Most are rated at 2000 or 3000 watts... but I am assuming that is at full pelt and the thing probably maintains a temperature at a lower wattage once reached?
That's roughly 85p an hour at max power though (3000 watts)
I have a 5kW outdoor unit and 2 x 2.5kW internal units in a 2 bedroom end terraced house. I've been using mine for heat for the first time this winter and I had it towards the tail end of the hot period we had for cooling. I think the key thing to realise is they don't have to work really hard heating or cooling 100% of the time so if you look at the max draw of the units its quite a scary prospect for some.
We're with Octopus on the standard variable tarriff. I can leave mine on all day and sometimes during the night heating or cooling and my overall usage is between £3-4 per day in electricity, I'm working from home too and spending time at my PC on an evening. Days where we use the washer and dryer I end up going to around £5-6. I reckon I'm using between £0.50 and £1 per day when I compare the history.
I paid £3600 for the install last year, I paid extra for a single 5kW outdoor unit, apparently 2 x 2.5kW units would have been cheaper. I also paid extra for Samsung WindFree where it has small holes on it and it's near silent). So it could have been a bit cheaper.
Portable ones are pretty good for one room and go for like 300-400 quid. But obviously the electricity costs add up (it's highly worth it though)
Best time to buy is right now
Bro it's air-conditioning not air-cooling. You set it to a temperature and it keeps it there, wether that temperature is warming or colder than ambient it still works
I understand wanting air con but it feels like solving a symptom but making the sickness worse. For years we were told that air con is a massive waste of energy and now when energy consumption is an issue we are being pushed towards it.
It is a massive waste of energy if you dont use them correctly. Setting it at 17 degrees all day whilst you go out is stupid.
We set ours to an hour before the kids go to bed admittedly on low temp & high fan speed until it starts to become comfortable then we bump the temperature to 21 for overnight on a low fan speed.
All I know is whilst others struggle to sleep on those hot nights, I get a solid nights sleep.
Much cheaper than that unless you live in a castle. I had one installed last year £7000 all 4 bedrooms ducted in the attic, 2 split units downstairs. It's a little under powered in the sense I can't cool up and downstairs simultaneously on a really hot day (28+), can keen them both around 21. But each floor separately can cool to a nice 16 in under 30 mins.
This about aligns with the cost for getting ours installed, like 4k for a ducted installation all 4 rooms upstairs. We didn't bother with downstairs but we were quoted at the time for another 1.2k to do just the front room as well. We just retreat upstairs when the weather gets mad plus we found that it was at night when you really need it anyway, well worth it for the sleep alone.
My biggest gripe is the loft space taken up by the ducting. Job for the spring is to put those loft stilts in and board on top of the ducting so I can still use the space without worry of crushing a tube.
Did you go for individual room controls or one central control?
You can get a split unit for one room installed for around £500-600.
Cheap Portable ones are available for around £120 although these are incredibly noisy compared to a permanent split unit.
The only problem with these is venting them properly.
Everyone's situation will be different and there are venting kits out there but, for me I can't find a good solution to exhausting the heat to the outside.
This is doubly frustrating because I've seen some really good bargains on Gumtree recently. This is definitely the time to be looking to buy.
It’s not that pricey. I’ve just finished my loft extension. I put a 1kW unit in there just for that room and then a 5kW unit above the extension stairs that will heat or cool the rest of the house. It’s cheaper to run than central heating. All in… £4.5k.
The Reddit Second is the time it takes for climate denialists to insist this is all perfectly normal and it's just weather being weather, innit, after a post talking about unprecedented weather patterns.
It's significantly shorter than a regular second.
GNU Sir Pterry
At this point I just turn around and point out how last year it was the hottest on record, and the year before, and the year before that, and so on. Almost like it is actually getting hotter each year.
I also like to add something that's now been turned into a meme, basically - what if all this climate change stuff is nonsense and we create a better society for nothing? To say, even if it is all rubbish (it's not) there are many other benefits to improving our environment. Poor air quality alone has a plethora of physical and mental health issues associated with it. Adding greenery to areas has shown to decrease violent crime rates, and improve mental health. Increasing biodiversity in an area increases the property value. The green industry is very profitable and thus improves the economy. Passive house designs reduce the need to turn on the heating or cooling system thus saving individuals money on their bills. Buying locally supports local business, thus preventing the high street from collapsing. And so on. At that point it makes it even harder to deny that improving the environment isn't a good thing.
As far as I'm concerned there is no downside to it. And once you take the holistic view on it the only issue people can really have is that it costs money. But everything we are currently does too, and in some cases more than implementing sustainable/retentive design. Example being, how we could reduce the cost of maintaining the sewage system if we had sustainable underground drainage systems (basically allowing rainwater to flow to a body of water) or how a metro system costs less, and can even make profit compared to needing to constantly maintain the roads.
Annoyingly, if we’d fully embraced nuclear when science invented it we could probably all still be driving around in cars with gas guzzling V8s completely guilt free.
Whilst I agree nuclear should have been invested in more.
Driving polluting cars still would cause many issues. Their effects are much greater on local levels than the global scale. (Funny enough just earlier today I was thinking about how far too many think globally over locally when it comes to climate change. Personally I think we ought to only concentrate on local scales, and then the global efforts essentially look after themselves). Mainly reduced air quality would still be a thing, causing physical and mental health issues such as lung problems and a reduction in cognitive abilities. Then we have how they socially isolate people, noise pollution, the injuries from car crashes, deaths from car crashes, the amount of space then infrastructure requires, how they impact the disabled at a significantly higher rate than the able, and so on.
All to say, it certainly wouldn't be guilt free, just due to the share amount and variety of harm vehicles have.
I think you’re right. Global problems seem too big too resolve, but if you break it down to local level it’s more manageable.
It will take a while but at least the sale of new combustion engine cars is going to be legislated. Hopefully electric cars will be affordable by then, or alternatively we’ll have completely rethought personal transport.
