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 😂

Oh well. Are you perfect with how you protect the environment?

Even nicer if you think ahead and stick them in the fridge for an hour too 😁

After years of being miserable in a bedroom that has full sun on the window from about midday, last year we finally bit the bullet and had an aircon unit fitted. It took a few hours to fit and cost £1200. It's life changing, put it on about an hour before bed, there's a timer to turn it off and a remote so I can flip it on or off without even sitting up. The big bonus is that in winter it's also a heater so if the room is freezing at bedtime it warms the room in few minutes. Not noticed any difference in the electricity bill really.

I was going to suggest ceiling fans as well. We have one in the bedroom and one in the living room. The living room one is so effective that you can feel the effects stepping in our front door (we have an average size Victorian house hallway).

We invested in 2 mobile units about 3 years ago when we had a super hot summer and it was the best money I’ve ever spent!
The hose goes out the window but they are very effective and cools the bedroom down to 19/20 degrees in less than 5 minutes once on. You can set a timer too or just set it to maintain at a temp you’re comfortable at.
Ours are DeLonghi Pingiono models and were about £600 each but absolutely worth it in my opinion!

On hot nights I fill a hot water bottle with cold water

I have a portable unit but try not to use it too much. I bought a sheet of plexiglass online measured exactly to the dimensions of the window, with a hole cut by the company that was exactly the size of the hose. In mine, it fits into the window frame screen gap, but you could also get turn-clips to hold it on to the frame. That blocks the hot air from re-entering.

I still dont' find it gets really cool though. I also have parasols outside on the balcony to try to prevent the sun hitting the glass, as it's a new build flat with loads of glass. It isn't just a few days a year that it's hot, but many many days. I found a really good parasol on amazon that is almost flat and rectangular, and adjusts easy to any directions, which means I can use it even on a really narrow juliet-style balcony. The glass feels cooler with it, but I'm not sure the room temp goes down, but maybe I started using it too late in the year after the walls had already heated up.

I would like to get real air con installed, but don't know if the freeholder would allow holes drilled through the walls. Also, there's not a lot of wall space for the units! Does anyone know if you could get some kind of unit put on/in a wall that could have vents opening into rooms on either side of it? I have a thin partition wall between bedroom and living room - not sure it's strong enough to put a unit on either side of it, plus there's already a big radiator on it. But if feels like there should be a way to put air con on one side and somehow have a vent to the other, or even in between and have two vents. It's really near the outside wall, too. Any of the other places that could have it would be much more complicated and need a lot more pipework, and I don't really know what is above the ceiling, as it's a flat and there's no access.

@Sosickfromholidywahh thank you very tempting, our bedroom actually runs separately from the rest of the house's heating so a system that heats and cools could be really efficient for us.

Unfortunately for some, it’s not just a little bit of discomfort. My adult son is severely disabled and cannot control his own temperature and therefore suffers multiple seizures when too hot.

We have a mobile AC that works perfectly.

I don’t have the luxury of being worried about global warming when I’m just trying to keep him alive.

Our own carbon footprints will be low as we never have holidays or fly.

Yes I think the people who claim that it's only a few nights a year live in houses that have thick walls and smallish windows or lots of shade, and don't realise just how bad some of the new builds or flats can be. (And no, it wasn't entirely a choice to move here!). The indoor thermostat can read 28+ for weeks on end even if it's not that hot outside, and opening the windows at that point only produces a temporary drop in temperature. As soon as you close them again (which those of us on the ground floor have to do for safety or security at night or when we go out), the heat rises again, even when the outdoor temp doesn't. it is really more of a problem than people think!

@BlossomToLeaves oh my goodness yes, this year hasn't been too bad (bedroom rarely getting above 23 but then I know for some people that would be too hot still) but I remember in 2022 our bedroom didn't get below 30 for a MONTH (it has a thermostat). It's great in winter and we probably don't use our heating anywhere near as much as older houses, but it's a slog in the summer. Definitely considering proper AC in the bedroom.

But that's how I know how rubbish a summer it has been that I haven't needed to get the portable AC out yet 😂

@BlossomToLeaves
You're spot on there. Our house is 100 years old, thick walls and keeps reasonably cool whatever. My son lives in a top floor apartment and it gets impossibly hot as soon as the temperature goes much above 17/ 18°. There's no through flow of air so it gets hotter.

New builds should have external shutters as standard, like France, Italy etc and much better insulation. Saying it's only hot a couple of days a year is disingenuous; there are hundreds of thousands of people in badly designed new builds. He is in Manchester, hardly noted for high temperatures, yet it's a serious problem.
He's looking into a portable unit having suffered enough.

@BlossomToLeaves I couldn't agree more. I live in a 1930s house and although it has a lot more windows than most (all rooms are dual aspect), it stays quite cool downstairs. The south facing kitchen was 24c yesterday evening and the north facing living room was 20c. Our old new build could top 30c in the east facing living room in the same weather and that was the coolest room. Once the heat was in, it took a while to get it back out.

@Lifeinlists I'm not sure I'd call them badly designed perse. For the majority of the year it is advantageous because our climate tends be to colder more than it is warmer. But I think with climate changing (I've lived in new builds on and off since 2007 and it is getting noticeably worse) we are getting hotter summers (the year we were at 30C temp in our bedroom for a month was the year outside temp hit 40C) so we need to think about how we design houses going forward, to better withstand extreme temperatures, and like others have said, without doing even more damage to the environment where possible!

Don't forget to open your loft hatch (if you have one). It allows the hot air to escape and reduce the heat in your house.

@Lorrymum what about the loft monsters?

Totally agree.

The last time I had a holiday was 2010.

I don't have children.

I don't have a car.

I rarely have the heating on in winter.

I think having A/C on really doesn't cause that much pollution.

well, airconditioning is a major issue, so yes it does, and I don't know what those other things have to do with it. We all limit our carbon footprint as far as we can, but AC is one of the worst things you can use, and we should be tending towards a culture of limiting it, not holding it up as a luxury to be aspired to

Is that a euphemism 😂😂

You can achieve a lot with things like:

Knowing to ventilate your house early morning when the external air is coolest

Insulating your home properly

Closing curtains and windows during the warmest part of the day

Getting external shutters

For me it is not a luxury, it is an essential.

And the other things? Well how much pollution is cause by flights and cars?

Are you really claiming a portable A/C produces more pollution than a car?

I'd forgotten about the loft monsters! I expect Amazon sells a loft monster catcher.

I take the freezer blocks we have to bed, we have some thick ones that stay freezing all night. One near my feet and one next to my middle. Works great for me and no electricity involved!