years ago and was always afraid of it flying off in some sort of final destination decapitating.

Fitted ours last year. It is amazing 😍

All the fuss is because it’s true.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130719103146.htm

If you have air source heat pump heating, these also cool in the warmer days. We had these in our shop for cooling in the summer, and they also pumped out warm air in winter, you just set the temp on the thermostat.

I’ve lived in houses built in the 1960s and 1970s and they got sweltering when it was warm. Particularly upstairs.

I now live in a 17th century new build and it is lovely and cool inside. I’m still sleeping under a duvet.

I have air conditioning, cooling the whole house has cost about 10 units of electricity per day for the last couple of days. So £2 ish a day.

I don't think thats expensive given how comfortable it is, but of course depends on your means.

It can't be genuinely eco-friendly. I visited somewhere in west London where the walls very very thick and they said it had an all year round temperature of 17 degrees centigrade. No heating required.

Air-to-air source heat pumps / conditioner systems are perfectly suited to most new builds, and quite cheap as used prolifically in commercial venues, but they're not pushed as much as air to water because it's not very 'green' to pay to cool your home. I'd put one in though if I was building a house.

@TeaTimeMum Agree. My sister is in a new build which has what you describe - the air vent system pumps out heating or cooling. It's very efficient.

The only thing I will say is that when it's on the blink, it's on the blink for everybody. It seems to operate out of a central plant thing?

However, if it's on the blink in winter, it doesn't actually matter because newbuilds are built to be so ridiculously hot! How have they done that and why have they done it?

My previous place was built in 2003 and definitely needed the same. If it was warmer than 25 outside then it would be about 30 or 32 in the flat and the fridge and freezer frequently packed up because of it.

My summer bills were higher because of the portable air-conditioning unit. (I did a calculation one year and it worked out that the air-conditioning would be in use many days between May and November, so that's how I decided to buy it, I just bought the cheapest thing on the market).

Oh and the windows didn't open properly because I was on a high floor.

That drove me nuts. Obviously on a high floor there isn't the option to shade the windows from the outside.

I did get the option to buy a north facing flat here thank goodness! Heating bill is tiny.

ceiling fans just move hot air around.

They have what’s called air cooling. A quote how it differed from AC: ‘An air conditioner repeatedly circulates the existing air into the room for cooling, whereas an air cooler draws fresh air from the outside and then cools it down. Furthermore, unlike an air conditioner, an air cooler does not dry out the air in the room.’
from friends who have air cooling the feedback is that it doesn’t get as cold as with ac but it’s still pleasant.

Ds has a ceiling fan/light in his room.6 speeds and remote control.Only 50 quid off Amazon

I wouldn't want more costs. I use blinds and fans occasionally.

Also I'm at work 5 days out of 7.

This country really is awful in the heat. American friends (understandably) laugh at me when I complain about 80 degrees – after all, it hit 100 in Chicago. But what they don't realise is that our houses (especially the disgusting new builds) are tiny. Houses in Texas and Australia are generally bigger and airier. The heat has room to circulate. And not only are the houses small, they're also jammed on top of one another. I'm never more conscious of what a hellishly overcrowded place the UK is than during a heatwave.

We’ve been looking at properties in London in the past 2 yrs and all new builds have cooling systems (similar to air con).
eta: by new builds I mean completed building in the past year or two

They just built some "affordable' homes near me - some Social rent and some shared ownership. They all have solar panels. The ones with the best aspect also have storage batteries. There is no gas in the area so electricity was the fuel of choice.

I live in a 3 year old new build in the South East, so pretty hot here at the moment.

I don't feel the need for air con.

I have blackout blinds at the windows upstairs and a blind that I can lower when the sun is on the large windows/door in the living room at the back of the house - sun doesn't hit the front.

I also have a standing fan that helps keep the living room cool.

If I needed air con I'd have it installed but don't plan to.

More importantly for me, the house is very well insulated and I have a really efficient heating system in the winter.

I lived in a new build that had air con, it was a dream, don’t know why it’s not more of a thing as new builds get stuffy even in spring/ autumn. I wonder if people will start getting A/C installed in their homes, I’d prefer that than investing in a brand new kitchen etc.

Solar panels the norm on Scottish new builds it seems

Probably legislation

Down south red tape is evil

It's not beyond the wit of engineers to make a house that copes with heat and cold either

I wish more newbuilds were built with solar panels, its quite expensive to install if you need to pay for scaffolding, electricity cables to be routed through the house to the fuse box, etc. Should be really simple to do when the house is just a shell. The panels themselves are quite cheap.

Then when its hot and sunny you can use that solar electricity to run your aircon.

New builds should be passive not active cooled- that just makes the problem worse !