I didn’t really think the V8 was a good idea. Although I wouldn’t mind one just for a few years 😍
They've changed their tune. Now denial is more minimizing global warming than claiming it doesn't exist, since scientists are pretty good at doing their job. So now you'll hear "it's not as bad as what they say, because X model made by a random prof says it or it's cold in the middle of the Antarctic" instead of "climate change doesn't exist".
I used to work with a guy who insisted that the summers were always hotter and the winters were so much cooler back in the day”good old days” and that us young people don’t know what extreme weather is. He was particularly vocal whenever we had a record breaking weather event.
Given that this man has spent his entire life in the south east of England, I doubt he knows what extreme weather is either.
I've played a bit of amateur psychologist with this and I reckon I've cracked it.
> insisted that the summers were always ~~hotter~~
Sunnier.
>and the winters were so much cooler back in the day
Snowier.
Even cooler he's probably right with this one tbh, esp in the south east, the only proper snow I've seen in the last 20 years was 2010/11.
I cannot be fucked to actually look it up by region, but both winters and summers feel greyer and wetter than when I was a kid (I'm 32), but that could just be the big sad lol
I'm fairness, I'm telling myself it's just a cycle of hot years. El nino etc.
I know we're fucked, but me being suicidal about my children's future isn't helping anyone!
Not if you use HFO refrigerants and power (mostly) by renewable sources.
Unfortunately the developing world still burns an insane amount of coal to generate power
Not to mention most air conditioners double as heat pumps in the winter, which are vastly more efficient at heating homes than radiators or space heaters.
People always forget to mention that.
Well my AC does heat but it's 2.3KW constant so not really. We are lucky we have 100Kwh battery and 7KW Wind turbines to keep it charged. And we get wind all year round up on a hill
HFOs are a lot better than most F gas refrigerants but they’re still problematic, really we want the next generation, the green refrigerants like isobutane and CO2. They’re not only better for the environment, they also frequently get higher CoPs!
Thankfully these are getting used more and more, to the point that if you buy a new unit for certain applications (like fridges and some AC) the odds are that isobutane is what’s inside it.
As far as I know isobutane (R600a) is never or rarely used for domestic AC. R32 is the most popular but is being phased out by the government and the EU as the global warming potential is too high. This has led manufacturers to start looking at propane (R290) instead and this will probably be the leading product in the future (safety risks are being overlooked by policy makers).
In a domestic sense, CO2 doesn't make sense because it doesn't condense until super high pressures, so it's mainly used in more commercial spaces with larger systems
Isobutane is absolutely used for domestic systems (though currently perhaps more commonly fridges/freezers than AC, though this is expected to change). While propane is also a popular choice of green refrigerant it’s currently not as widespread as isobutane and isn’t expected to overtake it in the foreseeable future though it’s use is growing (C.W. Booten et al. 2020). I believe propane also has a lower CoP than isobutane and isn’t as suitable for blending, for instance with CO2 where for isobutane you get a higher CoP than with the pure components without too large an increase in operating pressures.
Indeed you’re right that CO2 isn’t very suitable for domestic use (other than blends that are only a few percent CO2) but it’s rather promising for industrial use and some commercial applications (I’m pretty sure it’s also been looked into for automobiles but imo it’s not well suited for it).
Actually on very sunny days in the UK we can have a surplus of solar power, it happened a few times in the Netherlands last year.
https://withthegrid.com/negative-electricity-prices-challenges-and-solutions-for-energy-producers/#:\~:text=The%20rise%20of%20negative%20electricity,challenging%20phenomenon%20necessitates%20innovative%20solutions.
Actually the UK isn't Planet Earth, shocker evidently. Just wait until[ India](https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/06/india/extreme-heat-india-climate-ac-intl-hnk/index.html) and [China](https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/26/china/china-sichuan-power-crunch-climate-change-mic-intl-hnk/index.html) start to really roll it out to a couple more billion people because it's the only short-term fix available.
But you do realise even if the world was in perfect condition we would still have hot days. Where an AC would be used. Also, an AC contributes very little to the problem. Bearing in mind you are writing your reply on Reddit. With IT infrastructure that is exponentially more damaging. If you cared that much you wouldn't use a phone or any electrical devices.
Assuming that figure is accurate... Is there a breakdown of source? Industrial air conditioning just be a significant contributor Vs domestic (I would have thought at least).
That's true but residential air con is going to produce a pretty insignificant amount of emissions. Even just looking at air con, industrial and commercial buildings already use it a lot so adding houses to that isn't a huge difference.
How about we get obese unemployed people to fan everyone else, which would give them jobs, avoid using energy and in turn help the climate crisis, and would help the obesity crisis.
I don't think people realize how much the jet stream meandering south saved us from the european heatwave last summer.
Sure we got a grey, mild and wet summer. But it wasn't 40c+
We can't be that lucky every year.
I'd go on calls with European colleagues and they'd be 10-15 degrees warmer. It was wild. I was hoping that the 2023 weather patterns would be repeatable but I guess we're at the whim of where ever the jet stream points?
I can't say to possess more than badly remembered and 2nd hand climate science but I believe the jet stream in the northern hemisphere will become more unstable and movable. So we'll be hearing a lot more terms like 'heat dome' and 'polar vortex' going forward as temperatures wildly fluctuate.
Terms that were not supposed to enter the common lexicon for decades, according to the more 'severe' modelling.
We won't be saved long term because the places that grow our food will be suffering. Spain, France and Italy have had heat waves, droughts or floods constantly.
India banned export of onions and non-basmati rice.
I agree, I'm not a doomer but people need to understand that food price inflation will become a fact of life.
The future is looking rather bleak with that alone.
It will not just be inflation, it will be empty shelves throughout the year too. Other countries will feed themselves first, so exports will decrease in particularly bad years to avoid political unrest.
That week was awful, I had an infection at the time so already had a fever. I remember I ended up driving up and down the dual carriage in my car at like 2am with the windows open cause I thought if I didn't cool down I was legit gonna die. Going into the garden felt like stepping of a plane on a tropical holiday.
