Long Hot Summer - Portable Air Conditioning Units

ukdoctor

Deleted_User wrote: »

As I don't get home till 0700 I don't wanna wait 2 hours before going to bed. I've got rid of my units anyway and currently use a ceiling fan in the summer when I'm sleeping during the day. Although it only moves the air about and doesn't cool it - it DOES however cool the body nicely when you are lying beneath it. It also has 3 speeds including hurricane force.

And it is totally silent.

My portable units were trumped up as being an effective alternative to full air con - but almost as soon as they were switched on the noisy fans would kick in.

I didn't find them that effective to be honest - although having said that they were an 'end of line' sale item in B&Q a few years back so things may have improved since then.

From a moneysaving point of view - if you can put up with the heat the rest of the time and you only want the cooling aspect for sleeping better in the hot weather - get a ceiling fan. It's much cheaper to buy and run.

You are right. A ceiling fan is the best option and cheapest.But I cant do it as I am in rented accommodation .


Recent models of Portable AC's are definitely better. you have a 24 hour digital timer. So i can set mine up and it will be on when I reach home. Another trick is to keep it on compressor mode at a low setting. If you keep it on Auto it cycles between AC and fan and is more noisy.

In low setting in compressor mode I feel it is quieter than a table fan.

gavinp

A tip for people with portable air conditioners - buy some clothes pegs (the wider they open, the better) and then use them to "seal" around the vent pipe using your curtains. We also peg the curtains to the window sill. The aim is to make the window "airtight" with minimal air coming in through the window. As well as making the room cooler, it also means the a/c unit doesn't have to work as hard and therefore uses less power. It is surprising how effective this approach is...

We bought two of the cheapest Argos/Homebase units last year for £150 each (they are "A" rated for energy efficiency) and although fairly noisy, if it is hot enough to need them, you are more than happy to put up with the noise! Although split units are undoubtedly better, you can buy several portable units to cool a couple of rooms for the price of one split unit fitted!

We also have ceiling fans which work well 90% of the time but when it is really hot and humid, they just move the hot air around - a proper air conditioner allows you to sleep!

Thanks

Gavin

antlane

mjr600 wrote: »

I've searched as many suppliers, shops, price comparision sites and the rest to find what I think are the most bang for your buck. One is a 9000btu unit at £170 delivered, the other is a 12000btu unit at £190 delivered and they should be more than capable for most home uses. They are available from the same supplier 24electric who in my very recent experience have good customer service. As an example B&Q have a silver coloured 12000btu unit on sale in store at £269.

Is it definitely a 12000BTU unit? All the websites that are selling this state that it's a 1200BTU which I can't believe is correct. Are they all referring to the same incorrect information?

martint123

antlane wrote: »

Is it definitely a 12000BTU unit? All the websites that are selling this state that it's a 1200BTU which I can't believe is correct. Are they all referring to the same incorrect information?

I think it's a typo. When I was looking 1200 was the generic model number rather than the BTU rating.

planetf1

When looking at BTU's note that there are two methods in use for coming up with the number
a) enthalpy method
b) EN14511

Numbers quoted to a) vary a lot, which is why in the EU we have b) - from what I understand this is the best number to use for comparison. Usually b << a

When I was shopping for units I emailed suppliers to get the EU rating label - this gives standard power consumption/efficiency/noise/cooling numbers which at least can be compared.

I ended up going for the Robert Dyas model - 12000 BTU / 3.5kW on the En14511 scale, which is pretty good for a standalone model.

MikePass

Just thought I'd report back on the 24electric 12000BTU model. Ordered mine last week, it turned up on Wednesday.

It had been dropped at some point though, and it's castors were broken. Told 24electric by email on Wednesday night. They rang me on my mobile on Thursday and said they'd get it picked up on Friday and would then have a new one to me by Tuesday.

No-one came on Friday, but it's Monday and I've just received the new one, and the broken one was collected at the same time.

