Portable air conditioning unit?

Buster_Danog

Has anyone used one of these in a flat successfully? I know Homebase and other places sell them, but I understand you need to have the hot air hose pipe fitted to an open window to get rid of hot air the unit creates when creating the cool air.

What concerns me is one review said that the pipe itself heats up to over 100 degrees and therefore it needs to be short otherwise it gives off too much heat, so the unit needs to be right next to the window. Anyone know if this is true?

I am in a flat, which gets fairly hot even in the current weather in London and I am concerned that it will be unbearably hot when summer comes.

Myser

Sergeant_Troy wrote: »

Has anyone used one of these in a flat successfully? I know Homebase and other places sell them, but I understand you need to have the hot air hose pipe fitted to an open window to get rid of hot air the unit creates when creating the cool air.

What concerns me is one review said that the pipe itself heats up to over 100 degrees and therefore it needs to be short otherwise it gives off too much heat, so the unit needs to be right next to the window. Anyone know if this is true?

I am in a flat, which gets fairly hot even in the current weather in London and I am concerned that it will be unbearably hot when summer comes.

You need to choose the output of the air-conditioner unit based on the room size you are trying to cover. The pipe will get quite warm as it expels the warm air. 100°F maybe?

It will need to be fairly close to the window - this depends on the vent pipe length supplied. Some units are designed to be mounted on vertically opening windows for flats.

yangptangkipperbang

I have had a couple of these units and using the flexi hose though a window is a bit of a problem.
The hose can get very hot and if you have a window open some of the heat outside will come back in that way as well. To some extent you end up in a vicious circle - running the air conditioner to remove the heat that the air conditioner has produced !

The most efficient way to do it - done this in my last two houses, is to drill a hole through an outside wall (same size as the flexi pipe 4" or 6") and set the unit right in front of the hole, with a short length of pipe straight through the wall. You end up with about 2" of hot pipe in the room.
Of course if you are renting the property your landlord may not be happy with large holes drilled through his wall

Buster_Danog

Hole in wall / hole in double glazing is not an option. The window seems to have the hinge at the top rather than the middle so I would have an easier time trying to fit the pipe out of the window and block off any openings, but by my guess work that it will be seriously tricky work. I am not sure what material could form a seal to the outside anyway. Maybe some plastic with duct tape.

I'm sure I seen one unit where they had supplied an adaptation to the end of the hosepipe so it attached to a wider flattened section at the end which then meant you only had to open the window slightly to get it out. It looked a bit like some vaccum cleaner hose adapters.

Myser

Sergeant_Troy wrote: »

I'm sure I seen one unit where they had supplied an adaptation to the end of the hosepipe so it attached to a wider flattened section at the end which then meant you only had to open the window slightly to get it out. It looked a bit like some vaccum cleaner hose adapters.

Yes, some units do come with adapters to semi-permanently attach the pipe to vertically opening/closing windows.

paddyrg

You can also do wonders with a bit of thin plywood, a jigsaw, some glue, and a bit of ingenuity

Mr_Ted

:)You also have to consider you will need something at low level to collect the condensate from the unit which can be quite a lot dependant on humidity levels;)

yangptangkipperbang

Mr_Ted wrote: »

:)You also have to consider you will need something at low level to collect the condensate from the unit which can be quite a lot dependant on humidity levels;)

My last model had the hot air blowing over the collected condensate inside the unit, so the moisture evaporated and went out with the hot air - never needed emptying.

Buster_Danog

yangptangkipperbang wrote: »

My last model had the hot air blowing over the collected condensate inside the unit, so the moisture evaporated and went out with the hot air - never needed emptying.

Any idea what model this was?

yangptangkipperbang

Sergeant_Troy wrote: »

Any idea what model this was?

Can't remember the model; the make was Airforce and I got in in B & Q about 6 or 7 years back.

It did have a little drain hose at the back at floor level with a plastic plug in it held in place with a metal circlip. Never used it.