A/C for London flat Next June?
 

Planning a London trip the last week of June next year for my wife, myself & 2 teenage grandchildren. I've been looking into apartments, many of which do not have A/C. Is A/C necessary in London this time of year?

It surely wouldn't have been necessary this year. I think you'd be fine without AC in June.

Very unlikely. We do get the occasional heatwaves in June, but heatwave to us would be high 20s (C), so quite bearable. Local residents do not have air conditioning and manage to survive.

It's obviously not necessary (at any time of the year), since 99.9% of us don't waste money or carbon emissions on such fripperies.

That doesn't mean though, that you won't hit a few days in which flats particularly might get pretty uncomfortable. Temps can hit the low 30s in June (though rarely). Most of us just keep lots of windows open when that happens, but that's not always a realistic solution in a flat, and British buildings are generally designed to retain heat, not diffuse it. Central London, in particular, has a microclimate that can make hot weather really unpleasant on the couple of days in an average year you might hit it - though that's more likely in July and early August.

Depends how tolerant you are of the very slight possibility you can have a couple of sweaty nights. You can always pop out and buy a fan: the reason opening windows in houses works is the through-draught they create, and in a flat where this is rarely possible, fans really can do more than just move hot air around.

Have you enquired if the flat has central heating? You are as likely to need heating as air conditioning.

I lived in the UK for a few years and since then have rented tons of holiday flats and cottages - and the ONLY places I've ever stayed that had a/c were some modern city-centre hotels and a couple of purpose-built timeshare-type resorts. I honestly don't think I've ever once turned on a/c. Has it ever been warm - sure. But more often by far it is cool. Might you hit a warm spell - hopefully yes :) Will you need a/c - probably not.

This last May/June I was there and hit high temps from 6C (42F) to 28C (82F) / sunshine to sleet.

I agree with chartley — you are just as likely to need central heating as a/c. ;-)

I do agree in trheory with everything that has been said but many of my British friends don't realize how our bodies (those of us from many parts of the USA) have become accostomed to a/c not just for the temperatures but for the humidity.

London can get quite humid even on days when the temperature does go much above 20 or 25. (68 to 77 for those of us not used to the real way of stating temperatures).....I've been in a friend's flat in the middle of the afternoon at those temperatures with the direction of the sun coming right into the room and have felt uncomfortable (I know, I sholdn't but that's the way my body is, disgusting). There rarely is a big problem at night with the windows open and no difficulty in sleeping. Also the underground can begin to feel uncomfortable even at those fairly low temperatures for the same reason (I'm just used to the NYC subway where 100% of the cars have functioning air conditioning as do 100% of the buses).

A lot of it is your individual body and the direction of the sun at a particular time of the day! I know it's not the universal feeling but you'd be surprised how dependent we can become on air conditioning just for the humidity nto necessarily the temperature! JMHO

I had the misfortune of being in London for an early June heatwave (it was in the first 2 weeks of June, just a few years ago) and it ruined my husband's ability to sleep, and therefore had a big negative impact on our trip.

I would ignore other people's insults or guesses about the weather and protect your trip, which is an expensive investment. Ultimately, you may face a trade-off between an apartment that is less your ideal than one without air-con (which you may end up never turning on), but you might think that sensible.

By the way, when the heatwave broke and normal service was resumed, it was rainy and chilly and in the 50s.

Flipkey lists 154 apartments in London with air conditioning

http://www.flipkey.com/london-vacati...ditioning=true

HomeAway lists 88 (probably many duplicates)

http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/sea...r+conditioning

As janisj has pointed out, it's less a matter of needing it than it is finding an apartment that has AC. Few hotels offer it (with the exception being those at the very high end price wise) and even fewer if any apartments.

If you don;t like hot weather and are used to AC you might easily find you need it in London in summer. We would never take a hotel without AC.

That said, summers are generally cool (at least versus NYC) but you can get a lot of humidity and I have been there when the temps were higher than 90 (not often) but low 80s is fairly frequent. (And for me to sleep I need a room to be 70 or less.)

bookmarking :)

psy_dr: I notice you have topped/'bookmarked' 9 or 10 threads today. A hint - see the 'Share With a Friend' button up top? You can use that to e-mail any thread to yourself.

Janisj - thanks for the tip!

I was in London one June when it was 90 F. We had no A/C and thought we would die! I believe that we, as Americans are so used to the A/C that it makes us feel worse. I will never go anywhere in the summer w/o A/C again!