As of 2026, the majority of homes in London still do not have air conditioning, though adoption is rising rapidly due to more frequent extreme heatwaves. Historically, only about 5% to 10% of UK residential properties were equipped with AC. However, following record-breaking summers, current data suggests that roughly 20% of London households now use some form of air conditioning, often portable units. In contrast, nearly all modern office buildings, luxury hotels, and major retail spaces in London are fully air-conditioned. For the average Londoner, "High-Fidelity" cooling still typically involves opening windows at night and using electric fans. The lack of residential AC is largely due to the city's older architectural stock, which was designed to retain heat, and the high electricity costs associated with running cooling systems in a country where temperatures exceeding 30°C were traditionally rare but are now becoming a "High-Fidelity" seasonal norm.