I was gonna book a hotel in the end with air con but I think other people beat me to it.
Just shy of £20k for the lot.
But I also run a fairly large fish tank which saps about £80 a month in juice without it, runs at 0 in the day, so having the solar took the sting out of powering the lights.
I had it done last winter though, solar and AC is cheaper in the winter due to far lower demand.
Planning on being here for a good 10yrs+ so should break even.
It's only 500l. But 800w for the lights, 350w heaters, about 50w for twin pumps, 30w for 2x wave makers, auto top up on standby...
All adds up. Costs less to fish £1ks worth of fish than it does a cat a month.. but the power to do so is insane.
Of course we're unprepared, that's almost certainly due to the fact we've not spent any time preparing. We never do.
Although I did try to buy an air conditioner in Winter to be ahead of the game, thinking they'd be cheap in Winter, nah, they're the exact same price. Even Terry in the pub car park won't give me £20 quid off.
Yup. Current modelling suggests that by 2050 we move from a couple of thousand excess deaths a year due to heat (the 2022 heatwave impact) to twenty thousand without action. Combination of aging populations and poorly insulated homes.
The frustrating thing is that it's partly the same answer as the problem of high heating bills - insulation! We need a nationwide programme of insulation like the one we had before Cameron killed it with his 'cut the green crap' nonesense. My 2003 house was a full 10 degrees cooler inside than outside during the 2022 heatwave.
The other part is getting better ventilation - a lot can be done to vent heat out of houses overnight which isn't currently included in house design - this is important as it seems that it is hot nights (sometimes called 'tropical' nights) that kill people, not hot days.
Which is why we need planning authorities and building regulations to be stricter on not allowing 'single aspect' properties with only one wall of windows to be built.
Exactly, every thread like that and people go on about how UK houses are built for cold weather and too much insulation makes them so hot.
They're not built for any weather, they're built as fast and cheap as humanly possible thanks to lobbyists working for ridiculously wealthy developers.
Double glazed windows are not even a thing in Poland, triple glazing has been the standard for roughly four decades, most new built houses have heat recovery ventilation, built in shutters and are insulated to the nines because people have individual houses built for them rather than be at the mercy of developers. With 35 degree heat blazing those houses are cool and pleasant. In the UK if there's 24 degrees outside, my house is 30.
The UK construction industry does not have the capacity to build 1 million homes a year for the next 20 years. So the cost is irrelevant, what you propose is impossible.
The UK construction industry needs to be scaled in size maybe 2 or 3 times its current size through major government intervention guaranteeing tens of billions a year for infrastructure and housing.
It's not impossible, nothing is, all that is needed is the relatively minor political will to redirect a few years worth of bumper state pension rises into fixing our housing and infrastructure crisis.
The chancellor could announce that the £20 billion a year windfall he is getting in march goes towards it for example rather than tax cuts.
It’s cost prohibitive to re-insulate a lot of older, pre-war housing. We were quoted in the region of 30k to appreciably raise our EPC rating, and this before investing in heat pumps/solar/batteries.
I’ve been on to our energy provider 3 times now to get insulation provided, I had one call saying they’d send a form. 4 months later still nothing, called more times than I can count and I get told the same thing, forms in the post. They really don’t care to do it
Government plans to mitigate the effects of rising temperatures published last July mostly reiterated existing policy and don’t show “sufficient urgency or ambition,” the Environmental Audit Committee said in a report published Wednesday. The committee is comprised of lawmakers and examines how government policies and programs impact the environment.
IIRC, el Nino does not have a strong effect on the UK, so 2024 is no more likely than any other 2020s year to be freakishly hot.
On the other hand, it's going to be warmer and especially more humid in future summers as global warming proceeds.
Was reading the Met Office's annual summaries and it sounds like even numbered years recently have trended hotter in the summer/overall.
[https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2020/2020-round-up](https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2020/2020-round-up)
[https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2021/2021-a-year-in-weather-a-review](https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2021/2021-a-year-in-weather-a-review)
[https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2022/joint-hottest-summer-on-record-for-england](https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2022/joint-hottest-summer-on-record-for-england)
[https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2023/summer2023ukweather](https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2023/summer2023ukweather)
Anecdotally, I definitely feel 2020 and 2022 were way hotter than 2021 and 2023. Last summer specifically was much more bearable.
I fully expect this summer to be a scorcher.
Because we didn't see many heatwaves in the past. What's the need of preparing for something that only rarely happens? The problem now is that the frequency and severity of heatwaves is increasing and nothing is being done.
They said this last year and we ended up with a washout summer. The truth is the jet steam is predicted to collapse and we will be embracing the big freeze!
We're not prepared for ANY of the major challenges that climate change will pose us. Instead the government have been passing the buck and sticking their head in the sand for the last ten years. Oh and now they're planning on increasing the population by another 10% by 2036?!
It's hubris to think our lack of forethought here won't lead to disastrous consequences.
El Niño anomaly is growing rapidly, with a strong seasonal impact already seen in the forecast as we head into Fall and Winter 2023/2024
https://www.severe-weather.eu/long-range-2/el-nino-event-development-noaa-advisory-forecast-winter-weather-impact-united-states-canada-europe-fa/
Now is the better time of year to try and find a cheap portable aircon online too, if you want to beat the inevitable rush and price gauging when we get our first heatwave of the year.
It's just fearmongering BS. 2022 has been the only genuinely hot summer I think I've ever seen in the UK, and it made everyone lose their minds lol.
2018 was pretty hot in parts, but nothing *extreme* , just what is normal summer for 99% of the rest of the world.
Outside of that, every other summer is some degree of wet and dull with the odd 3/4 day heat spike of 30c or so.
I do think that alot of people who freak out about the heatwaves we get in summer, have not travelled to other countries. Because most countries have proper seasons where summer is hot and sunny for weeks, it's perfectly normal and people are out and about eating, drinking, swimming, paddle boarding, just enjoying themselves.
