Air conditioning units can be a big investment which is why it is important to keep them maintained to ensure that they run properly and efficiently. As we have moved into spring, summer will be upon us soon enough – which is when many air con unit owners find out they is a problem with theirs.
Even though air conditioning units should be maintained by a professional, there are still a few steps that could be taken to make sure that the air con units are more dependable for years to come! These include keeping your filter clean, clearing your condenser, level the outdoor unit and handling the refrigerant.
Keeping your Filter Clean
Usually air con owners will find out their filter needs changing when there starts to be a bad smell in the air. You can usually smell the dust when they haven’t been cleaned. When it comes to cleaning your window air conditioner, they usually have filters that can be removed and dusted with a clean cloth and running water. Make sure that it is 100% dry before placing it back in the air conditioner. When it is not possible to do this yourself or they need replacing, it’s always best to call a professional.
Cleaning your Condenser
Condensers are usually located on the outside of the building which tends to gather up a lot of dirt. Most air conditioning or fridge retailers will sell a commercial coil cleaner which can be used to easily clean the air con units. Be careful of the fins of the condenser though as they are prone to damage, so just use a soft brush when it comes to cleaning this part. Because of the amount of dirt that usually builds up in the condensers, it’s best not to use water as this dirt can turn into mud when wet!
Level the Outdoor Unit
The units that are outdoors need to be checked to see if they are in a level position as if not, the fan motors and compressor may wear out quicker which is a very costly replacement. If the unit is slightly out of place you can place a temporary shim to hold it up until a professional can come to fix it before it gets severe. If proper caution isn’t taken then trying to level the unstable unit can lead to the copper lines being damaged.
Handling the Refrigerant
The refrigerant used in most air-con units is called Freon, which is if this is too high or too low then there is a possibility that it won’t work. Checking the refrigerant lines running from the condenser to the evaporator will help to see if they are worn and need replacing. However, if there is a suspected Freon problem then a professional will need to sort this out for you.
Remember, it’s always best to call a professional if you are unsure about something to help reduce the risk of any accidents.
Over the weekend and much of the week we have been disrupted by the snow. Just when we thought the worst was behind us, it looks like there are more disruptions ahead. Even though the snow is slowly disappearing, this means it is thawing and with the heavy rainfall that is expected around most of the country, it means there are more risks of flooding again.
50 flood warnings have been issued around the UK as the ice begins to melt and on top of this in some areas ice warnings are still in place. According to forecasters there will be one more final heavy snowfall and hopefully the weather will warm up slightly, don’t go putting your air conditioning units on yet, it won’ be that warm! Temperatures are expected to reach 10C in the south on Sunday. It is believed that the north of England could see 15cm of snow and the south may see up to 5cm.
A spokesman from the Environment Agency, Roy Stokes has some up with a creative and fun way for those who will need to be making preparations for the floods; “Ideally if everybody built themselves a snowman it will slow the thaw down a bit.
“If you notice when people clear their drive the snow thaws away but the compacted piles stay.
“That would give a balanced thaw which would be helpful.” However, after this comment the Environment Agency has said this will make little difference, although it is a nice idea.
UAE authorities have seized counterfeit refrigerants from a business in Sharjah.
The business, Sunrise Aircondtioning Spare Parts, has been fined and is no longer in business after DuPont and the Dubai Department of Economic Development took some of their products that they use in air conditioning units.
Greg Rubin is the global business manager at DuPont and he has said, “We are approaching the problem of counterfeit refrigerants very aggressively. Counterfeit refrigerants can cause significant business impact including business failure and more importantly can cause physical harm loss of life.”
Overall they confiscated 3,100 units of fake DuPont Suva and 6,000 units of another manufacturer. On top of the fine, Sunrise were also made to pay the storage costs of the goods that had been confiscated as well as the costs of painted and repackaging the products as unbranded so they could be transferred out of the country.
Counterfeit sales are not uncommon in the Emirates and it does happen across a range of industries. Research that was carried out in 2010 suggested that managers who had the responsibility of buying products, nearly half of them had bought fake ones.
Mr Rubin added, “We will continue our global effort to combat counterfeit refrigerants by working diligently with law enforcement in all regions.”
This shows us that just because a product is branded does not mean it is legitimate. Don’t run the risk of your air conditioning units breaking down, or risk causing harm to those around and buy your products from well-known suppliers of trusted brands.
