Reddit mentions of Frigidaire FRA053PU1 5,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner

How about using a portable air conditioner? They don't sit in a window; instead they just sit on the floor. A small one like this might do the trick for you. I included that amazon.com link so you could read the reviews. That particular model is available in Canada at places like Leon's, Sears, Corbeil, to name a few, according to frigidaire.ca.

Good luck on your search!

Get something like this.. They do need a vent out the window but you can make that out of plywood and it wouldn't damage anything.

I'd really recommend not doing the cooler with ice thing, it's extremely inefficient and won't cool for very long.

That mini AC is not going to do much... Are you able to pump cold air from either Central Air or a Window AC unit?

Also what are you doing with the Exhaust air? Pumping back into the same room, outside, different room?

If you cannot pipe air from a Window AC or Central Air and you are already venting your exhaust to a different room/outside you will need something like this to cool down the room your intake pulls from.

I've been a renter in Texas but I'm not a lawyer, so best of luck to you.

Texas Property Code 92.052(3)(a) says that the "landlord shall make a diligent effort to repair or remedy a condition" which "materially affects the physical health or safety of an ordinary tenant." Air conditioning doesn't automatically fall under this requirement because the law treats it as an amenity, not a requirement. However, common law (that is, court decisions) have generally recognized that air conditioning "materially affects" a tenant when a heat emergency has been declared by the National Weather Service twice in a month or if a power utility would otherwise be barred from disconnecting service to a delinquent customer. (I'm not saying you are a delinquent customer, the power companies have restrictions on disconnections that some courts also see as a useful measure for what affects a tenant. Even if a heat emergency hasn't been declared, if your apartment is hotter than is "reasonable" (I've heard this be considered as low as 90F), you may still have a right under the law to repair and deduct or move.

In order to use what few rights you have in this situation, you must follow very specific steps. The Texas Young Lawyers Association Tenants' Rights Handbook has details and the Austin Tenants' Council has a packet of sample letters you can try.

Your lease may require the landlord to fix the air conditioning, however most leases leave very few remedies for the tenant. Your only realistic option against a landlord where the lease is being violated is to sue in JP court.

Texas renters have very, very few rights, especially for living in such a warm climate several months out of the year. The law says that property owners are the rulers of the roost; tenants are merely tolerated as an outgrowth of a right of property owners to lease certain rights. Ultimately, you may find that spending $300 on a portable air conditioner and toughing it out until the end of your lease is the most efficient use of your time.

You can be sneaky about this - don't get a "window ac unit", get a "portable ac unit" that sits on the floor and has a hose that goes out the window for exhaust. http://www.amazon.com/Frigidaire-FRA053PU1-000-Portable-Conditioner/dp/B004P8K39G/ref=lp_1193678_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1374251823&sr=1-3

This model seems appropriate.

The HOA allows through wall? Seems weird.

I suspect a portable would be fine.

They're pretty inexpensive these days.

Ok. Everyone's bitchin.

"Oh but ye olden Britain isn't prepared for a heatwave!"

Well. I've been around for more than a couple of decades.

"Unprepared" Britain (and the EU in general) seems to have heatwaves for which they are unprepared fairly regularly.

Like, every other year recently.

Is it really that hard to get a portable air conditioner, or as the Brits call them "Air Con Balamadamadingdongs", or as the Germans say "KlimaanlageGerätgroßerKühleZufriedenheitBoxGefühl" for $279 (£182.94, €212.75) and keep it in a god damned closet while not in use or something?

It seems that would be preferable to dying.

How can you be unprepared for something that happens almost every other year?

• 2003 European Heat Wave (70,000 dead)
  
• 2006 European Heat Wave (1000 dead in The Netherlands alone)
  
• 2007 European Heat Wave
  
• 2011 UK Heat Wave
  
• the other 2011 UK Heat Wave
  
• 2012 UK Heat Wave
  
  If your country's electrical grid is so fragile that it can't handle all of the air con balamadamadingdongs then at least get an evaporative chiller or swamp cooler, they use very little electricity and you can even put one together from parts yourself.
  
  70,000 people dying because "it isn't hot here some of the time" is as stupid as living in an area where you only get heavy snowfall every other year and not owning a snow shovel because "it never happens here".

Get a floor standing model that just puts it's exhaust out the window. I have one. And it's got a big exhaust vent hose that comes out the back of it, like out of your dryer. The exhaust hose connects to a flat piece of plastic that you mount in the window. You can do anything you want with the plastic piece, so you can make it fit your specific requirements. Here's the one I bought from amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Frigidaire-FRA053PU1-000-Portable-Conditioner/dp/B004P8K39G/ref=sr_1_16?s=appliances&ie=UTF8&qid=1398374519&sr=1-16&keywords=portable+air+conditioner