What do people with home offices do with heat?

[reluctantbrit]

I had no real issues with working from home and heat but the last 2 years it was really awful. My blood pressure is dropping, I start feeling faint and have issues concentrating. I had hopes that me loosing weight helps but unfortunately no.

I do a lot already, airing from 6am onwards to around 8am when the sun starts getting into the room. Dark roller blinds and open door. I can open the window only after 3pm but then the air outside is hardly better, it‘s just oxygen with hot air. A fan also just moves the hot air around.

I can’t change rooms as I need a complex set-up with a large screen, it‘s not that I can just move a laptop around.

It has to be fairly quiet as I have regular calls.

I also go to the office but that includes a train ride back home and I am often ill in the evening from travelling. I am also under work adjustments to do hybrid due to an injury which will run until end of August.

No plans to install air con permanently currently, we have enough going on with the house for this year already, and I am wondering if a portable one with a hose is actually doing anything as it requires to have a window open.

I am happy to throw money at the problem for a decent solution which doesn‘t include building work.

When we out ours on our cat refused to come into the house 🙄

Oh no. Our dogs were wary of them when we first got them but they’ve got used to them.

Our cat has been known to try to sleep on them! He is old and quite deaf now though. He also sits on the robot vacuum when it’s on and moving though so he is a bit of a strange cat!

Definitely get a portable air-con if you aren't installing proper ones in the near future. It absolutely works and you can get a fitting from Amazon for the window that makes a HUGE difference. I also WFH and got myself one last year.

I also keep windows & doors closed until much later in the evening (10pm onwards) blinds closed and white sheets on the windows under the blinds. Currently testing the open loft theory today and tomorrow!

I got a aircon De'Longhi Pinguino EM82 Portable Air Conditioning Unit in a sale that which has fan and dehumidifier functions (never used the latter). Its a bit on the pricey side and noisy but is a lifesaver right now.

Window fitting:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B087WT2XZF?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1

Next on my big spend list is aircon upstairs where my bedroom and office/spare room, I cannot do another year of this! Calling two places tomorrow for quotes. The portable will then be relocated to the living room.

Good luck!!

I have a dog cooling mat on the floor for my feet and I freeze a hot water bottle overnight and pop it in front of the fan during the hottest part of the day

Freeze a hot water bottle for you to hold somewhere. Bowl of ice in front of fan. Get a cooling scarf (wet it, wring out, snap it) and wrap wound neck or wrists. I use this when abroad as I’m not good in the heat.

anything sold as a gadget for women experiencing hot flushes might help!

Check out advice by vets for cats and dogs and use whatever works best for you.

start work early. Take a break at the hottest part of the day and then work later.

I have some serious health problems and heat absolutely wipes me out. I bought a portable air conditioner which is a god send!

Portable air con!

I also go for a swim most mornings, and try and drink plenty

I don't know what casement windows are but when we put our portable AC on, we use a duvet round the hose to block the rest of the opening in the window 🙈 if downstairs then we use the catflap.

Desk fan but don't stress... it will be cold again in a couple of weeks.

Feet in cold water under the desk, works a treat

I have fixed working hours due to external time restrictions. No siesta possible.

I am pretty sure it will be. But I found that it's getting more and more and my tolerance is getting lower and lower.

It doesn't help that I am over 50, have a permanent low blood pressure which hates any temperature changes and I can't deal with tiredness.

This weekend was great, relaxing, moving from room to room if necessary and not doing anything apart from reading a book and surfing the net.

Tomorrow will be very different with being on the go mentally from 9-5, sitting in one room with a computer and due to half-term we are also understaffed.

I wish I was wfh in the heat rather than being stuck in a windowless classroom with 30 teens! At least it is half term though. Good luck op - the feet in cold water sounds like a good idea.

We got an Aircon unit, I couldn't stand the heat a few years ago, so bit the bullet & bought one.

Soak a hand towel in cold water, wring out and wrap round your shoulders

buy a shark flex breeze as it mists water at you when needed and it’s a decent desktop fan

top tip however is a ceiling fan, we have them installed in two bedrooms and the living room. The Reiga one. Actually cools - doesn’t just move hot air around. Nothing like a fan next to you at all… so as an alternative to air con, that’s it.

Another vote for portable aircon. My office is in the attic and without this it would be unbearable in the heat. With this it’s bliss (but yes, bloody noisy).

I bought a paddling pool and filled it with cold water (in the garden) and went and sat in it for 5 mins every hour.

my home office was hideously hot.

i wore a dress over a swimsuit.

It still works well without it being sealed, it just cools the room down even quicker when sealed.

We have an Aircon unit, I think it was roughly £300. We have it in the office during the day and put it in dd's room at night (she has a bunk bed so DS can go in there too and they both get a good night's sleep). Sash window in dd's room makes ducting it easy, casement window in the office so we've got one of the kits pp shared. It's a ballache moving it twice a day but it's so bulky we don't really want a second one to have to store all winter!

Washing up bowl with cold water under desk to stick your feet into.

We have AC via mini splits/heat pump but before that we had portable units. They do make a huge difference but can be noisy. If Midea is available in the UK, the noise bit is outside so it’s not as bad as a freestanding Honeywell. You do need to be able to seal up around the window somewhat but they come with a bit that you sort of fit into the window. Also, box fan. But also pretty loud.

Keeoing heat out is the same as keeping heat in - obviously keep your windows closed until the temperature is low in the evening/early morning, but you must also block the sun, especially from any south facing windows or glass doors.

DH had a portable air con unit. I have a desk fan on my face/upper body. Bigger fan if it gets much hotter. I keep the blinds shut. Have iced drinks.

@reluctantbrit oh I have low blood pressure as well

So I'm usually freezing and I don't cope well with temperature change

To all those asking about venting the Aircon - don't worry too much about the gap if you can't seal it. It makes a fantastic difference even without correct sealing, but as I'm always saying on these threads, it's more about the air quality than the cooling

I'm in my second ridiculously stuffy, hot new build flat - google heat in new builds, I think this applies to anything built after 2000 - and the stuffiness is a real problem. When I got home today, it was 27°. I've lived with far worse in my previous flat so I should moan less really.

Put the Aircon on - it goes down to 24 - it's not properly vented with the seal, etc at the moment but it's helping the stuffiness no end. Really helps that sensation of "where is the air?" I appreciate if you're in a house you may not have that problem though. But if you do, it really helps.

it's incredibly noisy, though. I don't generally sleep with it on. I don't know how I would to be honest! But getting the bedroom down to 24 will be really good - last night it went down to 23.

Just to add

I don't feel particularly overheated because I always run cold.

It's definitely the lack of air that's the problem - or the air in the flat is very hot? It's hard to explain. If it was about just cooling myself down, then I would say a fan or hands in cold water or whatever ... but it's definitely about the air quality when you live in such a small place.

At least the windows open properly in this one.