If we get lucky this year and the sun decides to make an appearance then the best place to go is the Hayward Art Gallery. This is because Art and Language, a sixties art group have created the perfect summer piece.
It is a large white room which is empty apart from two refrigeration units that is keeping the air cool. The piece is called the Air Conditioning Show. The effect may be lost on you if you go in the cold and the wet but we think this is a rather brilliant idea.
Pinned to the wall of the cool room are bits of paper which say, “It is obvious, that the elements of a given framework (and this includes the constitution of construct contexts) are not at all bound to an eliminative specifying system.”
The Air Conditioning Show is among other pieces in the exhibition called Invisible, and is meant to represent when visual art started to become un-visual.
We are excited to see that someone is just as passionate about air conditioning units as we are and that they have actually decided to make some art out of it!
If you get a chance to go down and see the art work, let us know what you think below or tweet us.
Most of the country has experience serious and continuous downpours over the last 36 hours and they are expected to continue to threaten many homes as rivers break their banks.
The Met Office issued another weather warning this morning as there was 60 mm of rain falling on already saturated ground across Wales and South West England.
Due to the severe weather, Thames Water, Anglian Water and Southern Water will lift their hosepipe bans tomorrow which have been in place since April. The bans were put in place after two consecutive dry winters. A spokesman for Thames Water said, “We have had two-and-a-half times the average rainfall for April, we have had steady showers in May and the monsoon downpours in June. That’s changed things.”
There have been four flood warnings put in place by The Environment Agency on rivers in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and West Sussex. Emergency services in these areas had to help 250 people and rescue centres have been set up where flood water has risen to 6ft.
Many roads resemble rivers now due to the torrential rain and have left cars floating away. The A259, which is near Bognor Regis, and parts of the M3 in Hampshire have been effected which means many closures.
As England has been in drought for the last two years, all this rain has meant that only average levels have actually been reached. This is helping to build up water stock as we experienced the driest March for 70 years this year. Just when we thought summer had come early and we all started to switch our air conditioning units on; we had to turn them off just as quickly.
Today there is predicted to be even more, slow moving, showers across the country although it does seem to be moving north. The chief forecaster at the Met Office, Andy Page said, “Due to the nature of showers, some areas will miss them altogether, but where they do occur, large amounts of rainfall are possible in a short space of time which has the potential to cause flooding.”
This week Melbourne was host to the Air Conditioning, Refrigeration and Building Services Exhibition. Companies such as Fujitsu, Daikin, Mitsubishi Electric and LG all had new products ranges to show off and they all had one thing in common, the style. All the air conditioning units had been transformed from the traditionally white box, to sleek curves in a range of colours.
Daikin and Fujitsu have both decided on a more streamlined design, with their units having curves and all unnecessary buttons, vents and lights being removed for a minimal design and a smoother effect.
Mitsubishi Electric and LG opted for a change in colour to give consumers more choice and be able to blend the units to the decor of their homes.
Mitsubishi Electric offers the air conditioning units in black and silver. Raja Gounder, the company’s national project manager said “If you have dark walls, the black unit doesn’t stick out as much as a traditional white air conditioner.
“It has a new modern look for modern houses.
“The silver model has also been designed to fit into rooms such as the kitchen, where there are lots of stainless steel appliances.”
LG are offering a similar design for the same reasons with a mirror finish air conditioning unit.
Hopefully this new style of air conditioning units will encourage more and more people to have them in their homes and offices. This will enable better conditions during those hotter months of the year.
After our week of sunshine, the weather looks set to change dramatically for us over the next few days. With snow already see in the more Northern parts of England and in Scotland it looks like our early summer hasn’t lasted.
Snow, sleet and rain hounded down on Britain last night and left 10,000 people without any power across the North East of England. There is yellow weather warning for Scotland, Wales, northern England and the Midlands. This is after gale force winds reached 80 mph last night.
According to forecasters, 15 – 20cm of snow fell last night in the Peak District, Pennies and Cumbria and with this kind of weather there are many travel disruptions around.
After writing about the high temperatures in Aboyne last week, this area has also seen 2cm of snow as the weather seems to be playing bizarre tricks on us.
This, however, is a good time to make sure all air conditioning units are functioning as well as they should be. From looking at the dramatic weather changes in the last week, who knows when we will see our next glimpse of summer, could be next week with these changes! By cleaning the units out and getting professionals to check them over as we have previously written about is essential. This is especially true with the weather as unpredictable as it is now. Scorching temperatures in the office without working air conditioning is unbearable.
