Summer 2026 Is Here and It's Not Messing About
34°C in London, trains melting, ice cream selling out by lunchtime. If you've been thinking about air conditioning, now's the time. Lead times are still short - for now.
Right then. It's 34°C in London. The Met Office has run out of polite ways to say "it's really bloody hot." My car's steering wheel could grill a sausage. And somewhere in Reading, a bloke is trying to sleep with a wet flannel on his forehead while his partner Googles "air conditioning next day delivery" at 2am.
We know because she called us this morning.
The numbers this week
Monday: 31°C. Tuesday: 33°C. Wednesday: 34°C. Thursday's forecast: 32°C. Friday: still above 30. The Met Office amber warning is in its fourth day. Network Rail has imposed speed restrictions on multiple lines because the rails are expanding. Several schools in the Home Counties and Midlands have gone to half days.
This isn't a one-off spike. This is the third June in a row with sustained temperatures above 28°C. The climate data people at the Met Office are calling it a "step change" rather than an anomaly. Which is a polite, scientific way of saying: get used to it.
What we're seeing
Our enquiry volume this week is roughly four times a normal June week. The breakdown:
- Bedrooms: Still the number one request. People can bear the heat during the day. They can't bear it at midnight.
- Home offices: A close second. That south-facing spare room is hitting 33°C by lunchtime.
- Living rooms: Families with young kids and elderly relatives wanting a cool room to retreat to.
- "Just do the whole house": A growing category. People who've had enough of dealing with it room by room.
Can you actually get it installed right now?
Yes. This is the bit that surprises people - they assume there's a three-month waiting list. There isn't.
We work with a network of vetted engineers across the UK, and as of today, most areas have availability within 3–7 working days for a single-room installation. Multi-room systems take a bit longer to plan and install, but we're still booking those within 2–3 weeks.
Supply isn't a bottleneck either. We carry stock of every unit in our range. Order today, delivered tomorrow. The installation is the only scheduling constraint, and our network is deep enough to handle the surge.
That said, if this heatwave runs into July - which the long-range forecasts suggest it might - lead times will stretch. Every year, the busiest three weeks of summer are the ones right after people realise summer isn't going away. If you're thinking about it, don't sit on it until August.
Quick wins while you wait
If you've booked an install but it's a few days out, here's what actually helps in the meantime:
Close south and west-facing curtains by 10am. This alone can reduce room temperatures by 3–5°C. Yes, you'll feel like you live in a cave. It works though.
Create a through-draught at night. Open windows on opposite sides of the house once the outside temperature drops below the indoor temperature (usually after 9pm). A fan in one window pushing air out is more effective than a fan blowing at your face.
Freeze a bottle of water and put it in front of a fan. Ghetto air conditioning. It works for about an hour until the ice melts, but sometimes an hour is all you need to fall asleep.
Move your bedroom. If you've got a north-facing room on the ground floor that you're not using, sleep there. Ground-floor north-facing rooms can be 6–8°C cooler than upstairs south-facing ones.
The longer view
Every summer, the same thing happens. People suffer, people scramble, people get air conditioning, and then they send us messages in September saying "why didn't I do this years ago?"
The answer to that question is always some version of "because I thought British summers weren't hot enough to justify it." And five years ago, that was reasonable. It's not reasonable any more.
A single bedroom unit - survey, supply, installation, everything - runs about £1,000–1,200. That's roughly the cost of a week's holiday that you'll spend sleeping badly because the Airbnb doesn't have air con either. Except the air conditioning lasts 15 years.
If you're reading this at 2am because your bedroom is 29°C: we're still taking bookings. Fill in a quote request or give us a ring in the morning. We'll get you sorted before the next heatwave - which, based on the forecast, might be next Tuesday.
Stay cool. Or at least, stay hydrated until we can make you cool.