Our Victorian semi stays cool for the first two or three days of any heatwave. 20 inch walls take a long time to heat through.
I've consistently found our house far cooler in a heat wave than any of my mates' post 1980s houses.
I'm sure aircon solves the problem either way.
No, I mean it stays pretty moderate in terms of temperature due to the materials and shape and design of it. Two fireplaces mean the airflow is pretty good in the summer and in the winter the fireplaces are on which mean the house is generally quite warm. I do need to sort the drafts out but it’s all money and time.
We only moved into our Victorian mid terrace at the end of 2022, and last summer wasn't as hot overall as previous years, but the downstairs of our house did stay quite cool last summer. Unfortunately my office is upstairs and the window is SW facing so it gets extremely toasty up here with the sun shining through all afternoon.
We need to start getting stuff build up in place to prepare for summers, i get we don't get as muxh summer as some countries but ours is far worse than theirs when it hits, it definitely won't shock me if people start dropping dead especially with climate chnage making it worse every year
This should just read UK UNPREPARED FOR WEATHER!
Because if its not the heat it's the whisper of snow we get or the fog or rain or (insert weather here)
We're still waiting for planning permission to go through to see if we are moving this year...couple of places we looked at have aircon...depending where my room is...I would definitely be interested in investing in solar panels and using those during the summer to power aircon. As I thought it was gonna be a hot one last year, got myself a cooling blanket. actually celebrated not seeing it go over 30.
Making a note for a future comment no doubt.
A lot of water companies have been [selling off reservoirs ](https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/water-firms-drought-hit-uk-27791000) to pay out shareholder dividends.
My prediction is we are one hot summer away from our water bills doubling or tripling in price.
My other prediction is the neolibs on Reddit will bang on about supply and demand, and for some weird fetish loves being fucked by companies.
Not all supply issues are the same, if companies who only sell one commodity, actively get rid of their back up supply of that commodity to lead higher prices in the future, that is profiteering and extortion.
Thank god, i love the heat. I freaking hate the cold. When its +30C i really like it, its just glorious and the best time to travel around the UK too see the countryside.
I also enjoy it since i have figured out how to keep my house cool.
Smart of me to prepare for the summer by having an old drafty house with no insulation. We nearly die in the winter but this summer we'll be cool as a cucumber.
How are we supposed to prepare? The insulation that keeps us from freezing in the winter boils us in the summer.
As soon as the summer sun comes in through the windows it’s trapped in a properly insulated house so it takes an age to leave.
You can close the curtains and have the windows open on the opposite side to the sun but what else is there to be done that doesn’t cost thousands at a time people just don’t have the money because we left the EU?
I know we should consider ourselves lucky that last summer we didn't get the record-breaking heatwave that the rest of Europe got, but honestly...the the last time I remember getting any nice hot weather for any length of time was June 2023, so in the back of my mind I'm ready for a heatwave this year. Walking the dog - so tired of Mud. Everywhere. All. The. Time.
Of course the second we get two weeks in a row of sun, it's drought alerts and hosepipe bans, so...careful what we wish for i guess... 🤷♂️
Good job I have aircon fitted. In the summer my smugness alone could power it.
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How much do you reckon it’s costing you?
Most are rated at 2000 or 3000 watts... but I am assuming that is at full pelt and the thing probably maintains a temperature at a lower wattage once reached? That's roughly 85p an hour at max power though (3000 watts)
Aircon plus Solar panels must be ideal.
Yeah there a match. I have them and keep the house from going over 22c, don’t wait for it to overheat.
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I have a 5kW outdoor unit and 2 x 2.5kW internal units in a 2 bedroom end terraced house. I've been using mine for heat for the first time this winter and I had it towards the tail end of the hot period we had for cooling. I think the key thing to realise is they don't have to work really hard heating or cooling 100% of the time so if you look at the max draw of the units its quite a scary prospect for some. We're with Octopus on the standard variable tarriff. I can leave mine on all day and sometimes during the night heating or cooling and my overall usage is between £3-4 per day in electricity, I'm working from home too and spending time at my PC on an evening. Days where we use the washer and dryer I end up going to around £5-6. I reckon I'm using between £0.50 and £1 per day when I compare the history. I paid £3600 for the install last year, I paid extra for a single 5kW outdoor unit, apparently 2 x 2.5kW units would have been cheaper. I also paid extra for Samsung WindFree where it has small holes on it and it's near silent). So it could have been a bit cheaper.
Portable ones are pretty good for one room and go for like 300-400 quid. But obviously the electricity costs add up (it's highly worth it though) Best time to buy is right now
> Where do you live in the UK where you need aircon in January??
Where do you live in the UK where you need aircon in January??
Bro it's air-conditioning not air-cooling. You set it to a temperature and it keeps it there, wether that temperature is warming or colder than ambient it still works
Until you look at your smart meter
If you unplug the smart meter you don’t need to pay for energy.
It’s incredibly cheap to run a proper unit
Same here - best £1000 spent room cooler than a eskimos butthole
Remember to call it a heat pump; that way, you can be cool, smug, and environmentally friendly.
>my smugness alone could power it. same lmao... But in all seriousness, energy prices need to fall
I have three portables, one for each floor of the house. They aren't even that expensive.
One of my old apprentices has his own air con company. He says he'll do me an installation for just the price of the units and materials.
This is how I had mine fitted but my best friend not ex apprentice
and a diesel engine? in case of a powerout
Obviously
I like you
Worst case should we run out of diesel I can always strap a couple of migrants to a gigantic hamster wheel and make them run to meet my energy needs.
and they like it!
First thing I did in the 40c week was phone my mate who ridiculed it as a waste of money.
I understand wanting air con but it feels like solving a symptom but making the sickness worse. For years we were told that air con is a massive waste of energy and now when energy consumption is an issue we are being pushed towards it.
