Scots looking to enjoy the summer season have been treated to some glorious weather recently - with this weekend seeing the highest temperature recorded so far.
Revellers in Glasgow managed to enjoy a scorching 29.3C on Sunday, July 10, and it looks like the nice weather is set to continue for the rest of the week, despite cooling down. Reports from The Met Office have suggested that, while some parts of the country will remain in the low 20s, other areas of Scotland are set to bake in temperatures past 25C.
With the entire UK in the middle of a heatwave right now, it is understandable why so many of us might be looking for ways to keep cool at night - because there is nothing worse than being too hot while trying to sleep.
One way to keep cool is to pop on an electric fan by your bed - but what does that mean for your electric bills? Auto energy switching service Migrate estimates almost half the population use electric fans to help them stay cool during the hot, summer nights.
With households grappling with rising prices caused by the cost of living crisis, many might find that an electric fan will add on to their already high energy bills.
And it looks like using a fan at night may not be a good idea for our bills, with one price comparison site saying that it could cost over £2 a week to run. The typical 120w pedestal fan using costs around 3.4p an hour to run on average, according to Uswitch, reports The Mirror.
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
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Take a cold shower before bed
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Keep bedroom blinds and curtains closed during the day to block out the sun
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Use a spray bottle filled with cold water for a cooling mist on demand
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Create a DIY air conditioner by putting a bowl of ice in front of a fan
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Chill a pair of socks in the fridge and putting them on before bed
"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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