This cold weather is set to move south leaving behind wintery conditions although there isn’t any forecast snow and we still have a little sunshine and highs of 13 throughout the week. This, at least for the south, is normal March temperatures.
If you’re a caravan owner, do you choose to get air conditioning on your caravan that blocks up the roof light and stops the sunlight and breeze to come through, or do you get hot and bothered with the overhead window in the summer? It’s a problem that most caravan owners can face!
However, Dometic, a caravan appliance manufacturer launched the FreshLight2200 which could be an answer to the problem but now there is a smaller version for compact motorhomes and caravans called the Dometic FreshLight 1600.
The Dometic Freshlight 1600 is designed for smaller vehicles up to 6m in length and integrates an air conditioning unit with an overhead roof light, removing the dilemma of which feature to go for.
It features an integrated ventilation and automatic blower system, it cools the caravan with fresh air as well as providing a window, which can even be fitted with a pleated blind to match the rest of your interior design.
As we know, some air conditioning units, mainly the older versions can eat up energy. However, the Dometic FreshLight 1600 is energy efficient and uses just 620 watts to cool and 800 watts when switched to heating mode. Its cooling capacity reaches 1550 watts.
Have you ever considered cooling for your caravan?
It has been claimed that the Government is to use the UK’s most unpredictable feature to promote the country by trying to persuade tourists that the weather is not as bad as they think!
Ministers believe that tourists do not realise that the weather in Britain can be pleasant as other cities like New York and Paris and are launching a marketing campaign to tempt tourists away from their air conditioning units in their hot countries and come to visit us in Britain!
Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, announcing the Government’s “Great” advertising campaign in 14 cities, said, “We have lower rainfall than Paris. We have to make sure people understand the reality about the weather.
“It is not always as hot as New York but much more pleasant. Come and get a suntan in St James’s Park — you’ll find that it is much more pleasant than a crowded beach on the Med.”
According to tourist board VisitBritain, London is drier than New York, Brisbane, Rome and Rio de Janerio, and has a higher minimum daily temperature than Dublin, Toronto and Seattle.
However, we all know that it’s probably not the best time to run the campaign, with the snowfall and freezing weather we’re having, as The Times pointed out.
A Met Office forecaster, Dave Britton, said “If you are not happy with the weather one day, you might be the next.”
Among the “Great” adverts and marketing campaign to promote tourism in Britain include a Union Jack livery on a New York subway train and 200 taxis in Delhi, as well as a giant flag projected onto Sugar Loaf mountain in Rio de Janeiro. Union Station in Toronto will also be covered in posters advertising British heritage and culture.
Hunt also added, “Critics will say we’ve gone berserk in terms of austerity. But we say this is the biggest chance we will have to market Britain in our lifetimes. So we are telling the naysayers to get stuffed and are going for it.”
Most of us in the UK have noticed the delayed winter and plummeting temperatures that has been happening this week, but forecasters have predicted that it will become milder over the weekend.
However, even though it will get milder, the weather is still up and down, as it has been expected that the temperature will still fall below -8C.
Gritting teams, hospitals and emergency services are on maximum alert, with the Meteorological Office predicting “a 100% probability of severe conditions across most of England this week”.
The chillier weather follows the stalling of rain from the west and the Atlantic. An area of high pressure over western Russia and Scandinavia has chilled them and started to move them back on easterly winds.
Forecaster with MeteoGroup, Clare Allen, said, “The easterlies are bringing snow showers off the North Sea, and even London is likely to have a maximum temperature no higher than 4C, so it’s going to be pretty cold.”
There has been severe weather warnings for ice, issued by the Met Office, which are likely to stay in force until Saturday. Allen said, “If people aren’t careful driving, then it could cause disruption. Anywhere that is wet, ice is expected to form.”
The UK has reacted in its traditional way by shopping for cold weather equipment last minute.
Debenhams has reported an increase in thermal underwear by 17%, 16% rise in electric blankets, high tog duvets by 40% and slippers by 49%. However, it seems people in the UK are either going on holiday or expecting the sun to come back out soon as there has also been an 18% rise in demand for swimwear and bikinis. The demand of air conditioning units and fans has remained stable.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health asked for people to keep an eye on their older neighbours. He said, “During this period of cold weather we would advise people to check local weather forecasts for the latest information on weather conditions and staying safe when outdoors.