It is a massive waste of energy if you dont use them correctly. Setting it at 17 degrees all day whilst you go out is stupid. We set ours to an hour before the kids go to bed admittedly on low temp & high fan speed until it starts to become comfortable then we bump the temperature to 21 for overnight on a low fan speed. All I know is whilst others struggle to sleep on those hot nights, I get a solid nights sleep.
What’s the carbon footprint of that?
It’s not too bad, haven’t seen bills increase too much but that day it hit 40 degrees a few summers ago made any increase worth it.
Everyone should be getting it.
Can I have 20k to buy, install and power one?
Much cheaper than that unless you live in a castle. I had one installed last year £7000 all 4 bedrooms ducted in the attic, 2 split units downstairs. It's a little under powered in the sense I can't cool up and downstairs simultaneously on a really hot day (28+), can keen them both around 21. But each floor separately can cool to a nice 16 in under 30 mins.
This about aligns with the cost for getting ours installed, like 4k for a ducted installation all 4 rooms upstairs. We didn't bother with downstairs but we were quoted at the time for another 1.2k to do just the front room as well. We just retreat upstairs when the weather gets mad plus we found that it was at night when you really need it anyway, well worth it for the sleep alone.
My biggest gripe is the loft space taken up by the ducting. Job for the spring is to put those loft stilts in and board on top of the ducting so I can still use the space without worry of crushing a tube. Did you go for individual room controls or one central control?
You can get a split unit for one room installed for around £500-600. Cheap Portable ones are available for around £120 although these are incredibly noisy compared to a permanent split unit.
The only problem with these is venting them properly. Everyone's situation will be different and there are venting kits out there but, for me I can't find a good solution to exhausting the heat to the outside. This is doubly frustrating because I've seen some really good bargains on Gumtree recently. This is definitely the time to be looking to buy.
It’s not that pricey. I’ve just finished my loft extension. I put a 1kW unit in there just for that room and then a 5kW unit above the extension stairs that will heat or cool the rest of the house. It’s cheaper to run than central heating. All in… £4.5k.
Smugpowa!!! :)
Lmao
Me too, powered by peoples reactions to the fact that i look well rested because i slept under a cosy blanket
amazed we haven't been brigaded by the "it's just a cycle/summer of year x was hotter/it's cold today so climate change is a myth" gang yet.
You're surprised after the post has only been up 30 mins, on a Wednesday at 10:30am?
Well considering that is still Cambridge Analytica's office hours, yes it is surprising.
The Reddit Second is the time it takes for climate denialists to insist this is all perfectly normal and it's just weather being weather, innit, after a post talking about unprecedented weather patterns. It's significantly shorter than a regular second. GNU Sir Pterry
People like the other dude love to stir the pot. They know their comment will cause drama.
Well, Julia Hartley-Brewer reckons increasingly regular heatwaves are “just summer”, so that’s good enough for me.
Eminent climate scientists, Prof. Julia Hartley-Brewer?
At this point I just turn around and point out how last year it was the hottest on record, and the year before, and the year before that, and so on. Almost like it is actually getting hotter each year. I also like to add something that's now been turned into a meme, basically - what if all this climate change stuff is nonsense and we create a better society for nothing? To say, even if it is all rubbish (it's not) there are many other benefits to improving our environment. Poor air quality alone has a plethora of physical and mental health issues associated with it. Adding greenery to areas has shown to decrease violent crime rates, and improve mental health. Increasing biodiversity in an area increases the property value. The green industry is very profitable and thus improves the economy. Passive house designs reduce the need to turn on the heating or cooling system thus saving individuals money on their bills. Buying locally supports local business, thus preventing the high street from collapsing. And so on. At that point it makes it even harder to deny that improving the environment isn't a good thing. As far as I'm concerned there is no downside to it. And once you take the holistic view on it the only issue people can really have is that it costs money. But everything we are currently does too, and in some cases more than implementing sustainable/retentive design. Example being, how we could reduce the cost of maintaining the sewage system if we had sustainable underground drainage systems (basically allowing rainwater to flow to a body of water) or how a metro system costs less, and can even make profit compared to needing to constantly maintain the roads.
Annoyingly, if we’d fully embraced nuclear when science invented it we could probably all still be driving around in cars with gas guzzling V8s completely guilt free.
Whilst I agree nuclear should have been invested in more. Driving polluting cars still would cause many issues. Their effects are much greater on local levels than the global scale. (Funny enough just earlier today I was thinking about how far too many think globally over locally when it comes to climate change. Personally I think we ought to only concentrate on local scales, and then the global efforts essentially look after themselves). Mainly reduced air quality would still be a thing, causing physical and mental health issues such as lung problems and a reduction in cognitive abilities. Then we have how they socially isolate people, noise pollution, the injuries from car crashes, deaths from car crashes, the amount of space then infrastructure requires, how they impact the disabled at a significantly higher rate than the able, and so on. All to say, it certainly wouldn't be guilt free, just due to the share amount and variety of harm vehicles have.
I think you’re right. Global problems seem too big too resolve, but if you break it down to local level it’s more manageable. It will take a while but at least the sale of new combustion engine cars is going to be legislated. Hopefully electric cars will be affordable by then, or alternatively we’ll have completely rethought personal transport. I didn’t really think the V8 was a good idea. Although I wouldn’t mind one just for a few years 😍
They've changed their tune. Now denial is more minimizing global warming than claiming it doesn't exist, since scientists are pretty good at doing their job. So now you'll hear "it's not as bad as what they say, because X model made by a random prof says it or it's cold in the middle of the Antarctic" instead of "climate change doesn't exist".
I mean it's 12 degrees in January. I've never experienced this.
I used to work with a guy who insisted that the summers were always hotter and the winters were so much cooler back in the day”good old days” and that us young people don’t know what extreme weather is. He was particularly vocal whenever we had a record breaking weather event. Given that this man has spent his entire life in the south east of England, I doubt he knows what extreme weather is either.
