What portable air conditioner do you have?

I either open a window, open windows front and back for a convection current, or find a shady breezy spot outdoors.

Air-con to keep cool seems to me to be as daft as building more roads to relieve traffic. It’s an environmental nightmare.

This. 100% It's utter madness!! It really is.

"National Grid has broken a 46-day run in which coal has not been used to generate electricity in Britain in order to meet extra demand for air conditioning as the country swelters in hot weather."

"Air conditioning accounts for about a fifth of the total electricity used in buildings around the world."

World gets hotter, we burn more, world gets hotter, we burn more....

When i lived in switzerland air conditioning was pretty sparse - none of our offices had them. We just shut all the windows to keep the heat out. My flat had such thick walls and shutters that it always remained cool - and the summers there were a good deal hotter than here in the UK.

This. 100% It’s utter madness!! It really is.

“National Grid has broken a 46-day run in which coal has not been used to generate electricity in Britain in order to meet extra demand for air conditioning as the country swelters in hot weather.”

I suppose it'll be partially offset by the increase in solar farms.

But otherwise yes.

Interestingly a few of the people pro-AC and/or admitting to having it were aggressively anti-energy companies ruining the planet in another thread. You can't complain that Shell/BP/Drax/Fracking are bad, then go home and add a couple of kW to the base load of your house. Even if you've signed up to an eco tariff, that's not a solution, if you add a kW of demand to the grid, that still gets balanced out by switching on something nasty somewhere.

This. 100% It’s utter madness!! It really is.

Not if you power it off your own solar panels....

We still export loads whilst running A/C..

[edit, I went back to edit and clarify something whilst footflaps posted so i'll put it in a new post instead]

There'll be those rare occasions when we have more solar than we can deal with. But no, that doesn't excuse you even if you have your own solar panels, there's still a large embedded energy cost in them and the energy produced could still do something more useful.

If the environmental math's of solar panels is so many tons of carbon dioxide produced in their manufacture, but offset by what they'll "save" over 25 years. That assumes it's doing some saving. Otherwise it's just however many tons of carbon dioxide released in the manufacture of solar panels to run AC, rather than just running the AC off fossil fuels.

I have one of those portable AC units that I bought for my home office about 15 years ago (had 3 others working with me then) - I've not used it in at least 10 years and I have solar PV!

Does the anti A/C stance extend to A/C in vehicles too? After all they still take energy to power the A/C that wouldn't be used if it wasn't cooling the vehicle to enable the driver to remain more comfortable and alert. If only I could find a cooler hair shirt I'd turn mine off too.

Oh do calm down.
I don’t know why I’m still surprised by this – someone who is unnecessarily rude in an initial post gets a rude reply, then gets even ruder in their next comment.  However it’s a nice day, and I’ve got covid at the moment so don’t have the energy to argue.

Lots of places use aircon, yes, for various reasons. That doesn’t mean it isn’t noisy, wasteful, expensive and environmentally awful.

In my experience fans can be as effective if used properly, and they have many benefits ie they are cheap, quiet, portable, and don’t use too many resources. I’m still not sure why this opinion is making you so angry, so please, feel free to ignore it along with any others you dislike.

Apologies to anyone else who for any reason thought I was being arrogant. My advice – which like all advice can be disregarded, would be to try fans first as they are a much cheaper and quicker possible solution. In Thailand they were often kept under a desk and aimed at feet (this was partly to keep mosquitoes away, which I don’t imagine is a problem for most of you), which kept the whole body cool. When it’s hot I do the same – aim the fan at my feet, which keeps me cool throughout the night.

Air-con to keep cool seems to me to be as daft as building more roads to relieve traffic. It’s an environmental nightmare. If that isn’t something that bothers you, and you don’t mind the expense, then go for it. I’m sure I remember loads of threads a few months back asking how we could keep our power bills down, and an ongoing thread about saving money by not putting the heating on – these things never last long, eh?

tl;dr

Does the anti A/C stance extend to A/C in vehicles too? After all they still take energy to power the A/C that wouldn’t be used if it wasn’t cooling the vehicle to enable the driver to remain more comfortable and alert. If only I could find a cooler hair shirt I’d turn mine off too.

I feel like complaining about AC in cars would be missing the point.

Does the anti A/C stance extend to A/C in vehicles too?

You have to factor in the aerodynamic losses from driving with the windows open.

It's ridiculous, petty.

Let's do more damage, because well fk, we're already doing it. Burn it all.

They do if you’re alive with a body temperature above ambient, and even better if you’re perspiring. Most of the world get’s by with a fan.

Cool.

I suspect people 'getting by' with a fan mainly do so because of the cost of AC. Not out of choice. That's why Hotels have AC and not fans. Because AC is better and 99% would moan the place down if there was no AC.

