Portable split air to air

QrizB

There are various warnings on the internet that placing foil indoors close to double-glazed sealed units can cause them to fail.

Having said that, I've covered windows with aluminium foil in the past without any apparent problems. And I'm using some of that silvered bubble insulation for that in some of my south-facing windows now.

Effician

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82049734#Comment_82049734

You don't place it inside that just creates a very hot internal pane on double glazing so still warming the room . it goes outside like external shutters ( which have been around for centuries ) to stop the solar gain from ever hitting the glass.

Martyn1981

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82049521#Comment_82049521

But the same A/C units are great for heating the house through the winter at high efficiency.

Effician

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82049800#Comment_82049800

I don't need a/c now or for winter thanks . a decent a/c unit would likely cost me as much as 3 yrs electric usage would & approx 1 cubic meter of wood is all the fuel we need for heating . Don't get me wrong i have more than enough money for all you're geen efficient techy type stuff , i just think in most cases it's not needed & just an added unnecessary drain on the planets resources.

Martyn1981

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82049833#Comment_82049833

I don't think there's enough wood to go round, but there is enough wind and solar. And besides:

Fossil fuel price surges can lead to worse air quality, study finds

QrizB

Portable split diary, day six. Probably the final day (I can hear you cheering at the back).

A milder day, more-or-less as forecast. As previously mentioned the unit was switched off from ~0300 to ~0800 as outside temperatures were below 20C and I opened some windows to get natural ventilation, for the first time in a week or so.

Looking at my sensor logs the outdoor low was just under 19C, at 0600 while the high was just under 30C, at 1300.

Indoor temperatures have mostly been below 24C; my bedroom exceeded this a little while we were sleeping once I turned the aircon off at 0300.

Energy use so far today has been 11.7kWh. I haven't seen instantaneous power exceed 850 watts all day, and it's currently purring along at around 400 watts.

I'm planning to add a review of the week once the numbers are in tomorrow; on the whole, though, I've been grateful for the unit and pleased by the (relatively) low energy use.

tfhnota

I am rather annoyed that my electric bill has gone up 10p for the last five, heated, days, due to the fridge I would guess and maybe more time at the computer monitor than outside, not impressed with the efficiency of this portable a2a, judging by its energy consumption. I have celotex inside my south facing windows, too, max house temp has been 28C but less in the north facing rooms. No open windows during the hot part of the day. I am as far down south as you can get without living on a boat and my south facing garden gets scorched above met office temps and more than five minutes there I would start to toast. Humidity is literally off the scale, but that is nothing new. The bedroom is cool enough in the night to sleep without a fan.

matt_drummer

How much are the `distribution' fans using each day?

QrizB

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82050631#Comment_82050631

It's not immediately clear who you're asking this question of.

If it's me, there are two fans. The pedestal fan is about 30 watts but is sharing the power supply via the monitoring plug to the portable split, so that's already accounted for in the results I've posted.

The second is a 9" desk fan which is about 10 watts but I don't have any monitoring on that.

QrizB

Ok, here's the summary for the week.

I switched the portable split on some time during Sunday the 21st, and didn't switch it off again until just after 2200 on Saturday the 27th. Here is the chart of electricity used during that period, per my (uncalibrated, no-brand) ZigBee energy monitoring smart plug. As mentioned in the previous post, this includes the power used by my pedestal fan which I'd estimate to be around 0.6kWh/day. The smart plug thinks this totals 92kWh.

During this period the south of England has set new daily temperature records for June on three occasions. My own (uncalibrated, no-brand) sensors recorded daily highs of 29/30/33/34/34/33/30 for the week in question.

Throughout this period my bedrooms, hall, and lounge/diner have all been kept to 25C or less (the bedrooms generally 23-24C). Switching the unit off for an hour at a time for Octopus Saving Sessions saw temperatures rising by 1C during that hour, with that gain being reversed in the two hours following the session.

I'm very happy with how it's performed. Compared to my previous single-hose air conditioner it's been much more effective at keeping the bedrooms cool, quieter and more energy efficient (I never ran it for 24h straight but estimate it would have used 25-30kWh if I had done so).

If you ignore EV charging, my household has still been a net exporter of electricity during this week.

The energy cost to me has been in the region of £10, largely from missed export payments during daylight hours. I think it's been worth it; obviously YMMV.