I've played a bit of amateur psychologist with this and I reckon I've cracked it. > insisted that the summers were always ~~hotter~~ Sunnier. >and the winters were so much cooler back in the day Snowier. Even cooler he's probably right with this one tbh, esp in the south east, the only proper snow I've seen in the last 20 years was 2010/11. I cannot be fucked to actually look it up by region, but both winters and summers feel greyer and wetter than when I was a kid (I'm 32), but that could just be the big sad lol
I'm fairness, I'm telling myself it's just a cycle of hot years. El nino etc. I know we're fucked, but me being suicidal about my children's future isn't helping anyone!
The propaganda machine is busy dealing with Gaza atm.
1976. Never forget.
Air conditioning is no solution because it contributes to the problem. It creates the emissions which will heat the earth more over time
Not if you use HFO refrigerants and power (mostly) by renewable sources. Unfortunately the developing world still burns an insane amount of coal to generate power
Not to mention most air conditioners double as heat pumps in the winter, which are vastly more efficient at heating homes than radiators or space heaters. People always forget to mention that.
Well my AC does heat but it's 2.3KW constant so not really. We are lucky we have 100Kwh battery and 7KW Wind turbines to keep it charged. And we get wind all year round up on a hill
Are you rural? A 7kw turbine is cool
HFOs are a lot better than most F gas refrigerants but they’re still problematic, really we want the next generation, the green refrigerants like isobutane and CO2. They’re not only better for the environment, they also frequently get higher CoPs! Thankfully these are getting used more and more, to the point that if you buy a new unit for certain applications (like fridges and some AC) the odds are that isobutane is what’s inside it.
As far as I know isobutane (R600a) is never or rarely used for domestic AC. R32 is the most popular but is being phased out by the government and the EU as the global warming potential is too high. This has led manufacturers to start looking at propane (R290) instead and this will probably be the leading product in the future (safety risks are being overlooked by policy makers). In a domestic sense, CO2 doesn't make sense because it doesn't condense until super high pressures, so it's mainly used in more commercial spaces with larger systems
Isobutane is absolutely used for domestic systems (though currently perhaps more commonly fridges/freezers than AC, though this is expected to change). While propane is also a popular choice of green refrigerant it’s currently not as widespread as isobutane and isn’t expected to overtake it in the foreseeable future though it’s use is growing (C.W. Booten et al. 2020). I believe propane also has a lower CoP than isobutane and isn’t as suitable for blending, for instance with CO2 where for isobutane you get a higher CoP than with the pure components without too large an increase in operating pressures. Indeed you’re right that CO2 isn’t very suitable for domestic use (other than blends that are only a few percent CO2) but it’s rather promising for industrial use and some commercial applications (I’m pretty sure it’s also been looked into for automobiles but imo it’s not well suited for it).
Actually on very sunny days in the UK we can have a surplus of solar power, it happened a few times in the Netherlands last year. https://withthegrid.com/negative-electricity-prices-challenges-and-solutions-for-energy-producers/#:\~:text=The%20rise%20of%20negative%20electricity,challenging%20phenomenon%20necessitates%20innovative%20solutions.
Actually the UK isn't Planet Earth, shocker evidently. Just wait until[ India](https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/06/india/extreme-heat-india-climate-ac-intl-hnk/index.html) and [China](https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/26/china/china-sichuan-power-crunch-climate-change-mic-intl-hnk/index.html) start to really roll it out to a couple more billion people because it's the only short-term fix available.
The headline says UK not planet Earth.
Even more reason to decarbonise power! Alas, India and China love king coal.
Ummmmmm actshully 🤓
But you do realise even if the world was in perfect condition we would still have hot days. Where an AC would be used. Also, an AC contributes very little to the problem. Bearing in mind you are writing your reply on Reddit. With IT infrastructure that is exponentially more damaging. If you cared that much you wouldn't use a phone or any electrical devices.
'Problem exists? Well did you know other problem exists that you already do? Checkmate' You learned me
AC accounts for about 10% of Global electricity use.
Holy fck, that's a lot!
Assuming that figure is accurate... Is there a breakdown of source? Industrial air conditioning just be a significant contributor Vs domestic (I would have thought at least).
https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/0bb45525-277f-4c9c-8d0c-9c0cb5e7d525/The\_Future\_of\_Cooling.pdf
That's true but residential air con is going to produce a pretty insignificant amount of emissions. Even just looking at air con, industrial and commercial buildings already use it a lot so adding houses to that isn't a huge difference.
How about we get obese unemployed people to fan everyone else, which would give them jobs, avoid using energy and in turn help the climate crisis, and would help the obesity crisis.
Finally, a solution I can get on board with!
I don't think people realize how much the jet stream meandering south saved us from the european heatwave last summer. Sure we got a grey, mild and wet summer. But it wasn't 40c+ We can't be that lucky every year.
I'd go on calls with European colleagues and they'd be 10-15 degrees warmer. It was wild. I was hoping that the 2023 weather patterns would be repeatable but I guess we're at the whim of where ever the jet stream points?
I can't say to possess more than badly remembered and 2nd hand climate science but I believe the jet stream in the northern hemisphere will become more unstable and movable. So we'll be hearing a lot more terms like 'heat dome' and 'polar vortex' going forward as temperatures wildly fluctuate. Terms that were not supposed to enter the common lexicon for decades, according to the more 'severe' modelling.
It hit 30 degrees in Spain a few days ago. God knows what it's going to be like this summer.
We won't be saved long term because the places that grow our food will be suffering. Spain, France and Italy have had heat waves, droughts or floods constantly. India banned export of onions and non-basmati rice.
I agree, I'm not a doomer but people need to understand that food price inflation will become a fact of life. The future is looking rather bleak with that alone.
It will not just be inflation, it will be empty shelves throughout the year too. Other countries will feed themselves first, so exports will decrease in particularly bad years to avoid political unrest.
Yeah, the 40c we got in 2022 was killer, I'm glad we got a milder one last year. I can't stand much above 30c, 40c was mental. x_x
That week was awful, I had an infection at the time so already had a fever. I remember I ended up driving up and down the dual carriage in my car at like 2am with the windows open cause I thought if I didn't cool down I was legit gonna die. Going into the garden felt like stepping of a plane on a tropical holiday. I was gonna book a hotel in the end with air con but I think other people beat me to it.