You can 'get by' living in a cave but many don't. Please don't start gluing yourselves to AC units like those Just Stop Oil creatures. Much better to glue a fan onto a selfie stick then attach the selfie stick in front of you to your body. Or you could insert it 'to the rear' maybe. Anyway..

Last summer I paid £70 for a tower fan. I know you can pay a lot more but its not that cheap. Did not cut it at all. And it was loud. It had very good reviews. If it cooled and was loud that would be fine but it did not.

To function and not be a total grump I need sleep. I cannot sleep when its hot. I've tried fans and they don't cool enough.

I'm sorry if this has triggered some eco warriors and fan fans.

Its a little naive to suggest that people wanting to buy an AC unit have never tried or experienced the benefits and limitations of a fan. I think most people in this country have experienced what a fan can do, even if its just in a car. I'm stunned that people haven't worked that out for themselves but we live and learn don't we.

So any direct recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Yeah, don't bugger up the world more by getting AC for your house

There’ll be those rare occasions when we have more solar than we can deal with. But no, that doesn’t excuse you even if you have your own solar panels, there’s still a large embedded energy cost in them and the energy produced could still do something more useful.

If the environmental math’s of solar panels is so many tons of carbon dioxide produced in their manufacture, but offset by what they’ll “save” over 25 years. That assumes it’s doing some saving. Otherwise it’s just however many tons of carbon dioxide released in the manufacture of solar panels to run AC, rather than just running the AC off fossil fuels.

So in our case, we export shed loads of solar for 8 months of the year and probably use AC for about 1 or 2 weeks and even during those we are still are net exporters.

It's negligible in terms of the CO2 lifetime cost of solar.

I sometimes see posters on forums who are so needlessly rude and brash that I conclude they are making up for deficiencies elsewhere in their lives.

I assume that they have partners who have no respect for them, maybe children that give them no respect, a job they hate and a boss they dislike but dare not stand up to.

As they have to spend their real existence cowed and snivelling they use the Internet as an opportunity to ‘get their own back’, speaking to others in a way they would never dare in real life. This is a place where they feel they can hide their inadequacies and heal their poor bruised egos by attempting to bully others

I feel a little sorry for them, but my pity is reserved more for their ‘friends’, colleagues and family.

It’s negligible in terms of the CO2 lifetime cost of solar.

Especially because if you run it in the dehumidifier mode without the hose connected you’ll get a COP approaching 3 in the winter.

Some people just like being uncomfortable.

When the gov steps in and makes it worth while to export to grid then that may change attitudes but currently it's very much an I've paid for the panels so I will use the electricity as I see fit rather than how someone on the internet decides is ethically fit.

Fwiw I don't have an ac unit....

We've got house cats so can't open the windows much - we have downstairs open as it leads to a catio. The design of our house is very thermally efficient, but it doesn't half retain heat upstairs. Whilst heating the house is very low cost/energy use, I don't mind using the A/C which is consuming 800 watts per hour (checked and monitored with a smart plug), for use overnight to keep cool, for those few weeks it's too hot, vs the other 48 weeks where our house is much more thermally efficient than  average and doesn't need heating much for 8 months of the year. Our unit must be 20 years old.

So overall energy use is low.  The 'adult kids' gaming machines gobble more juice.

PS I don't drive round much in a van/ big car/£60k EV - I ride to work and my 22 year old car does maybe £3k miles a year.

Nor do I drive many many miles somewhere with a bike to ride 10-20 miles - I ride from home !

So those slamming a bit of A.C in a house for a few nights a year, better look at their own carbon footprint before slagging some others off.  Think about that when you do a 200 mile return trip to ride your bike 20 miles !

The OP asked about what A/C do people use, not expecting a slating from others with their own questionable carbon footprint

Calm down folks.

Fossy -  I get your point, however we need to start some where moving back the other way. I would love an AC unit, but I can cope without it and I am trying to take steps to minimise wanting one.

I try and use cars etc as little as possible ie if I cant ride my bike from the door and generally wont ride it. It perplexes me how people get in  acar/van and drive somewhere to ride a bike, but thats a different matter.

I suggest we also turn the heating off in winter then as part of the master plan.

Discriminate use of the ac especially with young kids can be as essential as the heating in winter.

Although the summer I spent in a perth flat with no ac was bareable by use of a cold shower with my bed sheets before bed and a fan.....

Our house is too hot without one - we've done the windows open all over (especially with the kids) we got the unit when they were small.   Our upstairs walls are literally heat soaks - bloody great in winter, but on the few hot weeks we have, I'll shove ours on for a few hours). I'd be happy with a fan - tried it, had ceiling fans, desk fans, MrsF won't entertain it as she says it dries her eyes/throat out - how ?  I can't win.  We fitted ceiling fans in the landing and our bedroom when we moved in 27 years ago, but she didn't like the bedroom fan, nor when we used portable ones. Got impossible when we had small kids.

