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Best portable air conditioners UK 2026 — and which are actually in stock
Every summer the good portable ACs sell out within hours of a heatwave. Here are the units worth buying, how to size one for your room, and how to get one before it's gone again.
A portable air conditioner is the quickest way to cool a UK room that wasn't built for 35°C. You wheel it in, vent the hot air out of a window, and it actually drops the temperature — unlike a fan, which just moves warm air around. The catch: the best models are made by a small number of brands, and when the mercury climbs they vanish from Currys, AO and Amazon almost immediately. Below are the ones we'd actually buy, then a quick guide to sizing and running costs.
The picks
MeacoCool MC Series Pro 9000
The unit most people should buy — 9,000 BTU cools a typical bedroom or office (16–26 m²), it's quiet, and Meaco's build quality is a step above the supermarket brands.
Track stock →Meaco Cirro 12000
Around 45 dB in quiet mode — genuinely bearable to sleep next to. 12,000 BTU suits rooms up to 30 m². The one to get if noise is your dealbreaker.
Track stock →Meaco Pro 16000
16,000 BTU for large living rooms and open-plan spaces up to 40 m². Overkill for a bedroom, exactly right for a hot south-facing lounge.
Track stock →Russell Hobbs RHPAC
7,000 BTU for small rooms under 20 m². It won't match a Meaco for noise or efficiency, but it cools, and it's half the price.
Track stock →How many BTU do you actually need?
BTU is the cooling power. Too few and the unit runs flat out and never catches up; too many and you've overpaid and the room feels clammy. A rough UK rule of thumb is about 340 BTU per square metre, then add a bit for a sunny, south-facing room or a top-floor flat that bakes under the roof.
- Up to 18 m² (small bedroom, study): 7,000–9,000 BTU
- 18–28 m² (double bedroom, home office): 9,000–12,000 BTU
- 28–40 m² (living room, open-plan): 12,000–16,000 BTU
Our BTU calculator does this for you — give it your room size and sun exposure and it points you at the right rating.
What does it cost to run?
A portable AC pulls roughly 1 kW for every 9,000 BTU. At a typical UK electricity price, running a 9,000 BTU unit costs in the region of 25–30p an hour — so a few pounds across a hot evening, not a fortune. Look for an "inverter" model if you'll run it for long stretches; they modulate power instead of cycling fully on and off, which is quieter and cheaper over time.
Why they keep selling out
Demand for portable AC in the UK is wildly seasonal. Retailers stock cautiously because most of the year nobody wants one — then a heatwave hits, everyone buys at once, and the good models are gone in hours. They do restock, often several times across a hot spell, but the windows are short. The trick isn't refreshing the page; it's being told the moment stock lands.
Get told the second your model is back
AirconAlert watches Currys, AO, Amazon and John Lewis and emails you the instant a sold-out unit is back in stock. Free, one email when it lands.
Set a free stock alert →Prices are approximate RRPs and change with stock and season. This guide contains affiliate links — we may earn a small commission at no cost to you, and it never affects which products we recommend.