“We are working closely with the NHS and local authorities to ensure vulnerable people stay well during cold weather and get the help they need within their communities.”
Air conditioning units can be a big investment which is why it is important to keep them maintained to ensure that they run properly and efficiently. As we have moved into spring, summer will be upon us soon enough – which is when many air con unit owners find out they is a problem with theirs.
Even though air conditioning units should be maintained by a professional, there are still a few steps that could be taken to make sure that the air con units are more dependable for years to come! These include keeping your filter clean, clearing your condenser, level the outdoor unit and handling the refrigerant.
Keeping your Filter Clean
Usually air con owners will find out their filter needs changing when there starts to be a bad smell in the air. You can usually smell the dust when they haven’t been cleaned. When it comes to cleaning your window air conditioner, they usually have filters that can be removed and dusted with a clean cloth and running water. Make sure that it is 100% dry before placing it back in the air conditioner. When it is not possible to do this yourself or they need replacing, it’s always best to call a professional.
Cleaning your Condenser
Condensers are usually located on the outside of the building which tends to gather up a lot of dirt. Most air conditioning or fridge retailers will sell a commercial coil cleaner which can be used to easily clean the air con units. Be careful of the fins of the condenser though as they are prone to damage, so just use a soft brush when it comes to cleaning this part. Because of the amount of dirt that usually builds up in the condensers, it’s best not to use water as this dirt can turn into mud when wet!
Level the Outdoor Unit
The units that are outdoors need to be checked to see if they are in a level position as if not, the fan motors and compressor may wear out quicker which is a very costly replacement. If the unit is slightly out of place you can place a temporary shim to hold it up until a professional can come to fix it before it gets severe. If proper caution isn’t taken then trying to level the unstable unit can lead to the copper lines being damaged.
Handling the Refrigerant
The refrigerant used in most air-con units is called Freon, which is if this is too high or too low then there is a possibility that it won’t work. Checking the refrigerant lines running from the condenser to the evaporator will help to see if they are worn and need replacing. However, if there is a suspected Freon problem then a professional will need to sort this out for you.
Remember, it’s always best to call a professional if you are unsure about something to help reduce the risk of any accidents.
More Snowfall Followed by Potential Flooding
Over the weekend and much of the week we have been disrupted by the snow. Just when we thought the worst was behind us, it looks like there are more disruptions ahead. Even though the snow is slowly disappearing, this means it is thawing and with the heavy rainfall that is expected around most of the country, it means there are more risks of flooding again.
50 flood warnings have been issued around the UK as the ice begins to melt and on top of this in some areas ice warnings are still in place. According to forecasters there will be one more final heavy snowfall and hopefully the weather will warm up slightly, don’t go putting your air conditioning units on yet, it won’ be that warm! Temperatures are expected to reach 10C in the south on Sunday. It is believed that the north of England could see 15cm of snow and the south may see up to 5cm.
A spokesman from the Environment Agency, Roy Stokes has some up with a creative and fun way for those who will need to be making preparations for the floods; “Ideally if everybody built themselves a snowman it will slow the thaw down a bit.
“If you notice when people clear their drive the snow thaws away but the compacted piles stay.
“That would give a balanced thaw which would be helpful.” However, after this comment the Environment Agency has said this will make little difference, although it is a nice idea.
Seized DuPont Refrigerants in the UAE
UAE authorities have seized counterfeit refrigerants from a business in Sharjah.
The business, Sunrise Aircondtioning Spare Parts, has been fined and is no longer in business after DuPont and the Dubai Department of Economic Development took some of their products that they use in air conditioning units.
Greg Rubin is the global business manager at DuPont and he has said, “We are approaching the problem of counterfeit refrigerants very aggressively. Counterfeit refrigerants can cause significant business impact including business failure and more importantly can cause physical harm loss of life.”
Overall they confiscated 3,100 units of fake DuPont Suva and 6,000 units of another manufacturer. On top of the fine, Sunrise were also made to pay the storage costs of the goods that had been confiscated as well as the costs of painted and repackaging the products as unbranded so they could be transferred out of the country.
Counterfeit sales are not uncommon in the Emirates and it does happen across a range of industries. Research that was carried out in 2010 suggested that managers who had the responsibility of buying products, nearly half of them had bought fake ones.
Mr Rubin added, “We will continue our global effort to combat counterfeit refrigerants by working diligently with law enforcement in all regions.”
