To get air con in our loft room

[Pollyforever]

After another night where I've hardly slept because of the heat I'm desperate. Our room is in the loft conversion and is insulated to a ridiculous extent to comply with building regs. It makes it unbearable in this heat. We've resisted getting air con because of its high use of electricity but I don't know what else we can do now to get some sleep! We've got two high powered fans but last night they barely made a difference. You can feel the heat like a blanket as you come up the stairs. Any ideas other than air con? Anyone got air con in a loft room?

Bloody hell op

if you have looked at the figures and you can afford - do not hesitate to do it

Quality of life!!

but you’d be lucky to get it installed this summer I am afraid to say

My bedroom isn't in a loft room, but it is upstairs and gets the full afternoon sun. We bought an air conditioner this year. We're also worried about the costs and we're still experimenting. We've only used it a few times so far. Sometimes just to cool the room so that we can get off to sleep, sometimes to cool the room and then put it on fan mode for the night. Good luck op!

Our loft conversion is starting next week and I've told DH I'd rather live with bare plaster for a year to save up more and spend the decorating budget on aircon! 🥵

I don't know how hard it is to properly 'install' aircon, but we have a portable unit which we use for the few days a year when it is properly hot. Like the PP we mainly use it to cool the room down in the evening and then switch it off before we go sleep. It definitely works. It does rely on having somewhere to store it for the rest of the year, it's quite bug. We keep ours in the garage.

I made enquiries about air con in January, the companies were rubbish and didn't turn up etc but because it was cold I'd forgot about how awful the heat is up here! I wish I'd persevered with them now!

@pastaandpesto I'll look into them thanks. I hadn't considered a portable unit.

Solar panels, and aircon. We had solar panels fitted last year. On hot sunny days the aircon keeps the house nice and cool based off the power we are generating.

Expensive but worth it.

We just had our loft room done in February. I insisted on Aircon even though it was £1800 and it was definitely worth it.

So far it was only the heatwave nights I have needed it - keeping windows open during the day. So twice. But those two nights were some of the best nights sleep I have had. Would have it on more apart from electricity cost so only using when I need it (otherwise would pretty much all the time). It was like holiday opening up the door to the rest of the house

I do need to check how much it costs actually.

We have air con throughout the house and I would struggle to live without it. Do it!

A ceiling fan would help if air con is out of budget.

Costco had portable air con units last night, £150 off.....so £500

www.costco.co.uk/Appliances/Cooling-Air-Treatment-Heating/DeLonghi-10K-BTU-Portable-Air-Conditioner-with-Remote-Control-PAC-EL92/p/349310

I bought a portable air conditioning unit for £300 a few years ago; I only use it a few nights each year and it only cools one room down (my bedroom) and it never gets super cold but my goodness it's worth it. To have even one cool room in the house when it's hot is amazing, and it enables me to sleep in comfort when it's super hit and sticky outside (the noise doesn't bother me). It is not a perfect system, I have to put the unit on a chair, hang the condensation tube thing out of a window, pull the blind down and then pack clothes around the gap that's left to stop warm air flowing back in but STILL WORTH IT.

Portable units are only good if you have the right shape space to put the extractor hose, like a tumble drier hose. They also weigh a tonne.

I had one. Spent a fortune on fans and that gimmick chillair thing, got aircon and regretted not doing it sooner. Will pm you company I used

We moved into a house which had air on units installed in every room. Honestly - if we moved I would get them in our next place.

They really aren't that expensive to run and they also heat so in winter they can we a nice kick start to a chilly day or if you are home alone you don't need to waste money heating the whole house.

If you can afford to have a 'proper' one fitted I would go for it.

The units look pretty ugly on the outside of the house but I guess that's the price you pay. Though I think if it's in the loft they can be mounted on the flat roof.

@Wheredoestheblackfluffcomefrom yes please do, thank you!
Thanks everyone. I'm going to show this to my husband. We can afford it I've just been trying my best to live as "green" as we can but sod it - we need sleep! The rest of the house is lovely and cook. Think we're going to have to sleep in with the kids tonight!

Costco also have offers on installed permanent units too.

Do it. It's my dream

What windows do you have up there? We have loft bedrooms and in the summer we keep all our curtains and blinds closed all day and the velux windows open. Keeps it manageable.

I've had a portable aircon unit for some years too because my home office is in the attic and it was either that or not work from May-October and honestly it's a game changer. Absolutely bloody wonderful. It's eco (ish) and automatically switches from fan to air conditioning at a certain temperature (24 I think). I cannot tell you how happy it makes me when that cool cool air comes out. It's enormous and noisy but definitely get one.

If you can afford the electric then go for it.

I had a proper loft conversion, the only thing worse than the heat was the blinkin seagulls.

Have you tried using a window seal?

Like this

We bought a portable unit from amazon in the winter sales. Everyone laughed at us but I'm laughing now as I'm sleeping great while everyone is moaning that it's too hot. OH fitted it properly, hole through the outside wall and vents and it sits in the corner of our room. It's a bit noisy, especially when changing from fan mode to air con, bit like a fridge, but I regret not getting one sooner as our bedroom gets the sun from midday and is like an oven by bedtime. I've checked the smart meter and it looks like it's costing about 40p a day extra but I'm happy to pay that for a good nights sleep. And it's not on every night so it'll probably work out at maybe £5 - £6 a month extra for 3 months of the year.

Do you have velux windows or French doors up there? Will it not stay cool enough if you keep blinds and curtains closed all day and then have everything open at night?

I love summer nights with the balcony doors wide open. We have a mosquito net hanging from the ceiling to stop insect bites

@Quartz2208 that's an absolute bargain. Our quotes have all been £2500-3000 (London)

@YorkshireTeaCup it could have gone up since January because pretty much everything has but we are on the Surrey/London Border (our road is Surrey end of it is Sutton) and that was our quote