Emergency air con in a UK heatwave: what to do this week

Every summer the same message arrives: it is 32 degrees inside, the family cannot sleep, and no installer can come out for six weeks. Here is what to do this week, and what to line up for next.

Do today: buy a portable and place it right

A portable air conditioner will not solve the problem. It will make one room bearable. That is worth doing at 5pm on a Friday when nothing else is available.

Look for these specs:

• 9,000 to 12,000 BTU cooling capacity. Under that and you are cooling a shoebox.
• A single hose venting out of a window. Dual-hose units are more effective but rare in UK shops.
• A drain tank that lasts overnight, or a continuous drain option.

Place it in the room you want cooled with the hose in the window. Use the window kit that comes with the unit or cut a scrap of ply to seal the gap. An open window loses more than the unit cools.

Rough price this week: £300 to £600 in Argos, Currys, and Screwfix. Do not overpay for a “smart” model - you want cold air, not an app.

Do this week: shade, seal, and shift routines

Portables help one room. The rest of the house needs to lose less heat.

• Close blinds and curtains before 9am on any south-facing window.
• Open windows only after 10pm when outside temperature drops below inside.
• Cook and shower early or late. Every hot meal or hot shower adds to the load.
• Run a fan across a bowl of ice in front of it if you cannot get a portable.

None of this is glamorous. All of it works.

Do this week: book a proper survey

A fitted split system will not arrive tomorrow. But if you book a survey now, you can be on an installer’s schedule for the tail end of summer - which is often the sweet spot for price. Many installers drop prices in September because their teams are quiet.

A fitted single-room split is £1,800 to £2,800 and cools reliably for 10 to 15 years. Do the maths against the running cost of two portables and it wins fast.

We match you with up to three vetted North West installers who cover your postcode. Fill in the quote form and installers get in touch within 24 hours - even during a heatwave.

What to avoid this week

• Do not buy a cheap DIY-fit split kit off eBay. Refrigerant work needs an F-Gas certified engineer by law, and the wrong install will leak inside a season.
• Do not agree to install a portable in a room with no window. Every portable needs to vent hot air outside. A tumble dryer vent is not a substitute.
• Do not accept a cash-only “mate of a mate” quote. If it goes wrong you have no recourse and no warranty.

The next 12 months

Heatwaves in the UK are no longer once-a-decade events. If you plan to be in your home for another summer, an air con survey now beats a portable in the loft come July next year. Book early, install off-peak, and you skip the panic entirely.

Ready to line up a proper quote? Start here and we will match you with three local installers before the week is out.