Quest for Air Conditioning

Recently I have been trying to buy an Air Conditioning unit because last summer was too hot. July 2006 was the hottest summer ever recorded in Britain and predictions are that this year will be no better. So I have set a target of having air conditioning by the end of February (that is next month).

My requirements for an Air Conditioning unit are:

1. Be Just Air Conditioning Unit
   I am not settling for anything that circulates water around a fan, water sprayer or any other device like a humidifier. And then there are a lot of units that do extra stuff like HEPA Filtering which seems conflicts with point three. So I want just an air conditioner solely for air conditioning purposes.
   
   
2. Have Thermostat
   I do not want to be playing around with dials or a remote control all the time, plus having a thermostat will reduce the unit's power consumption down to only what is necessary.
   
   
3. Be Cheap (under £300)
   I only intend on using the unit for a few weeks in the hottest month of the year (July) so obviously I do not wish to pay for a permanent unit to be installed in the house. And having a crappy air conditioning unit is still going to be much better than having no air conditioning unit. So even if it only just has enough power to bring the temperature of one room down to near 24'C then I will be very happy.

These requirements might not seem extreme, but trying to find anywhere that sells one has been very hard. Nobody seems to have anything in stock. I assume this is because of the weather being cold right now.

For the past six years in a row I have been considering getting air conditioning every year during the hottest two weeks of the year, but last year was the first year I made a concerted effort to find something. Even then everywhere was out of stock, but obviously for another reason so this year will be different.