Portable split air to air

QrizB

A few more thoughts on EERs and SEERs.

Here's the official energy label info, which is the only performance info I have for the three products I don't own (and my own data for the EH1960 is not something that would pass muster in a UKAS lab).

• Delonghi Pinguino EX100 - 2.5kW of cooling, EER of 3.6, power demand under test conditions (2500/3.6=) 694 watts (quoted as 0.7kW on the official energy label)
• Delonghi Pinguino EX105A+++ - 2.5kW of cooling, EER of 4.1, power demand under test conditions (2500/4.1=) 610 watts (quoted as 0.6kW on the official energy label)
• Premiair EH1960 portable split - 3.5kW of cooling, SEER of 5.6, power demand under test conditions (3500/5.6=) 625 watts (quoted as 219kWh/annum on the official energy label)
• Midea Portasplit-E - 3.5kW of cooling, SEER of 6.1, power demand under test conditions (3500/6.1=) 574 watts (quoted as 201kWh/annum on the official energy label)

As discussed previously, split systems aren't tested under the same conditions as single-ducts which is why they're assigned a SEER rather than an EER. The SEER uses a synthetic cooling season, the distribution of temperatures being as defined in Table 1 of the EU regulations that was linked a page or two ago, and the energy use is for 350 "on" hours during this season per Table 4 of the same regulations (0.625 x 350 = 219, 0.574 x 350 = 201).

The difference in energy use between all of these isn't going to be huge. At the current SVT of about 25p/kWh:

• For 100 hours of flat-out runtime, the two Pinguinos will will use 69kWh or 61kWh, a difference of 8kWh, which is about £2.
• For 100 hours (2/7ths) of a standard season, the two splits running flat out will use 63kWh or 57kWh, a difference of 6kWh, which is about £1.50.

It's tempting to compare the EX100s 69kWh to the Portasplit-E's 57kWh, but that's not fair on either of them since the standard test conditions are different which means the results aren't like-for-like. (I'll just note that it's 12kWh, £3. That's 3p/hr difference between the "best" and "worse" of the four.)

The energy used by the Pinguinos on test should be constant, while that used by the splits will vary as test conditions move through the seasonal outdoor temperature distribution. I don't know (because it's not measured during the test, or reported as part of the energy label) what EER the splits would deliver if tested under the same constant "indoor=outdoor=35C" conditions as the Pinguinos.

In extremes of temperature (like the record-breaking days we've seen recently) the splits will draw more power but will continue to deliver 3.5kW of cooling until their compressors hit 100% of rated power (the EH1960 manual says 1200 watts, so I must've been at or close to the max in the previous heatwave a couple of weeks ago). The single-ducts will continue to draw the same amount of power but will lose net cooling capacity due to ingress of outside air. Which you prefer is a matter of choice and circumstance.

And that's probably enough navel-gazing for one evening!

tfhnota

If the Met app was reporting temperatures accurately prices would be even higher, I guess, they had Torbay at 26 degrees at midday yesterday, my shaded house was 27 degrees inside and south facing garden 36 degrees... It is still "cool" enough to sleep at night and I have the option of decamping to one of the north facing rooms if it gets much hotter. My morning ambulations gave the impression of about 40 degrees and I was happy to get back home and strip off. I have lived in hotter countries and survived but at my age would not bother to revisit them but even there I much preferred to leave the air-conditioner rumbling away when I was out and returned to a chill room but slept under a fan rather than with the air-conditioner running.

QrizB

I'm sorry to hear you're finding it torrid, thfnota. Hopefully it won't last all that much longer; the forecast here for the coming week is 30/29/30/30/30/29/27 which is slightly cooler and promises to tail off next weekend.

This morning it's been overcast and a pleasant 17C to start. The cloud is now breaking up so it's time to close the windows and go back to hiding in the shade.

QrizB

A week on from my post of the 5th and how's it been?

Not too bad, to be honest.

As we're all slightly more acclimatised, I turned the temperature up on the split by 1C so we were maintaining indoor temperatures of 24-25C this past week rather than 23-24C. Also it hasn't yet reached the 34C that we saw in the last week of June.

From the 5th to 12th (today) my outdoor temperature sensor recorded daily highs of 29/30/31/32/33/33/31/30. Here's the chart of electricity used by my split up to the 11th:

The 10th (the second day of 33C highs) saw the highest use, probably because it never dropped below 21C overnight and I didn't open windows to use natural ventilation for cooling.

Today isn't on that chart as I can't fit eight days on the screen of my phone 😬 but it looks like we'll be around 7kWh for the day, more than on the 7th but less than the 8th (which were 6.6 and 7.5 respectively).

Just for comparison, my office at work (not air conditioned, windows facing NE) was getting up to 30C by mid-afternoon. My home has been significantly cooler than that.

The coming week looks to be a bit cooler than the last. I'm planning to continue using the split much as I have done this week, and will report back on how we get on.

QrizB

I linked earlier to a Washington Post article about Europe's surge in air conditioner purchases and the remarkable popularity of the Midea Portasplit.

Now the BBC has written an article about it:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c86262j7j75o?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

I think I would agree that the Midea Portasplit is better styled than my Premiair EH1960, the smart home integration on the Portasplit is better, and it claims a slightly higher SEER. Nevertheless I'm happy with my Premiair (which is sold under half a dozen other brand names in other EU countries).