We NEED air-conditioning

12 tog. I don't have that in middle of winter, or in our campervan in the middle of winter!

No it actively pushes the heat out of the window. A bit like if you blew a hairdryer out the window.

You close the window as much as possible, my first unit had foam to block the open window.

They do work, not as well as proper A/C.

@pinkhousesarebest

If you are ever back in the UK in a heatwave you need to get up early, open the windows and if you can the doors and use a fan to blow out the hot air.

Once there is cool air in the room close the windows and blinds.

I bought a proper mobile ac unit last winter ready for this summer. Used it yesterday and it was fabulous. Cost £180. They come in different watts/power levels so look for one that's suitable for your size room.

Ours cost £1800. But I think the price was bumped up because we had to run the pipework from the outside through an upstairs bedroom. That was with Bosch units.

I also know someone who has a home cake business who had it put on an outside wall in the kitchen so the pipework was straight through and that cost £800. That was in a different part of the country and with a different brand of units.

You haven't said what you've already tried to keep cool.

I have one on my Velux. The room gets extremely hot when the shutter is down.
Definitely not a solution.

Anyone know how much it costs to have proper AC fitted to a room or 2?

We have a mobile unit that is brilliant but a bit of a faff with the ventilation, I've not dug it out yet this year, because the heat has been infrequent and in short bursts fans have sufficed. Looks like it'll cool again now so won't get it out today!

We used a local plumbing and heating/boiler installation company.

For those that have it installed, can I ask who you approach? Plumber, electrician, specialist company? Thanks.

My neighbours, who live in Victorian houses with sash windows, don’t realise were designed to open top and bottom so the hot air leaves at the top and cooler air draws in through the bottom. Most people open them fully from the bottom. They are also not keeping the sun out during the day with blinds or curtains. Those top floor rooms must be very uncomfortable at night.

Mine costs the same as running my tv apparently so can’t use that much.

not so lovely for your neighbours that you are heating up the air outside you window on an already hot night, is it.

Not great for the human population as a whole that you are contributing to further global warming either

We got a fixed unit fitted in the living room. It’s absolutely amazing. The heat makes me really ill, partly due to peri and partly due to having ME/CFS. I’m considering getting another for upstairs.

At the minute I sleep downstairs when it’s too hot upstairs.

I have a portable one for my flat as the living room gets ridiculously hot as if gets a lot of sun. I’ve been on full time since yesterday morning and still 24 degrees inside

FWIW, heat exchanging air conditioner units have much better energy efficiency.

You need a thin peshtemel towel, make it wet, put it over you and put a fan blowing over you, you'll sleep fine

This.

These type of units are surprisingly good!

If you have a garden, plant trees in it. Shade from trees is the absolute best for keeping your house cool: blinds are good but the blinds themselves get warm, whereas shady trees protect the whole house from the sun.

We've got tall trees in our tiny back garden - taller than the house. All the neighbours are on at us to fell them but over my dead body. Our house is like a cold cave all year round. Yesterday I almost fainted in the sun when I was out on an errand... opened the front door to come inside and got greeted by a rush of icy cold air. Love our cold cave

We stuff the rest of the window opening with a pillow.

Also it's just one element in the overall system. Daytimes we just keep curtains closed etc, then in the evening we open windows as the outside cools down, then AC is just the last step to remove the worst of the remaining heat at bedtime. It's not like it's pumping all day when it's 30 degrees outside.

We have shutters, and keep them shut opening windows on the shady side and alternating. Opening all windows at night.

I'm in London it was warm last night but we all slept well.

Not being smug but I see so many people here down all the windows all day not understanding solar gain.

We've got totally silent fans in the bedrooms and keep blackout curtains closed during the day. We do have AC in our annexe and sometimes the teens sleep in there as their rooms are at the top of the house but mostly they find the fans sufficient.

We just got AC in two rooms (new build) and it’s fantastic. Also we have solar panels and even when running the AC we are still powering our house and sending back to the grid so 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Ceiling fan from Wayfair, really recommend

We had proper AC installed last year after trying various fans, humidifiers, mobile AC unit etc. Absolute game changer, I can finally sleep. I need the bedroom below 18 so we actually use it a lot in the summer (cancer treatment, medical menopause, soaking night sweats ect). Has made so much difference to my quality of life.

And as far as environmental impact I disagree. It’s a modern heat pump technology, no nasty gasses ect any more and completely different to the old style energy hungry compressor type AC. Really cheap to run, very efficient, and saved us so much money over the winter as I WFH and can now quickly heat one room if I get chilly rather than having heating on all the time in the whole house. So overall much better for the environment.