I am hoping for -10 -20 winters lol I miss my childhood
26 solar panels... Check.. 18kwh batteries... Check.. Aircon in bedrooms.. check.. Awaits to be able to use them. Hardly got any action last summer.
Hope you’re able to find a partner this summer mate
What are you talking about? The government has been lovingly raw dogging us for the last decade
My sister has invested in the very same setup. Us poors are malding with jealousy.
How much did that set you back? Thinking about something myself
Just shy of £20k for the lot. But I also run a fairly large fish tank which saps about £80 a month in juice without it, runs at 0 in the day, so having the solar took the sting out of powering the lights. I had it done last winter though, solar and AC is cheaper in the winter due to far lower demand. Planning on being here for a good 10yrs+ so should break even.
Jeez. Do you have sharks in that tank, or what?
It's only 500l. But 800w for the lights, 350w heaters, about 50w for twin pumps, 30w for 2x wave makers, auto top up on standby... All adds up. Costs less to fish £1ks worth of fish than it does a cat a month.. but the power to do so is insane.
Same but I’ve got 12 panels 5kwh battery and aircon in only the master bedroom.
Of course we're unprepared, that's almost certainly due to the fact we've not spent any time preparing. We never do. Although I did try to buy an air conditioner in Winter to be ahead of the game, thinking they'd be cheap in Winter, nah, they're the exact same price. Even Terry in the pub car park won't give me £20 quid off.
Summer of 2023 was miserable, grey and cloudy, there's a reason why we're not prepared. We barely have a summer.
Summer [2023 was probably the coolest](https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_daily/) of the rest of your life.
Yup. Current modelling suggests that by 2050 we move from a couple of thousand excess deaths a year due to heat (the 2022 heatwave impact) to twenty thousand without action. Combination of aging populations and poorly insulated homes. The frustrating thing is that it's partly the same answer as the problem of high heating bills - insulation! We need a nationwide programme of insulation like the one we had before Cameron killed it with his 'cut the green crap' nonesense. My 2003 house was a full 10 degrees cooler inside than outside during the 2022 heatwave. The other part is getting better ventilation - a lot can be done to vent heat out of houses overnight which isn't currently included in house design - this is important as it seems that it is hot nights (sometimes called 'tropical' nights) that kill people, not hot days. Which is why we need planning authorities and building regulations to be stricter on not allowing 'single aspect' properties with only one wall of windows to be built.
Exactly, every thread like that and people go on about how UK houses are built for cold weather and too much insulation makes them so hot. They're not built for any weather, they're built as fast and cheap as humanly possible thanks to lobbyists working for ridiculously wealthy developers. Double glazed windows are not even a thing in Poland, triple glazing has been the standard for roughly four decades, most new built houses have heat recovery ventilation, built in shutters and are insulated to the nines because people have individual houses built for them rather than be at the mercy of developers. With 35 degree heat blazing those houses are cool and pleasant. In the UK if there's 24 degrees outside, my house is 30.
It would be cheaper to replace houses than to insulate existing homes to the required standards
The UK construction industry does not have the capacity to build 1 million homes a year for the next 20 years. So the cost is irrelevant, what you propose is impossible.
The UK construction industry needs to be scaled in size maybe 2 or 3 times its current size through major government intervention guaranteeing tens of billions a year for infrastructure and housing. It's not impossible, nothing is, all that is needed is the relatively minor political will to redirect a few years worth of bumper state pension rises into fixing our housing and infrastructure crisis. The chancellor could announce that the £20 billion a year windfall he is getting in march goes towards it for example rather than tax cuts.
It’s cost prohibitive to re-insulate a lot of older, pre-war housing. We were quoted in the region of 30k to appreciably raise our EPC rating, and this before investing in heat pumps/solar/batteries.
I’ve been on to our energy provider 3 times now to get insulation provided, I had one call saying they’d send a form. 4 months later still nothing, called more times than I can count and I get told the same thing, forms in the post. They really don’t care to do it
[удалено]
Would love to keep my windows open at night but o live on a ground floor flat....
Buy a large scary dog. I heard that XLs are going cheap nowadays.
Government plans to mitigate the effects of rising temperatures published last July mostly reiterated existing policy and don’t show “sufficient urgency or ambition,” the Environmental Audit Committee said in a report published Wednesday. The committee is comprised of lawmakers and examines how government policies and programs impact the environment.
IIRC, el Nino does not have a strong effect on the UK, so 2024 is no more likely than any other 2020s year to be freakishly hot. On the other hand, it's going to be warmer and especially more humid in future summers as global warming proceeds.
Was reading the Met Office's annual summaries and it sounds like even numbered years recently have trended hotter in the summer/overall. [https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2020/2020-round-up](https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2020/2020-round-up) [https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2021/2021-a-year-in-weather-a-review](https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2021/2021-a-year-in-weather-a-review) [https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2022/joint-hottest-summer-on-record-for-england](https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2022/joint-hottest-summer-on-record-for-england) [https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2023/summer2023ukweather](https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2023/summer2023ukweather) Anecdotally, I definitely feel 2020 and 2022 were way hotter than 2021 and 2023. Last summer specifically was much more bearable. I fully expect this summer to be a scorcher.
Ocean warming in general, particularly around the UK was an anonomly last year.
Why is the UK still not built to deal with the heat? It literally comes every year, at this point idk if it’s stupidity or laziness
Because a lot of infrastructure would have to be entirely rebuilt. My house was built by the victorians.
Where are people going to get a few grand to install AC/Heatpumps into their property? Providing they are lucky enough to own their home
Because we didn't see many heatwaves in the past. What's the need of preparing for something that only rarely happens? The problem now is that the frequency and severity of heatwaves is increasing and nothing is being done.
Ill be good for about a week, afterwards ill be wishing winter was back again
They said this last year and we ended up with a washout summer. The truth is the jet steam is predicted to collapse and we will be embracing the big freeze!
