DMuller

Will I be sorry if our apartment does not have A/C?

nytraveler

Very possibly.

London is typically not very hot - but is often very humid. Yuo might get temps in the 70 - but it's also possible to get high 80s or even 90s.

I would never do it.

cynthia_booker

It took only one trip to London with an unexpected September heat wave for me to learn my lesson. Modest hotel, no AC, all the sweaters I took to wear were useless. Now all my trips are in the early spring or late fall. But odds are you will have better luck with lovely cool evenings and moderate days.

flanneruk

Virtually no Londoner wastes money (or energy)on this planet-destroying technology. Not even those Londoners building blocks of flats intended as holiday accommodation for Middle Easterners who come to London in summer for decent weather.

So if air conditioning is essential to you, it'll be practically impossible to find a flat in London that has it. Either go somewhere else, avoid London in July and Aug or stay in a hotel that's got it.

The reasons it's practically unheard of in flats are:
- it's scarcely ever necessary in flats. Most years, never. The current climatic instability is bringing us slightly more severe winters, warmer springs and autumns and much more erratic rainfall. It's not brought a significant increase in midsummer days over 70.

- it's never necessary anywhere before very late May and after mid-Sep. In some flats (modern concrete buildings and basements of traditional 2 or 3 storey houses) life gets muggy for a few days most (but not all) Julys and Augs, and for very rare days every few years in June or early Sept

- even then, in most flats in traditional houses, and in Edwardian mansion blocks, you just open the windows on both sides to create a through-draught. This isn't wise in many basement flats for security reasons, and is often ineffective and tricky in modern concrete purpose-built blocks of flats that you might get, especially round the W1 postcode.

Do note that air conditioning is also almost unheard of in cheaper hotels (though it might be there in recent purpose-built budget hotels, like Travelodge). The cost of retrofitting it into pricier places (where conservation rules impose huge restrictions on what people can do to buildings) might often have deterred owners: many formidable-looking London hotels started life as something quite different and it's essential everywhere to check there really is air conditioning if it matters to you.

jamikins

I have lived in London for 5+ years and have never needed air conditioning at any time of year.

tarquin

I agree with the posters above, but you might want to ensure that your flat is not on a very noisy road in case you (we) are lucky enough to have hot weather in September.

Tulips

If they do have AC it's often something like a stand-alone unit with a hose - useless if it's really hot. So even if they say they have AC, don't count on it actually working.

xyz123

Everybody here pretty much nailed it......in theory. I think which is hard for some others to comprehend that for many Americans, and I'm an example, it can be 20 degrees (68F for us Americans who refuse to join the rest of the world and use the right thermometers; incidentally the telly will only give the temperatures in Celsius as will all the signs with time and temp yu see in the streets so it might be a good idea to learn a bit about Celsius-flanneruk how do you feel about celsius) yet it is so humid that I feel uncomfortable to a degree whjile I really shouldn't. However I'm usually not in my hotel during the day when this is a problem. Usually with an open window at night, it is not that bad

Of course, it's not unheard of for sudden short heat waves and the temperatures can inch into the low 30's and some places such as the tube which is not a/c'd can become almost hell on wheels and the Evening Standartd will blare about hundreded passing out as temperatures soar into the 90's (so much for eu regs requiring celsius). It can happen while not every other day, it does happen.

Also frequent bursts of showers, humidity and the like can make even just walking outside, even though usually it's very nice to be abe to do so, not always a great experience. And of course when it starts raining cats and dogs, all the taxis seem to disappear!

The solution? As an American the week before I leave for London I begin trying to sleep at home (in NYC) without my A/C. It helps a bit.

latedaytraveler

Hi DMuller,

Two years ago I stayed in London for a week and found the weather in July downright chilly, and sometimes rainy. My hotel did not have AC, so that was not a problem. The previous June when I was in London, the weather was beautiful and hot. Got slightly sunburned on a cruise on the Thames.

Re: Celsius. I take the number, double it, and add it to 33. So if the Celsius is 14, I double it to 28, and add it to 33 – getting 61 (or thereabouts). Flanner et al, correct me if I am wrong.

In any case, the attractions and lore of London make up for any inconveniences with the weather. I hope to return this June for “one last time.” Enjoy your trip….

xyz123

Every 5 degrees celsius is 9 degrees Farenheit...5 to 9.

Celsius 25...Multiply number of 5's (5) by 9 and add to 32...

Result 45_32 or 77

37 degrees Celsius......5 goes into 37 7 times

7 times 9 is 63....2 degrees left over...2 x 1.8 (9/5)3.6

So 32+ 63+3.6 = 98.6

See even the man upstairs is a fan of Celsius as normal body temperature is an even number in Celsius but requires a decimal in Farenheit.....<g>

jamikins

xyz123 - I am from North America (Vancouver) so I do understand. And I still havent needed AC...

Its a personal choice, it is just difficult to find in an affordable hotel or rental here because its not something most people have.

PatrickLondon

Roughly speaking:

Below 0C = freezing (wear thermals)
0-10C = cold (wear a thick woolly)
10-15C = cool (wear layers, but they needn't be thick)
15-20C = comfortable (but keep a light jacket to hand)
20-25C = warm
25-30C = hot - newspapers start showing photos of office-workers sunbathing in their lunch hour
30C+ = newspapers start predicting the end of civilisation as we know it.

And remember, in the UK, it rarely stays at any one level for more than a couple of days at a time.

DMuller

Thanks for the input everyone

xyz123

jami....try somebody from the East Coast of the USA say from DC...btw the whole thing is indeed a generalization...of course different people's bodies will react differently and didn't mean to be dogmatic (and of course the weather in Vancouver is somewhat milder than say Washington DC).

I've been in London in June with a relatively mild temperature and my hotel room was quite uncomfortable depending on which way the room faced and cursing something terrible that a/c wasn't the norm and then a day later, search for my sweater.

However one place the heat does stick is the tube as I noted. Besides how many times have we heard the expression, "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." And indeed London is humid!

nytraveler

I've been to London 6 time in the summer and 4 of the 6 AC was not necessary. But the other two we got several days that would have been - to me - unbearable without it. Temps were in the high 80s and it was humid.

But we stay in hotels - often with windows that don't open or only slightly - so you roast if it's hot. (We had hotels with AC for all trips - but they were individual units - and while they made the room cooler - were not the type of AC you ge tin the US).

Caveat: I can;t sleep it the temp is over 70 - as we run our BR AC from May through Oct.

alanRow

You need heating more than A/C

nytraveler

No - that would be Scotland.

PatrickLondon

>>No - that would be Scotland.<<

You weren't in London last July, then....

nytraveler

No - but I was in Scotland in July several years ago, It was about 45 degrees, very windy and had heavy rain blowing sideways. Locals were wearing winter coats, hats and gloves (no umbies - they would have turned inside out). And when we had left London 5 days before it was about 85.