Air conditioning/portable/air cooler

Ectophile

Portable aircon units with a single hose aren't terribly efficient.

The hose is used to blast hot air out of the room.  But that leaves the problem of where that air is coming from.

In short, one side of the aircon unit is chilling the air in the room, while the other is sucking out the nicely chilled air, and blowing it out of the window.  That will draw in plenty more uncomfortably warm air through the open window or elsewhere.

AFF8879

Ectophile said:

Portable aircon units with a single hose aren't terribly efficient.

The hose is used to blast hot air out of the room.  But that leaves the problem of where that air is coming from.

In short, one side of the aircon unit is chilling the air in the room, while the other is sucking out the nicely chilled air, and blowing it out of the window.  That will draw in plenty more uncomfortably warm air through the open window or elsewhere.

You can buy these cheap portable seals online; they’re ugly as sin but do a great job keeping the hot air out especially with some blackout curtains drawn too. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mobile-air-conditioner-soft-cloth/

I have this unit I bought a few years ago, it’s still going strong and, if anything, works a bit too well (I have to turn it off after a couple of hours or open doors to other rooms as otherwise it gets too chilly, even when not on the lowest setting) https://www.aeg.co.uk/vacuums-home-comfort/air-comfort/air-conditioners/portable-air-conditioner/axp26u558hw/ although I notice it’s over £200 more expensive than when I bought it in 2019…

markin

Ectophile said:

Portable aircon units with a single hose aren't terribly efficient.

The hose is used to blast hot air out of the room.  But that leaves the problem of where that air is coming from.

In short, one side of the aircon unit is chilling the air in the room, while the other is sucking out the nicely chilled air, and blowing it out of the window.  That will draw in plenty more uncomfortably warm air through the open window or elsewhere.

My second unit, now on its second year is at the top of the stairs, An area that over heats and would normally happily hit 32c and stay 28c all night long, But this small unit now keeps the entire house at a more comfortable 21-24c and can clearly cope with the hot air it sucks in from just below the exit vent. And no open windows in the rest of the house. 

Same problem and set up in my bedroom, I have a 100mm hole in my window cover to perfectly match the exit air flow and it cools the incoming air so the room stays 21c with the air being sucked in being 29c, It mixes and gets cooled.

I am planning a mini split for the living room but its main purpose is for heating not cooling. ( all electric house)

Soot2006

I invested in a Climachill portable unit in Summer 2020 during a few unbearable days. I've used it maybe a total of 10 times since buying it, but the quality of life increase has absolutely been worth it. I leave mine on for 3 hours; Usually nights round here are cool as I'm by the coast, so as long as I can get to midnight, then I'm OK with an open window again. I bought one with a timer so I can go to sleep and forget about it. If I wake up a bit stuffy after it's turned off, I open the window, or if it's a rare hot night I might turn it back on again. It does cool my bedroom real quick. I don't have a window seal, but close the blinds and curtains over the top so it doesn't leave a huge amount for air traffic.

QrizB

If you're in an actual shop, or on one of the better websites, the air conditioners should all have an ErP label like this:

The four boxes at the bottom tell you the performance.

• Top-left: total cooling power. Inconveniently, air conditioners are frequently rated in the US units of BTU/hr but the ErP labels are in kW. There are 3400BTU/hr in a kW, and 10000BTU/hr is roughly 3kW.
• Top-right: EER, energy efficiency ratio. Bigger numbers are better. This is how many watts of cooling you get for each watt of input power. 3.6 is pretty good for a single-hose portable unit. I've got an older unit and I think it's rated at 2.6, which isn't great.
• Bottom-left: how noisy it is. Smaller numbers are better.
• Bottom-right: energy consumption, in kWh per hour (or, put another way, the average power in kW).
  

The top-left, top-right and bottom-right boxes are all related; divide 2.5 by 0.7 and you get 3.6.

givememoney

QrizB this is great, thank you very much

givememoney

This is the spec for the one I was considering, can't quite tally it up with the info above apart from the decibels.

Rechi Compressor
12000btu (3.5 Kw) Heating & Cooling
Timer Facility
1.2 L/H evaporative dehumidifier
Adjustable thermostat
Loss of power protection and on-board memory
3 speed fan
Infra-Red Remote Control: Yes
Easy rolling casters for portability
Cooling input 1.37 Kw
Heating input 1.35 Kw
Air Circulation 360 Cu/m Hr
Noise: High Fan = less than 65db(A) / Low Fan = less than 50db(A)
Ozone friendly R290
Complete with 1.5 metres exhaust hose and window mounting board
Energy Rating A
UK 13Amp Plug
Exhaust Diameter = 152mm
Exhaust Diameter Max Length = 3metres
Approval Safety Certificate = CE / CB / EMC / LVD / ROHS
Room Temp Operating Range = 16c-31c
Dry Mode Minimum Room Temp = 18c
Min Cooling Set Temperature = 16c
Max Heating Set Temperature = 31c

ComicGeek

Efficiency (EER) is: 3.5 (cooling output) / 1.37 (electrical input) = 2.55 

Which is pretty typical for portable units. It is possible to get units with slightly higher efficiency, but they generally cost a few hundred pounds more, debatable whether you would get your money back over the life of the unit.

CRISPIANNE3

We got rid of our portable air conditioner because it was too expensive to run. I now have a Dyson fan for my bedroom and very pleased with the result. However did cost about £290.

ComicGeek

CRISPIANNE3 said:

We got rid of our portable air conditioner because it was too expensive to run. I now have a Dyson fan for my bedroom and very pleased with the result. However did cost about £290.

The Dyson fan doesn't provide actual cooling though, it just blows hot air around. Could have run the air con for lots of hours for £290!