Air conditioning is a rare luxury worth every penny in a UK heatwave. Americans will regularly scoff at our complaints of an uncomfortable 80°F to an unbearable 90°F but ask any tea-drinking Brit, and they’ll gladly tell you how our houses are built to keep the heat in. So, I’ll never regret spending £329.99 at Toolstation on a portable air conditioning unit (and £15.99 at Amazon for a window seal) that keeps my home office at a comfortable 17°C (that’s 33.8°F,) and neither will you. US residents can still pick up similar units, like the $360.99 SPT Portable at Best Buy if you’re without dedicated AC.
These portable air conditioners need somewhere to redirect the hot air from your room, which usually involves a giant, thick ventilation tube hanging out of a nearby window. It’s similar to how some older tumble dryers work in the UK, but you’ll need a way to maintain your room’s cool environment without most of it escaping.
I used my first portable AC, rated for 9,000 BTU, for a few days with a lingering sense of buyer’s remorse because it barely cooled the room by a few degrees until I realized what was happening.
Buying a suitable window seal kit at Amazon for around £15.99 allowed me to keep the temperature low by keeping my office door closed and the outside heat at bay. These kits are far from anything fancy; you attach a shaped piece of cloth to your window frame with velcro strips and push the exhaust tubing through an elastic opening. It looks comical to anyone passing by, but I guarantee you won’t care if people think you’re hanging pillowcases on the window once you feel the cool breeze in your room.
I understand how silly (and eco-unfriendly) it might seem to try to cool a room full of electronics, which kick out a generous amount of heat on their own. However, I also don’t have much choice. While I can sit in the darkest, quietest room in my home with a laptop, eventually, I’ll need the software suite installed on my desktop PC, which quickly raises the temperature in my home office. These portable AC units aren’t silent either; quite the contrary, but a good headset is enough to ignore the noise.
Nevertheless, I can tell you that if you’ve been mulling over the idea of buying a portable air conditioning unit for your toasty UK home, you will not regret it. I sit here like Mortal Kombat’s own Sub Zero as I type this in the comfort of my chilled office, now akin to a walk-in supermarket fridge. Those in the USA might find this whole thing strange and overblown, but the more fragile of us in old Blighty melt at the first sign of sunshine — Brits, buy the air conditioner you wish you had bought last year and keep your office cool during a heatwave.
