Suddenly we’re all fans of air conditioning

AIR conditioning could become the new normal in the UK after Britons were forced to sleep through a week of unseasonably hot nights.

Companies responsible for fitting homes with air conditioning units reported seeing surging demand in recent days, while house builders said prospective buyers now considered the once luxury item to be a necessity.

One firm said it had received almost 2,000 emails during one morning alone this week, while another registered a 400 per cent rise in inquiries, the bulk of them from homeowners.

Meanwhile, John Lewis said sales of fans had increased by 161 per cent compared with the same week last year.

Estate agents and property experts said air conditioning units are becoming increasingly important to buyers, particularly those looking for high-end properties, with some suggesting it could make homes more valuable.

Roarie Scarisbrick, a partner at Property Vision, the property advisers, said his international clients were “baffled” by our lack of air conditioning.

He added: “We Brits have been sniffy about it, saying ‘just open the window, why would you need it for five days a year?’ But cities are getting hot and better insulation is keeping houses warmer so the penny is starting to drop.” He said it would add value to a home.

Philip Eastwood, a partner at The Buying Solution, part of Knight Frank, even claimed that a “high-quality, concealed air con system” could add 5 per cent to the value of a home.

However, there have been warnings that frequent use of air conditioning is bad for the environment.

Two years ago a report from the environmental audit committee warned that changing climate patterns would expose the UK to more hot weather.

Last night the committee’s chairman Philip Dunne, a Tory MP, told The Telegraph that the widespread use of air conditioning could make the problem worse by contributing to “urban heat islands” – where hot air is pumped out of buildings on to the street – leading to more heatwave-related deaths.