This shows us that just because a product is branded does not mean it is legitimate. Don’t run the risk of your air conditioning units breaking down, or risk causing harm to those around and buy your products from well-known suppliers of trusted brands.
Air Conditioning in an Art Gallery
It is a large white room which is empty apart from two refrigeration units that is keeping the air cool. The piece is called the Air Conditioning Show. The effect may be lost on you if you go in the cold and the wet but we think this is a rather brilliant idea.
Pinned to the wall of the cool room are bits of paper which say, “It is obvious, that the elements of a given framework (and this includes the constitution of construct contexts) are not at all bound to an eliminative specifying system.”
The Air Conditioning Show is among other pieces in the exhibition called Invisible, and is meant to represent when visual art started to become un-visual.
We are excited to see that someone is just as passionate about air conditioning units as we are and that they have actually decided to make some art out of it!
If you get a chance to go down and see the art work, let us know what you think below or tweet us.
Flash Flooding Disrupts Most of the Country
Most of the country has experience serious and continuous downpours over the last 36 hours and they are expected to continue to threaten many homes as rivers break their banks.
The Met Office issued another weather warning this morning as there was 60 mm of rain falling on already saturated ground across Wales and South West England.
Due to the severe weather, Thames Water, Anglian Water and Southern Water will lift their hosepipe bans tomorrow which have been in place since April. The bans were put in place after two consecutive dry winters. A spokesman for Thames Water said, “We have had two-and-a-half times the average rainfall for April, we have had steady showers in May and the monsoon downpours in June. That’s changed things.”
There have been four flood warnings put in place by The Environment Agency on rivers in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and West Sussex. Emergency services in these areas had to help 250 people and rescue centres have been set up where flood water has risen to 6ft.
Many roads resemble rivers now due to the torrential rain and have left cars floating away. The A259, which is near Bognor Regis, and parts of the M3 in Hampshire have been effected which means many closures.
As England has been in drought for the last two years, all this rain has meant that only average levels have actually been reached. This is helping to build up water stock as we experienced the driest March for 70 years this year. Just when we thought summer had come early and we all started to switch our air conditioning units on; we had to turn them off just as quickly.
Today there is predicted to be even more, slow moving, showers across the country although it does seem to be moving north. The chief forecaster at the Met Office, Andy Page said, “Due to the nature of showers, some areas will miss them altogether, but where they do occur, large amounts of rainfall are possible in a short space of time which has the potential to cause flooding.”
Air Conditioning Units brought into the 21st Century
This week Melbourne was host to the Air Conditioning, Refrigeration and Building Services Exhibition. Companies such as Fujitsu, Daikin, Mitsubishi Electric and LG all had new products ranges to show off and they all had one thing in common, the style. All the air conditioning units had been transformed from the traditionally white box, to sleek curves in a range of colours.
Daikin and Fujitsu have both decided on a more streamlined design, with their units having curves and all unnecessary buttons, vents and lights being removed for a minimal design and a smoother effect.
Mitsubishi Electric and LG opted for a change in colour to give consumers more choice and be able to blend the units to the decor of their homes.
Mitsubishi Electric offers the air conditioning units in black and silver. Raja Gounder, the company’s national project manager said “If you have dark walls, the black unit doesn’t stick out as much as a traditional white air conditioner.
“It has a new modern look for modern houses.
“The silver model has also been designed to fit into rooms such as the kitchen, where there are lots of stainless steel appliances.”
LG are offering a similar design for the same reasons with a mirror finish air conditioning unit.
Hopefully this new style of air conditioning units will encourage more and more people to have them in their homes and offices. This will enable better conditions during those hotter months of the year.
Winter or Summer – Who knows?
After our week of sunshine, the weather looks set to change dramatically for us over the next few days. With snow already see in the more Northern parts of England and in Scotland it looks like our early summer hasn’t lasted.
Snow, sleet and rain hounded down on Britain last night and left 10,000 people without any power across the North East of England. There is yellow weather warning for Scotland, Wales, northern England and the Midlands. This is after gale force winds reached 80 mph last night.
According to forecasters, 15 – 20cm of snow fell last night in the Peak District, Pennies and Cumbria and with this kind of weather there are many travel disruptions around.
After writing about the high temperatures in Aboyne last week, this area has also seen 2cm of snow as the weather seems to be playing bizarre tricks on us.
