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There are no A/C units in the UK ??

You'll find A/C in some commercial buildings, but in domestic situations they're still extremely rare. You gotta remember that 80 degress here is classed as HOT! [Linked Image]

For most people, the cost of A/C just isn't worth it for the amount of time it would be used. Another factor is that with the construction of most of our old houses it would be difficult to install a decent system anyway (which is why ducted-air heating isn't that common here either, except for some houses which incorporated it from new during the 1960s/early 1970s period).

Dehumidifers have become more widely used in recent years, thanks to our rather damp climate, but are still not that common.

While we're on the subject of vacations and heat, most anyone here of my age or over will tell you about the "Summer of '76."

We really had (by British standards) a scorcher of a summer that year. The mercury rose up into the 90s regularly for a few weeks, ice-cream and electric fan sales went through the roof, and thanks to our antiquated water collection & distribution systems, many parts of the country ended up with droughts and no city water supplies. In some areas people actually had to take buckets to a stand-pipe at the end of the street to get water, or water-tankers made deliveries and rationed it.

I was all of 10 years old at the time, and spent a large part of the summer sleeping in a tent pitched in our back yard! [Linked Image]