We NEED air-conditioning

[JustBeenSleeping]

I'm wide awake and have partially stripped off. All the windows are open but there is no air.

I said to DH that we need AC! I don't care that we only get heat for about three days a year. This perimenopausal woman can't cope! Right now I'd be willing to remortgage our house to pay for it 😂

Properly fitted Air con is actually so cheap to run. Also you can use it all year round, as they heat too… and are much much cheaper than central heating. Great if you only need to heat one room.

We have air con and love it!! I can finally sleep.
We do have solar panels and an air source heat pump though, otherwise I would feel too guilty.

I have a tower fan going in the bedroom. Bliss.

I have the cool bedding from amazon works really well although last night we did need a mini fan I should have switched it off way earlier than I did

Ha, @JustBeenSleeping , I also finally caved and bought one when in my hot flush phase. That's a damn hard time. Luckily for me it was relatively short lived, but the air con still gets used. We just use it to cool the room down before bed. It also helps our elderly dog to settle down to sleep.

I’ve got a tower fan in my room, wouldn’t be without it!

Close all windows, curtains and blinds in the morning when the house is at its coolest, in order to prevent as much heat as possible entering the house during the day.

I also have a curtain over the front door. Originally it was to keep cold draughts out in winter but it's actually very effective keeping heat out of the house in summer.

Only up open when outside is cooler than inside.

Open your loft hatch once the sun has gone down - so the heat in the upper floors can rise up and out through the roof.

Sleep downstairs where it's cooler.

Fantasia ceiling fan over the bed. Absolutely fantastic.

I have a free standing air con unit in the bedroom, with tube out of the window, works brilliantly, few hours on before bed.

I am looking in to built in air con units for downstairs, even if it’s only for a handful of days each year.

We have a ceiling fan and it's made a huge difference. It has 8 settings and like a PP's you can reverse it in the winter to help warm the room up if needed.

It's not very loud at all.

Buy a little desk fan

We have A/C. Three units installed in various rooms cost £3,500. Game changer!

I live somewhere where we regularly have +35 degrees from June to the end of September and it is hellish at times. But our house is set up for it with big old thick walls, small windows and crucially shutters. I never suffered so much from heat than a few years ago in the Uk - in a house meant to keep out the cold. Big windows, carpets, thick curtains. The house was like a furnace. And once the house had heated up, there was no way of evacuating the heat.

Could I just ask how the mobile unit works? If you have the tube out the window, surely the window needs to be open and the hot air tushes in from outside.. I ordered one and sent it back as I didn’t think this could possibly work ( for an attic room which becomes inhabitable in summer).

It's a heat pump... which they are claiming save the environment!
We have 2 split units, one in the kitchen/sitting area and one in the bedroom and I wouldn't be without them. 30 degrees here yesterday and the house was 21.

We have a new build which really retains the heat and the bedrooms are at about 26 degrees for most of the summer! It's not just one or 2 nights a year!! I have tried everything and I just can't get the heat out. It's radiant heat from the insulation in the walls. (Great in winter though) I'm saving up for an awning over the patio doors which I think will help. I have nearly broken several times with the air con as the upstairs is unbearable and there is nowhere to sleep downstairs. But so far I'm holding out! I'm releaved this summer has been a bit cooler although not impressed with the rain

I have bought meaco oscillating fans for each bedroom which has helped massively!!! Upstairs was 28 degrees last night but it didn't actually feel that bad with the fans on. They are very quiet and are low energy to run (energy is hopefully offset by the fact that our house is very efficient in winter) and they are easier to store in the winter than an air con. They just waft past you gently rather than blowing air in your face.. definately worth a try first...

This. So many countries much much warmer than the UK are trying to reduce their AC usage as it's just making the problem worse, we don't need to be adding the infrastructure here.

The right fans are hugely effective.

Take a freezer block (the flat blue things) and put under your pillow. Then you can turn the pillow over to get a cool side. Take another freezer block, wrap in a pillow case and put down by your feet - it's the reverse of a hot water bottle. Keep a small spray bottle of water on the bedside table, lie down without covers, and spray arms, legs, face. Lie still while it evaporates and cools you. Repeat as needed if you wake up.

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.

Ceiling fan from Wayfair, really recommend

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 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

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 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 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.

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