Record rise in demand for air con as Brits seek to beat the heat.

According to analysis of Google search data by Reveal, searches for the term ‘air conditioning unit’ have spiked between July 2023 and June 2024 with every county in England seeing an increase in those seeking to escape the heat.

England had the largest overall rise within the individual nations with an increase of 172%.

Place: Jul 23; Jun 24; % change

England 49,500; 135,000; 172.73%

Wales 1,600; 2,900; 81.25%

Northern Ireland 390; 590; 51.28%

Scotland 1,600; 2,400; 50%

Herefordshire was the county with the largest overall rise with a 357% between July 2023 and June 2024. The West Midlands took second place with an increase of 326%.

The county with the lowest increase was Cornwall, an area which while consistently warm, has a relatively stable climate due to its coastal position and so it has historically avoided some of the more extreme temperature fluctuations found in other U.K. areas.

David Weaver of Reveal gave his input, citing concerns over the effects that demand of this kind could have on the U.K’s power consumption:

“The U.K.’s housing infrastructure to this point hasn’t been designed to deal with the rise in temperatures we’ve seen in recent years. Our houses are largely designed to help combat what has been a colder climate by storing heat whenever possible.”

“From the figures the research has produced, we can already see an increase in interest for air con generally, and if that demand is met, it will eventually put an additional strain on our energy networks and the amount of electricity we’re using in order to power those air con systems.”

“Although there have been recent updates to the building regulations to deal with what is known as ‘solar gain’, using elements such as shutters and external blinds, they only apply to new building work and so a lot of existing properties won’t utilise these cooling measures, unless new work is carried out to adapt them”

“This is concerning as the cost of adapting an existing property, may outweigh the relative cost of installing some air conditioning systems and so, we may see a further increase, which would worsen the potential problems that large scale air con usage may have environmentally.”