Portable air con units - PLEASE give me your recommendations

[Person246]

I live in a flat in London, on the second floor, which just gets absolutely stinking hot. Even when it's not 32 degrees like today, it can still get so humid when the temp reaches anything above 24 degrees.

I don't open the windows or balcony door during the day. I have a Dyson fan which is a god send but it ultimately just circulates hot air around the room. It does help but it's not like air con.

I have decided it's time to invest in a portable air con unit to help cool down my flat, particularly my bedroom at night.

Please can you give me your recommendations? I don't really care if it's noisy to be honest - as long as it's effective, that's all that matters to me!

I have thought about potentially installing a ceiling air con unit, but I don't know how much longer I will be in my flat so I don't want to make that investment just yet.

I just bought a Woods from Amazon £450 and it makes my bedroom actually chilly when it’s 30 degrees outside. It’s a bit noisy but I’m a fan of white noise and actually have slept well for the first time in years since it arrived.

I used to have pet chinchillas. They do not do well in heat.

Some of the things that were advised to keep them cool were a terracotta tile, pour water on and freeze.

Freeze tins of soup, apparently they take longer to defrost so stick a tin in front of your fans.

Putting frozen or liquid water in front of a fan really doesn't work very well and it will also increase the humidity level in your home if you use it often (eg. in a flat rather than a house).
Nothing will reduce the temperature significantly except for an actual air conditioning unit. I have two portable ones; I large 15,000 BTU in the living room and a 10,000 BTU in the bedroom. They will reduce the temperature by 1 degree per hour once on, down to about 16 degrees or around 19/20 degrees in really hot (32 degree) days.

They have a hose attached though, which needs to be hung out of a window, and then you need to seal the rest of the window round it, otherwise the unit will be pulling hot air in as fast as it sends it out.

Air conditioning is worth its weight in gold, I couldn't live without it these days - the UK is too hot in summer!