So 24electric get my vote for good customer service :-)

It is bigger than I expected, and therefore not as portable as I'd hoped. But it does blow lots of nice cold air - and that's the important bit for me.

martint123

Mine sounds like Concorde taking off when it's running, even on slow speed. The pipe isn't long enough to reach the opening window (top of frame). It has a considerable weight, so I have my doubts about alternating between living rooms and bedrooms. It does churn out lots of cold air though.

blatisingh

martint123 wrote: »

Mine sounds like Concorde taking off when it's running, even on slow speed. The pipe isn't long enough to reach the opening window (top of frame). It has a considerable weight, so I have my doubts about alternating between living rooms and bedrooms. It does churn out lots of cold air though.

Ive used one of these for 4 years now:

1) They are noisy - no doubts about it but you do get used to it and i can sleep with it on no problem
2) They do work - they bring the temp down form 32 degrees to 19 last summer - i wouldtake the noise over the heat any day

i would not be able to survive without them now

stevescottlondon

Thanks for the heads-up on this unit, I bought one as soon as it was posted and It arrived 5 days later.
I live right in the centre of London and , in the Summer, air conditioning is DEFINATELY needed as it is impossible to sleep at night as there in no breeze whatsoever and the brick and concrete of the city never cools enough from the daytime heat. The city continues to radiate heat, even at night time.
Last year I bought a second hand 9000BTU unit from eBay but found that it was not enough to get my room, which is small anyway, really cool.
When this unit arrived, in the heat wave that we had a couple of weeks ago, the sheer power of this unit cooled my room down from 24degress to 18degrees (which I chose to set it on) within 20minutes. It does its' job brilliantly and as far as I am concerned, it is worth its' weight in gold!
Now, the drawbacks when considering purchasing......
As I think has been explained in the forum before, this type of unit needs to have its' vent hose hung outside. You see , the unit cools the internal air and forces HOT air and the condensed moisture collected from within your room, out through the vent hose. The vent hose is a large , approx 6inches accross by 5ft long "tube". (Don't take these measurements as exact, they are only guestimates). The tube is circular and corrugated so that it "stretches" from about 1 foot to the full 5ft length. This circular ,corrugated vent hose has a large plastic moulding on the end and the molding itself changes from the 6" circular diameter (where it accepts the vent hose from the unit) into an approx 6" tall by 3" wide oval shape.
The vent hose is meant to be directed outside in some sort of fashion. It MUST go outside to expell the hot air and moisture. If you left it inside you would simply be blowing the hot air and moisture back into the room, which defeats the purpose!
Luckily for me , the bottom half of my patio door is wooden, so, I can cut a hole in it and push the vent hose outside. If you hung it out of an open window you would somehow need to plug the gaps surrounding the hose to stop the outside air coming back into your room.
Now, one of the problems with this unit is , it does not ship with a template for you to drill the hole in your external wall to get the correct size! Someone told me you can pick up external hole templates and fittings in B&Q etc...but I have not checked up on this. I am lucky that I already had an external hole and fitting in place from my previous unit, so I just use that.
Although the unit is portable (it is on castors) you'd need to have each of the rooms that you wanted to use this unit in, set up with an external hole (or window) to accept the vent hose. Personally, I am not going to go knocking holes throughout my hose, through partitions, bricks or cutting windows, just so I can move the unit around. I just have the unti located in the living room, where I spend most of my time and then I sleep on the sofabed in the living room on hot Summer nights. (Last year I spent about 30 nights on the sofabed!)
Yes, the unit is noisy (most portable units are) but,in my experience, your brain processes what the noise is, over the course of a few nights, and you soon "block" it out. A bit like people who live on main roads, or under flight paths. You soon become accostomed and the noise fails to disturb you. Yet, invite a visitor to stay and they will have a noisy, sleepless night!
So, to summarise, most of the "problems" pointed out are not specific to this unit, they can be attributed to ALL portable air conditioners on the market.
The ONLY gripe that I'd have with this unit is that It does not ship with the external vent template and fittings.
Otherwise, it is really powerful, it does its' job brilliantly and, at the price, is an absolute bargain.

salthegal

hi guys, got one of these.

anyone know of any 'vent kit' things that are for sale on the internet etc which we could use with this unit. Thinking of using this in the lounge and conservatory, so dont mind drilling through the wall to set up tidy two vent things in the rooms.

any advice would be greatly appreciated, would prefer to now have it out the window if possible.

sal:)