Anyone had Air Con fitted during this heatwave? It's going to be the new normal now so considering it as fans do nothing!!!

[Eggybreadwithnuts]

Anyone?

My house is also small, 2 up 2 down so hoping to do similar. Which room do you have your unit in please? Bathroom is middle room upstairs but no window in it unfortunately.

I work with a man who lives in Switzerland. He and his wife installed theirs in 2016. So, not the entire country then.

@Summersorcherisjustsummer we had a firm install a car flap in our double glazed window.
It did mean replacing the bottom pane with a new one.
I imagine a similar could be done to cut a hole for the hose of a portable unit.
Very quick .
Might be easier than changing your whole window.

We had it installed dowstairs a couple of years ago. Our living room is south facing with massive windows which act like a greenhouse. So when we got solar on our roof we decided it would be lovely to get aircon too.

Its made no difference to our electricity bills as its powered by our roof. However all dcs friends have decided that my house is the coolest place to hang out and so my supermarket shop now includes a mountain of extra snacks and nibbles. Having it services every year is around £100.

My only regret is only getting a unit downstairs, with hindsight I should have paid a bit more and got a split unit to do upstairs as well.

In the winter its amazing for drying laundry super quickly, especially on heating mode with a high fan speed as it automatically dehumidifies too.

How much does it cost roughly to have it installed in average family home?

But do you use central heating in winter?

It isn’t illegal to sell a house in Australia with no air con. What is the law you are thinking of?

Think you'll need to check locally for you?

I used these guys a few weeks ago - very good!

https://aacairconditioning.co.uk/areas/

I have a portable unit I bought in lockdown. I would consider fixed units if I lived down south.

There is no law on air con in Australia

I find AC very drying and always end up with a sore throat. I also dislike the noise.

We solved the issues in our last apartment by using the AC in the next room at night, rather than the room we were sleeping in, leaving doors open.

Might help the logistics if you are thinking through installation.

@limetrees32would that unit have to be installed on an outside wall? Im looking at one for our loft room but the whole of the outside wall is taken up by a window so no wall space.

We are considering a portable unit for next year, just to keep the bedroom cool. It's an old house, listed, in a conservation area - since the council won't even let us have double glazing there's no way they'd allow proper air-conditioning!

We didn't bother refitting heating into our bedroom when we removed the old radiator, we both like a cool bedroom, so as you can imagine sleep has been hard to get lately.

I didn't struggle this summer in West Yorkshire. I know other people down south had longer periods of heat, but the way the house I live in works, it doesn't need air con. I only had about 5 days max of uncomfortable heat before it cooled down again these last two months. The insulation seems to work well keeping the heat out, I keep the windows closed during the day and the blinds down. Then I open the windows at night for cooler air flow. I took an extra shower sometimes to help with feeling refreshed on sticky days and sticking your hands in cold water near the wrist also works.
I don't feel I need air con for now.

We have two portable ones but looking to get it fitted and expecting to pay up to about £5k for two rooms.

I’m in Northern Italy and it’s felt like a 2003 JULY since May.

At most I’ll consider buying a couple of portable air cons. But will have to check the electricity consumption cos we max out at about 3000kw and I don’t want to be resetting the trip switch every five minutes.

More likely I’ll buy a second deep freeze, some massive pans and those magic bathroom mats with unbelievable absorption, to create a poor man’s air con with the existing floor fans and massive pots of ice. Simply because with the limit on how much electricity we can use at one time will make even more work for me timing when we can cook OR use the dishwasher OR the washing machine OR a kettle.

I solved most of our winter issues with LIDL electric blankets on beds and sofas. Just wish they did a chilling one.

With any luck today it will rain and tomorrow should (finally !) be the last day off this never ending heatwave.

Had it installed earlier this summer in the bedroom and our offices (both WFH most of the time). It's such a relief being able to sleep and work in comfort. Our stress levels are so much lower, and we're not obsessively checking through weather and wondering how the hell we're going to survive the next heatwave

We had ours installed last summer in our kitchen/diner extension which has a lot of glazing in and was absolutely roasting before. It’s a Panasonic unit that also heats and connects to the WiFi so we can put it on a schedule, was also handy when we got back from holiday last year and turned it on while we were at the airport collecting our luggage so we could come home to it being nice and cool.

It was the best thing we ever did as it cools the rest of the downstairs and can feel it when we come through the front door.

Our regret is not installing a multi unit so we can add air con to the upstairs rooms. This summer has been brutal upstairs without air con so we are looking to get it for next year hopefully.

I think you can have the box other places but it will cost more as they will have to route it so extra work. We want two rooms at the front done, upstairs and downstairs but the outside box will have to go to the driveway side or back of house on the wall. We can't have the box where it would be best at the non drive side of the house actually next to the rooms because it's less than 1 meter from the next door boundary, very annoyingly.

I would like to have it, but I'm ok with the portable unit - though as an above poster said, they are heavy. "Portable" implies you can move it around easily, but that's not the case. I would like to get one more, plus one more fan, for downstairs. Also, yesterday we finally hung curtains over the patio doors that get sun from morning for half the day, so we're going to be much better prepared in future.

We’re also on the very long waiting list. Fingers crossed it’s done by next summer. We have a portable unit but it’s very noisy.

I have had a portable one for over twenty years. It still works. It's kinda annoying all year round cos it's big but oh my am I grateful of it when temperatures rise. This year it's been on more than any other year. It came with a thing to help you block the window.

This. Whilst you’re chilling you’re making the problem worse.

Same. Were considering an alternative to AC for this reason.

It is. A neighbour might not be pleased if your unit is spewing superheated air out right by their windows.

The carbon footprint of ac can be offset by increasing green energy production but it stil has the effect of increasing external temperatures. Which sucks if you're too poor to buy or run it.