This, however, is a good time to make sure all air conditioning units are functioning as well as they should be. From looking at the dramatic weather changes in the last week, who knows when we will see our next glimpse of summer, could be next week with these changes! By cleaning the units out and getting professionals to check them over as we have previously written about is essential. This is especially true with the weather as unpredictable as it is now. Scorching temperatures in the office without working air conditioning is unbearable.
This cold weather is set to move south leaving behind wintery conditions although there isn’t any forecast snow and we still have a little sunshine and highs of 13 throughout the week. This, at least for the south, is normal March temperatures.
Air Conditioning for Caravan Owners
However, Dometic, a caravan appliance manufacturer launched the FreshLight2200 which could be an answer to the problem but now there is a smaller version for compact motorhomes and caravans called the Dometic FreshLight 1600.
The Dometic Freshlight 1600 is designed for smaller vehicles up to 6m in length and integrates an air conditioning unit with an overhead roof light, removing the dilemma of which feature to go for.
It features an integrated ventilation and automatic blower system, it cools the caravan with fresh air as well as providing a window, which can even be fitted with a pleated blind to match the rest of your interior design.
As we know, some air conditioning units, mainly the older versions can eat up energy. However, the Dometic FreshLight 1600 is energy efficient and uses just 620 watts to cool and 800 watts when switched to heating mode. Its cooling capacity reaches 1550 watts.
Have you ever considered cooling for your caravan?
The Culture Secretary Believes that the British Weather is better than Tourists Think
Ministers believe that tourists do not realise that the weather in Britain can be pleasant as other cities like New York and Paris and are launching a marketing campaign to tempt tourists away from their air conditioning units in their hot countries and come to visit us in Britain!
Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, announcing the Government’s “Great” advertising campaign in 14 cities, said, “We have lower rainfall than Paris. We have to make sure people understand the reality about the weather.
“It is not always as hot as New York but much more pleasant. Come and get a suntan in St James’s Park — you’ll find that it is much more pleasant than a crowded beach on the Med.”
According to tourist board VisitBritain, London is drier than New York, Brisbane, Rome and Rio de Janerio, and has a higher minimum daily temperature than Dublin, Toronto and Seattle.
However, we all know that it’s probably not the best time to run the campaign, with the snowfall and freezing weather we’re having, as The Times pointed out.
A Met Office forecaster, Dave Britton, said “If you are not happy with the weather one day, you might be the next.”
Among the “Great” adverts and marketing campaign to promote tourism in Britain include a Union Jack livery on a New York subway train and 200 taxis in Delhi, as well as a giant flag projected onto Sugar Loaf mountain in Rio de Janeiro. Union Station in Toronto will also be covered in posters advertising British heritage and culture.
Hunt also added, “Critics will say we’ve gone berserk in terms of austerity. But we say this is the biggest chance we will have to market Britain in our lifetimes. So we are telling the naysayers to get stuffed and are going for it.”
Snow Showers and Freezing Temperatures upon Us
However, even though it will get milder, the weather is still up and down, as it has been expected that the temperature will still fall below -8C.
Gritting teams, hospitals and emergency services are on maximum alert, with the Meteorological Office predicting “a 100% probability of severe conditions across most of England this week”.
The chillier weather follows the stalling of rain from the west and the Atlantic. An area of high pressure over western Russia and Scandinavia has chilled them and started to move them back on easterly winds.
Forecaster with MeteoGroup, Clare Allen, said, “The easterlies are bringing snow showers off the North Sea, and even London is likely to have a maximum temperature no higher than 4C, so it’s going to be pretty cold.”
There has been severe weather warnings for ice, issued by the Met Office, which are likely to stay in force until Saturday. Allen said, “If people aren’t careful driving, then it could cause disruption. Anywhere that is wet, ice is expected to form.”
The UK has reacted in its traditional way by shopping for cold weather equipment last minute.
Debenhams has reported an increase in thermal underwear by 17%, 16% rise in electric blankets, high tog duvets by 40% and slippers by 49%. However, it seems people in the UK are either going on holiday or expecting the sun to come back out soon as there has also been an 18% rise in demand for swimwear and bikinis. The demand of air conditioning units and fans has remained stable.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health asked for people to keep an eye on their older neighbours. He said, “During this period of cold weather we would advise people to check local weather forecasts for the latest information on weather conditions and staying safe when outdoors.
“We are working closely with the NHS and local authorities to ensure vulnerable people stay well during cold weather and get the help they need within their communities.”