Portable air con

Rob

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These free standing units any good. Dreading the hot nights again, had a quick look on B&Q seem to vary from £200 :D to about £800 :(

even the cheap one seems to big for my little bedroom...

I cant stand fans!
 
They are noisy. Theres no escaping that fact. I have one, I run it for a few hours on maximum before i go to bed, and then switch it off. Gets me off to sleep ok, butby the morning its stifling again!

For through the night cooling, get a fixed split unit. Even the DIY ones are pretty decent, ours is still going strong 2 years on. Bear in mind the DIY ones are louder than professionally fitted units, theres more noise from the louvre motor and the fan itself. A professionally fited one would probably set you back £1k, DIY £300-600.

Also bear in mind, the all-in-one units have an exhaust hose, which must be stuck out a window and the gap bunged up with sheets or clothes or polystyrene lol. Or make a hole in the wall, but this defeats the portability of the unit!
 
Can't praise my portable unit highly enough. 3 years old now and still going strong. Has been worth every penny of the £250 I paid for it. Sure they aren't silent (you get used to it), but it is superb being tucked up in bed under the duvet in the middle of Summer.
Mine's piped through the wall and is therefore not portable but I didn't buy it so that I could move it about - I bought it cause it was cheap. If it broke today, I'd buy another tomorrow - can't say fairer than that.

Edit: that one in your link looks fine.
 
The split types can be DIY'd, the refrigerant is compressed into the outdoor unit on delivery. When you connect the hose from the indoor unit, the gas is free to circulate. The connection is a quick-connect self sealing coupling. Anyone can do it. :wink:

I'd liken the noise from an integral air con unit to trying to sleep on an aircraft sat over the wing. :lol: Same sort of noise level.
 
gcol said:
Can't praise my portable unit highly enough. 3 years old now and still going strong. Has been worth every penny of the £250 I paid for it. Sure they aren't silent (you get used to it), but it is superb being tucked up in bed under the duvet in the middle of Summer.
Mine's piped through the wall and is therefore not portable but I didn't buy it so that I could move it about - I bought it cause it was cheap. If it broke today, I'd buy another tomorrow - can't say fairer than that.

Edit: that one in your link looks fine.
Which model have you got? My son want one in the loft conversion bedroom, it's like a sauna up there and is the running cost okay?
 
Which model have you got? My son want one in the loft conversion bedroom, it's like a sauna up there and is the running cost okay?

Do you have a loft water tank and vented hot water cylinder and some space for another tank

If so give some thought to a pre heater tank for the hot water. A fan circulates the hot air through a heat exchanger to warm the water in the pre heat tank and returns the cool air to the room.
 
Not quite sure what you mean, is there a drawing or plan I can look at?

I have a cold storage tank and F&E expansion tank with indirect hot water cylinder.
 
A 16" fan sitting on the window board before an open window is the business. The UK is blessed, most of the time, with beautifully cool nights through dawn.. Windows closed / blinds pulled on the sunnyside, open up the shadey side..
At night upstairs windows and doors open for any natch crossflow, aided with the window based fan blowing in or out depending on the natch flow at the time.
Piece of cake... For many.
:wink:
 
empip, all sounds good, but i have a bay window with no windowsill! :(

I have done that before though, the old fan trick, back when I had furniture in the bay window  8)
 
open windows are ok provided you don't have a couple of mature scots pines very nearby. if one of the children happens to leave the light on, in our white tiled bathroom, it ends up like an insect zoo! same applies to our bedroom. open windows is a no no.

then at 4 or 5 in the morning, we have the coo coo chorus from the pigeons and doves. :evil:

aaaahhh, sweet birdsong.
 
masona said:
gcol said:
Can't praise my portable unit highly enough. 3 years old now and still going strong. Has been worth every penny of the £250 I paid for it. Sure they aren't silent (you get used to it), but it is superb being tucked up in bed under the duvet in the middle of Summer.
Mine's piped through the wall and is therefore not portable but I didn't buy it so that I could move it about - I bought it cause it was cheap. If it broke today, I'd buy another tomorrow - can't say fairer than that.

Edit: that one in your link looks fine.
Which model have you got? My son want one in the loft conversion bedroom, it's like a sauna up there and is the running cost okay?
Pretty sure it's an Amcor or something like that - I'll post tomorrow (save me going upstairs now and waking the missus), and I think it uses about 300W. Of course this figure may change tomorrow when I read the back of the machine. :wink: I think it's either an 8 or 9000 btu thingy. You son will love you forever if you get him one. :D
 
Crafty said:
9000 BTU will be about 1kw of 'lectric. They have pretty big compressors.

Is that full power though? Im assuming they have variable settings?
 
Crafty said:
The split types can be DIY'd, the refrigerant is compressed into the outdoor unit on delivery. When you connect the hose from the indoor unit, the gas is free to circulate. The connection is a quick-connect self sealing coupling. Anyone can do it. :wink:

I'd liken the noise from an integral air con unit to trying to sleep on an aircraft sat over the wing. :lol: Same sort of noise level.

Less so, the industry is gearing up for total registration of refrigerants their handling , working on equipment which incorporate refrigerant, disposal etc etc.
There has been big discussions with the likes of B&Q promoting splits as 'self install' which is environmentally dangerous and opens the unskilled to a 2 year prison sentence for mis handling a controlled hazardous waste.

The trade sees some horrendous sights from self installers and more than a few suggest the regulations can't come quick enough...

Cheers

Richard
 
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