The UK has been hit with a summer heatwave this week.
Soaring temperatures across the country have prompted the Met Office to issue a rare amber heat warning. The alert is in force from Sunday, July 17 at 1am to Tuesday, July 19 at 11.59pm.
In Liverpool, temperatures are set to rise on Sunday to 26C. Monday will bring 28C heat while on Tuesday temperatures will peak at 29C. Elsewhere in Merseyside, St Helens will see temperatures rise to 32C on Tuesday, Southport is set to record highs of 27C, while Wirral will peak at 30C.
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Many people will be thinking of ways to cope with the sweltering conditions. Auto energy switching service Migrate estimates almost half the population use electric fans to help them stay cool during the hot, summer nights - as Mirror Online reports.
But using a fan overnight can seriously rack up your energy bills. The typical 120w pedestal fan using costs around 3.4p an hour to run on average, according to Uswitch.
That might not sound like much, but it soon adds up. Leaving the fan on between 10pm and 8am would cost you around 33p in energy costs .
Doing that for a whole week would cost £2.35 - 75p more than last summer, thanks to rising energy costs. But even the cost of running a fan is tiny compared to air conditioning units.
A portable air con unit costs around 28p an hour in energy costs - that's £19.60 if you use it every night for a week. Of course, if you don't want to use a fan - or discover you can't get one - there are other ways to stay cool.
Other methods of avoiding restless nights include opening a bedroom window, sleeping without bedcovers, sleeping in separate beds, freezing or filling a hot water bottle with ice water, and switching to a lower tog rated duvet.
How to keep cool at night
Take a cold shower before bed
Keep bedroom blinds and curtains closed during the day to block out the sun
Use a spray bottle filled with cold water for a cooling mist on demand
Create a DIY air conditioner by putting a bowl of ice in front of a fan
Chill a pair of socks in the fridge and putting them on before bed
Max Green, an energy expert at Confused.com, said: "This year the discomfort isn't limited to the night; many homeworkers won't be able to benefit from the perfectly adjusted air conditioning systems of their employer's offices.
"The stifling heat can confuse our judgement when it comes to deciding whether to fork out for an expensive cooling system. They can be costly to buy and run, and are only useful for the few hot days the UK experiences every year."
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