We all have some things/practices that are poor carbon foot print, but others that are good.

You don't get people wading in when folk ask about wood fired pizza ovens for a couple of pizzas ! (I don't have  a pizza oven, nor a van, nor drive many miles).

For those (understandably) saying that their home retains heat, then looking to stop the heat getting indoors is key.

I do think we will be looking more and more at places in warmer climes - homes where they can keep much cooler through the day and therefore night as well. We do need shading, blinds / shutters / etc on the OUTSIDE of buildings, green solutions like trees, climbing plants up house walls, removing hard patios and tarmac from against house walls, increasing airflow, reflective roof membranes, more roof vents, MVHR etc etc.

I am sat in our house at the moment - all the rear (south facing) windows have white roller blinds down, including the patio doors. When we had our new roof 5 years ago I got them to fit a reflective membrane not the black one they typically use. North side shaded windows are all open. The blinds to the south will be opened nearer tea time as the heat goes, and our upstairs south windows all opened and our downstairs north windows left open - we then get a huge chimney effect of cold, north air being drawn upstairs and taking a lot of heat out.

Our upstairs walls are literally heat soaks

Could you grow ivy / other climbers to place the wall in shade in summer and reduce heat loss in winter?

As they have to spend their real existence cowed and snivelling they use the Internet as an opportunity to ‘get their own back’, speaking to others in a way they would never dare in real life. This is a place where they feel they can hide their inadequacies and heal their poor bruised egos by attempting to bully others

Au contraire mon ami, I'll call you a **** to your face too.

As for making insinuations about peoples home life...... well if you've settled for a meek existence where your ideas never get challenged and you measure a partner's "respect" by how much they agree with you, that ones on you, I'd far rather have a robust debate and ideas challenged.

Hi @thisisnotaspoon

Challenging debate is good, unnecessary rudeness (then getting all crybabyish if someone is rude back) is not so good.

Just for the record I've seen anything like that from you.

I get your point, however we need to start some where moving back the other way.

I do think we will be looking more and more at places in warmer climes – homes where they can keep much cooler through the day and therefore night as well. We do need shading, blinds / shutters / etc on the OUTSIDE of buildings, green solutions like trees, climbing plants up house walls, removing hard patios and tarmac from against house walls, increasing airflow, reflective roof membranes, more roof vents, MVHR etc etc.

Problem we have is that we don't have a consistently warm climate, eg I'd like to add reflective film to the Velux in the workshop for summer, but in winter I'd want to remove it as any extra solar loading saves on heating...

Plus good luck getting planning permission for external white shutters on a Victorian house in a conservation area...

Plus good luck getting planning permission for external white shutters on a Victorian house in a conservation area…

I feel this should be in @TJagain's middle class problems thread

Let all go back to living in wooden huts and caves.

I take it all the hypocrites who oppose Air con don't use any electricity, use cars or any sort of transport that is powered by electric of any type of fossil fuel and are currently residing in wooden primitive huts that has an internet connection to their stone tablets. Bravo.

Came on here to see which units are recommended.
That was silly.

I'd agree re: growing stuff on the walls of the house. This was the difference in surface temperature on the south side of our house during the last heat wave.

.

Back on topic, look for higher BTU, decibels, and of course wattage.

The OP asked about what A/C do people use, not expecting a slating from others with their own questionable carbon footprint

Oh no, I knew exactly what to expect, I've been around a while!

I've just taken the advice and ignored the rest.

P.S.
Haven't bought one yet. But we did measure the bedroom at 38 degrees when it was 27 outside. It was 28 degrees at 2am so we're still sleeping like crap and feeling rough all day.

@waswas - tell me more. I'm writing a climate friendly schools guide at present...

This is what south facing side looks like. Main house 5-600 years old although brick face is probably only 150. Solid walls, small windows. Roof is well insulated now but was an issue.

Cheers me dear. I'm researching lots at the moment. So much anecdotal, so much nature based solutions which also are reports not academic and don't mention maintenance or use on larger/ public buildings. I'm finally finding what I need.
Seems that greenery can dramatically change summer and winter issues with buildings - yet everyone reaches for the solar panel, posh windows and AC before they plant things...

Any pointers on what to do when you have a chalet style house and the eves are insulated to the hilt. And the upstairs get to 35+

I have climbers on the south facing aspect but due to deep eaves we have good shelter from the sun on the downstairs and so I generally sleep on the sofa in summer. -can be 17 downstairs and 35 upstairs.....

We get the howling winds of winter but are protected from any summer winds

Well that's rather nice (the chocolate box house)