We're not prepared for ANY of the major challenges that climate change will pose us. Instead the government have been passing the buck and sticking their head in the sand for the last ten years. Oh and now they're planning on increasing the population by another 10% by 2036?! It's hubris to think our lack of forethought here won't lead to disastrous consequences.
Oh god damnit I barely survived last year, At this rate I'll be moving to scotland
If you have any south facing windows or skylights look at installing solar film, you can even install it yourself if DIY competent
El Niño anomaly is growing rapidly, with a strong seasonal impact already seen in the forecast as we head into Fall and Winter 2023/2024 https://www.severe-weather.eu/long-range-2/el-nino-event-development-noaa-advisory-forecast-winter-weather-impact-united-states-canada-europe-fa/
Now is the better time of year to try and find a cheap portable aircon online too, if you want to beat the inevitable rush and price gauging when we get our first heatwave of the year.
Happy to hear this, last summer was a total write off with the awful weather.
Well we were told the same 2023 summer only in reality it was warm for one week 🙄
It's just fearmongering BS. 2022 has been the only genuinely hot summer I think I've ever seen in the UK, and it made everyone lose their minds lol. 2018 was pretty hot in parts, but nothing *extreme* , just what is normal summer for 99% of the rest of the world. Outside of that, every other summer is some degree of wet and dull with the odd 3/4 day heat spike of 30c or so. I do think that alot of people who freak out about the heatwaves we get in summer, have not travelled to other countries. Because most countries have proper seasons where summer is hot and sunny for weeks, it's perfectly normal and people are out and about eating, drinking, swimming, paddle boarding, just enjoying themselves.
I have a Victorian house. It is its own air con system.
You mean draughts that let more hot air in?
Our Victorian semi stays cool for the first two or three days of any heatwave. 20 inch walls take a long time to heat through. I've consistently found our house far cooler in a heat wave than any of my mates' post 1980s houses. I'm sure aircon solves the problem either way.
No, I mean it stays pretty moderate in terms of temperature due to the materials and shape and design of it. Two fireplaces mean the airflow is pretty good in the summer and in the winter the fireplaces are on which mean the house is generally quite warm. I do need to sort the drafts out but it’s all money and time.
We only moved into our Victorian mid terrace at the end of 2022, and last summer wasn't as hot overall as previous years, but the downstairs of our house did stay quite cool last summer. Unfortunately my office is upstairs and the window is SW facing so it gets extremely toasty up here with the sun shining through all afternoon.
We only had two or three good weeks of weather in the UK last year in the North. .. here's hoping for four weeks 👍
Could everyone in England point all their fans towards Scotland and push a bit of it up here this year? That would be great, ta.
AC powered by solar panels as the way to go (if you can afford it)
We need to start getting stuff build up in place to prepare for summers, i get we don't get as muxh summer as some countries but ours is far worse than theirs when it hits, it definitely won't shock me if people start dropping dead especially with climate chnage making it worse every year
As a poor person that lives in an apartment complex with thick walls, what am I supposed to do lmao
This should just read UK UNPREPARED FOR WEATHER! Because if its not the heat it's the whisper of snow we get or the fog or rain or (insert weather here)
We should be we had these heatwaves in the 80’s n 90’s
What!! Heatwaves in this year round damp shìiithole???
Looks like I’ll have to cave in and buy an air conditioning unit!
Or cave in and live in a cave.
We've been unprepared for everything for a while now to be fair
But yet we also should expect to be conscripted into a globally polluting and contaminating war in Ukraine. Make it make sense…. Lol
Fuck yeah.... Last summer was shit in UK... It was global warming took a yeah off
I'm here from the future, where Winter has lasted so far into May, to say this seems to be bollocks.
We're still waiting for planning permission to go through to see if we are moving this year...couple of places we looked at have aircon...depending where my room is...I would definitely be interested in investing in solar panels and using those during the summer to power aircon. As I thought it was gonna be a hot one last year, got myself a cooling blanket. actually celebrated not seeing it go over 30.
Where would people say is the coldest places in the uk during summer then?
Shetland
Making a note for a future comment no doubt. A lot of water companies have been [selling off reservoirs ](https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/water-firms-drought-hit-uk-27791000) to pay out shareholder dividends. My prediction is we are one hot summer away from our water bills doubling or tripling in price. My other prediction is the neolibs on Reddit will bang on about supply and demand, and for some weird fetish loves being fucked by companies. Not all supply issues are the same, if companies who only sell one commodity, actively get rid of their back up supply of that commodity to lead higher prices in the future, that is profiteering and extortion.
Thank god, i love the heat. I freaking hate the cold. When its +30C i really like it, its just glorious and the best time to travel around the UK too see the countryside. I also enjoy it since i have figured out how to keep my house cool.
Keeping room cool is not so difficult, regardless of the heat in lond I just leave my room with windows closed and blackout blinds.
Smart of me to prepare for the summer by having an old drafty house with no insulation. We nearly die in the winter but this summer we'll be cool as a cucumber.
Let's be real now, we're not prepared for anything ever.
How are we supposed to prepare? The insulation that keeps us from freezing in the winter boils us in the summer. As soon as the summer sun comes in through the windows it’s trapped in a properly insulated house so it takes an age to leave. You can close the curtains and have the windows open on the opposite side to the sun but what else is there to be done that doesn’t cost thousands at a time people just don’t have the money because we left the EU?
Bring it the fuck on already these Scottish winters make me a crabit bastard
I know we should consider ourselves lucky that last summer we didn't get the record-breaking heatwave that the rest of Europe got, but honestly...the the last time I remember getting any nice hot weather for any length of time was June 2023, so in the back of my mind I'm ready for a heatwave this year. Walking the dog - so tired of Mud. Everywhere. All. The. Time. Of course the second we get two weeks in a row of sun, it's drought alerts and hosepipe bans, so...careful what we wish for i guess... 🤷♂️