{"id":681708,"date":"2026-07-09T05:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T05:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/681708\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T05:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T05:01:09","slug":"buying-air-con-for-the-hot-weather-might-not-be-such-a-cool-idea-experts-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/681708\/","title":{"rendered":"Buying air con for the hot weather might not be such a cool idea, experts warn"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s another hot week for the UK as temperatures could reach 36C, with amber and yellow heat alerts issued across England<\/a> from Wednesday to Sunday.<\/p>\n

But as the UK struggles to keep cool, there is concern over the increased shortage of fans and air conditioning.<\/p>\n

New figures show there has been a huge surge in demand in these products, and retailers are running low.<\/p>\n

With sales heating up, there are warnings of air con shortages, increased energy bills, and even outright scams. <\/p>\n

The retail boom for these products is evident. Fan sales have increased by almost 3,000%, according to data from electrical retailer Currys.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, air con is up 320% year on year, according to tradesperson service provider, MyBuilder.com. <\/p>\n

Independent research from price comparison site Uswitch says average costs for a portable air con unit range between \u00a3350- \u00a3650.<\/p>\n

Air con installer Nick says usually he would get 30 enquiries a month, but now he gets 900 a week. Credit: ITV News<\/p>\n

Air con installer Nick Burton in Cambridge told us he hasn\u2019t seen anything like this demand in his 20 years working with the appliance.<\/p>\n

Usually he would get 30 enquiries a month, but now he gets 900 a week. <\/p>\n

Mr Burton fears some air con models will become completely unavailable within weeks.<\/p>\n

He said supplies were “very scarce” and in two weeks “most suppliers will have very little to no stock.”<\/p>\n

ITV News research shows major retailers have sold out of many models of fans and air con units.<\/p>\n

We found dozens of air con and fans with \u201cout of stock\u201d notices. Some shops have no models at all currently available. <\/p>\n

Accessibility isn\u2019t the only issue. Energy experts say over-heated shoppers need to factor-in ongoing costs of running these devices, as well as the initial product cost.<\/p>\n

Sabrina Hoque from energy comparison site Uswitch said: \u201cA built in aircon unit could cost \u00a345 extra on your bills a week.”<\/p>\n

Fans are a lot cheaper to run compared to air con units, Uswitch said. Credit: PA<\/p>\n

To save money on energy bills, she said customers could switch to a fixed tariff.<\/p>\n

The NHS suggests closing curtains and windows and drinking cold drinks to keep cool for less.<\/p>\n

Fans are a lot cheaper than air con units to run. For example, a desktop fan costs 58p on average, Uswitch said.<\/p>\n

Experts are also warning people to look out for scammers when purchasing these products. <\/p>\n

Criminals are cashing in on the high demand, advertising fake appliances or products that never arrive.<\/p>\n

The advice is to stick to reputable outlets when shopping, no matter how hot the deal is.<\/p>\n

Subscribe for free to our weekly newsletter<\/a> for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning. <\/p>\n

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know\u2026 <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s another hot week for the UK as temperatures could reach 36C, with amber and yellow heat alerts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-681708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}