Air conditioning and loft conversions

[Pinkandwhiteblossom]

Evening - posting here for traffic.

If you have a loft conversion which has a bedroom do you:
A) have air conditioning and if so do you use it?
B) don’t have it but would install it if you had were starting again.

Help me settle an argument MN! Thanks

Oh yes, auto corrects get us all.

PIL recently bought a house (also SE) with a flat roof, their bedroom is on the top floor (three storeys). They extensively renovated it and I remember talking to them about putting in air con, which they dismissed. Two years later, they’re looking into putting in air con!

@VeniVidiWeeWee

@WellTidy

Thank you for your understanding!

We have a loft bedroom and it's boiling in the summer. I live by the sea so keep the windows open and get a nice breeze or stick a fan on. If I had the choice AC would be amazing!

London loft. Currently have a portable air conditioner and exploring having a fixed unit fitted.

South facing loft, two rooms, six velux windows ( four square opp each, other two fire escape) for cross breeze, covers most of the year. But for those couple of weeks when everyone used to be out and the heat built up we use/d free standing air conditioning units.Then when heatwave is over they push away into a cupboard. Not whisper quiet - more effective than a fan though ime. We also have black out fitted Velux blinds we can close to help control heat build up too during the day. A freestanding unit can be moved to cool another place in the home if it’s the one super tropical day of summer.

Ooh! Looks like I might win this after all. (Now I wish I’d just gone for AIBU and done a poll).

I may use the menopause as an argument in my favour. I am not enjoying that. At all.

WellTidy’s lift also appeals . There are a lot of stairs!

Thanks for replying everyone - this has been really helpful.

I'm in London & it's the one thing that I regret not putting in when we did the loft conversion. Maybe I'm biased, having been through the menopause wishing that we had it. We have velux windows and a good fan, but the problem with leaving the veluxes open overnight is that I wake up at 4 with the sun in summer & then can't get back to sleep.

Our south-facing loft dormer is my office, and it gets hot as a greenhouse every afternoon in summer (London).

We did end up buying a portable air con unit last summer. I only used it on baking days when the room would otherwise be un-useable. It is not easy to set up, got to tape up a huge pipe out the window etc. And it takes up the space of a small fridge and is extremely loud. Not to mention terrible for the environment.

The other loft room also has a south facing dormer window but it has also got veluxes on the other side, and it gets a lovely breeze through it - the heat is never a huge problem in that room. So if your loft has dual aspect it could be less of a concern.

I would definitely ask the builders about insulation and pay extra for better if that’s an option.

Not a loft conversion but we have installed air con in our bedroom and would not be without it.
House too well insulated and first floor was like an oven.

Had it done about ten years ago for £2k. I hate the heat and the last few summers have been hideous here (SE).

Go for it, OP. We have a tiny carbon footprint so felt no guilt about this one indulgence.

Completely silent in operation so no noise for neighbours. If we leave the bedroom door open, it cools the rest of the floor to a pleasant degree.

@MotherofPearl

Our bedroom is in our loft conversion. We have two large velux (plus another one on the stairs), as well as the dormer and it's still far too hot up here. And we're in the NW! I can't imagine how bad it would be in London.

I would definitely have had AC installed when we converted if I'd thought of it. I'm now researching getting it done next time we redecorate, as I assume it makes a fair bit of mess and you'd need to redecorate afterwards.

When we had ours done there was no mess at all, just needed to hoover where they’d drilled through walls obv! The main box is attached to the wall on the landing and our guys went up into the attic with the wiring then drilled a hole into the outside wall to connect wires to the box outside . We asked the guys who did our windows etc for another piece of drain pipe and they fed the wiring through that so it looks neat. And I don’t find it noisy at all. Dd, who I mentioned has sn, is very sensitive to any “strange” noises and she isn’t bothered by it at all, and this is a child who knows when they’re cutting grass in the next village

I would definitely get an air-con unit, our loft bedroom is like a sauna in summer despite having 2 large Velux windows.

Lots of insulation and ventilation are essential.

Modern building standards are quite good, but older loft conversions, and those built without approval, are practically uninhabitable on sunny days and frosty nights.

The chimney effect will draw cooler air up through the house, if you have, e.g. velux windows at the top and an open back door downstairs. This is not practical if unattended.