Long Hot Summer - Portable Air Conditioning Units

moonrakerz

I have had two different portable units in my lounge over the last 10 years or so. I rapidly came to the conclusion that using the hose supplied with the unit was a complete and utter waste of time ! Like trying to bail out the Atlantic with a colander !

The hose gets so hot after a while, most of the heat you have just extracted from the room is radiated back into the room from the hose.

Solution:- stand the unit right up against the wall , mark where the vent comes out of the machine, cut a circular hole through the wall then use a short length of rigid pipe to vent the hot air out of the house. Put one of those plastic covers for a tumble drier vent on the outside wall.
I've found the best thing to get a good seal between the unit and the rigid pipe is to use a waste pipe from a toilet (preferably a new one !!) with the rubber gasket on it.
I have about 2 inches of pipe between my unit and the wall so next to no heat comes back into the room.

Phil3822

moonrakerz, thanks for that solution. Might well give that a try. How would I cut a whole that size in the wall. Jus looking for more info on how to do this. Not very good at this type of thing!

moonrakerz

Phil3822 wrote: »

moonrakerz, thanks for that solution. Might well give that a try. How would I cut a whole that size in the wall. Jus looking for more info on how to do this. Not very good at this type of thing!

You can either hire a drill & cutter from a tool hire shop, or (what I did) drill a ring of holes round the circumference of the hole then knock the middle out and use a chisel to get a (reasonably) round hole.
To some extent this does depend on the hardness of the bricks/blocks in your wall. Modern insulating blocks are very soft, bricks vary from type to type. I wouldn't recommend this method if you live in Aberdeen and have a house built of granite blocks !

OneBrightStar

OneBrightStar

How can I buy tis split unit from Makro if I dont have a membership?

martint123

CuteEvil wrote: »

How can I buy tis split unit from Makro if I dont have a membership?

Find someone who does. Don't forget to add VAT as well.
Also don't forget it is a trade warehouse so your consumer rights are somewhat reduced.

mjr600

Over the last few days I have used the 1200btu unit 'in anger' to cool the bedrooms before the kids went bed and then wheeled it into the main bedroom to do the same for Mrs mjr and myself.

The unit was left on for an hour in each case, the lowest speed fan setting was used and it was in manual not automatic mode. Temperature in both cases was a sticky 25 at the start of the hour and a pleasant 18 at the end. The compressor did not run for the whole hour but once at the desired temperature it alternated between fan and air con.

The unit was then turned off, door and window closed and a great nights sleep was had.

Air conditioning is invaluable if you like me have bedrooms with an aspect which cooks them and certainly they do not have to be left on all night thereby negating arguements of noise and cost.

To date there still does not appear to be a better buy 12000btu unit than that from 24Electric from whom I have also had my Quidco cashback paid.

Well that's all from me, if you find a better deal post up for other MSE.

mrs_scrooge

Thank you for this thread.
Unfortunately as soon as I saw it and decided to buy one the unit I want went out of stock!

Mr_No

I've had 2 different models of portable and 1 split unit (which I bought just over 2 years ago). The cheap "DIY" split unit systems are very easy to install and are much more effective (not to mention tidier). With Makro selling them for £249/299+VAT, they're well worth a purchase. :T

jtotheb

I'm trying to find a window adapter for the mistral unit - in fact, I'm trying to find anywhere that sells ANY kind of window adapter unit.

Has anyone found anything suitable?