air con help

[peterlondon]

Hi all.
In brief,the other halfs sister lives in cali.colombia.
She stage four lung cancer.....never smoked either
We speak everyday on skype and tonight she was so hot and bother,she does not have aire con.
Difficult for us as we are not round the corner,
Can somebody tell if s portsble on 110 will kick out enough cooling.The most powerfull I have seen being 5000btu or is best to get a 220 installed and have a split.We are very stressed because she is so uncomfortable.
Many thanks pete

 

[danemodsandy]

Pete:

A 5000 B.T.U. unit will generally cool one room. It will perform best if windows are shut tight, curtains drawn and doors to the room closed.

I am not familiar with air-conditioners available in Colombia, but here in the United States, 110-volt units are available in sizes up to about 13,000 B.T.U. Perhaps something similar is available there. A unit that size will generally cool two largish adjacent rooms.

I hope this helps a bit. I am sorry to hear that the young lady is suffering so.

 

[hydralique]

One important consideration is what sort of 120v circuits are available. As noted above air conditioners much larger than 5000 BTU are available for 120v circuits, but be careful of the rated current draw for the a/c unit. If you don't have a good 20 amp circuit without much additional load then the breaker may blow frequently. The smaller 5000-6000 BTU units are generally cheap and easy to handle so two of those might be a solution if two decent circuits are available. If an additional circuit is needed then might as well add a 240v one for a larger air conditioner.

 

[peterlondon]

Air con

@ Sandy and Hydralique
Thank you guys,We have looked at what is available and it would seem window units maybe a solution.
So difficult as we are so far way..
Anyways spoke to some people today and hopefully things will be in place by the end of the week,and this poor lady gets some comfort.Thanks again
pete

 

[gus]

A/C

My two pence. I think IMHO that a split 12.000 BTU would cope with big rooms (UNDER CERTAIN LIMITS), and the consumption shouldn't be higher than 1.200 watts. Those machines are quite silent and effective, far more than single window units, which usually are far less efficient and far more noisy. I assume Colombia is a tropical country so 5.000 BTU won't be enough and two units would be too noisy and expensive in electricity consumption. If you can afford a higher price there are those split units with CONVERTER system which the rate consumption is 40 % lower than regular splits. 220 volts should be the normal rate for Colombia, I assume, like the rest of Latin America except some areas in Brazil. Good luck with the A/C and God bless the young lady. Gus from Montevideo.

 

[thomasortega]

I'm not sure about the weather in Colombia but, if it's like here in Iguassu, a portable A/C will do nothing, but a lot of noise and waste energy.

99% of the new air conditioners sold in South America are split type starting at 12.000 BTU/H but, most people prefer to buy at least 18.000 BTU/h because the price difference is insignificant (less than 20 dollars in some cases)

 

[peterlondon]

splits

Hi Gus and thank you for taking to time to reply.
In her place not possible 220 at the moment,so we have dicided on the window units a being a quick temp fix.Its looking like damian will have to go very shortly and he can organise the bigger juice,but in the meantime she will have a bit of comfort at least.
So so distressing when you cant just do things now now now,
Anyways buy the end of the week something will be installed and then we can look into getting work done for a 220 supply
Many thanks again
pete

 

[thomasortega]

Oh yes, i forgot to mention, there are the window types that are also popular...

 

[supersuds]

Gus, you made me curious, so I looked it up. Colombia, along with Venezuela, Ecuador, and Surinam, uses 120 volts/60 Hertz. As you say, parts of Brazil do as well; Bolivia uses 120 volts/50 Hertz.

Much of the rest of South America is on 220 volts/50 Hertz, but Peru is 220 volts/60 Hertz!

Quite a confusing mix of standards.

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[hydralique]

Humidity . . .

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One important thing to remember with regard to capacity is whether or not humidity is an issue. I don't know anything about the climate in Columbia but if it's tropical or semi-tropical then humidity may be a bigger issue than just plain heat much of the time. This is critical as to a degree dehumidification is determined more by the amount of time the unit runs than the size of the unit; an oversized unit will cool to the desired temperature too rapidly and then shut off leaving the house unpleasantly sticky. The only way to address this is to turn the thermostat down to keep the unit going but you end out with a room that is acceptably dry but too cold. This used to be a problem in the South and particularly the Gulf Coast of the US: it can be 100 degrees during the day but 80 and very humid at night.

 

With a sophisticated central system today there are multi-speed compressors and condenser fans that can adjust capacity to conditions but simpler window units don't do this. For this reason two might be a better solution than one; in cooler temperatures only one need be turned on and by running for a longer period of time it will dehumidify more evenly.

 

 

[gus]

Supersuds, I really didn't know there were so many different electric ranges in South America, since Argentina, Chile and Uruguay we're all 220 volts, I assumed the rest would be the same!. But we say in Spanish "live and learn", and this is a real thing in this case.
I hope, Peter, you can solve your sister's A/C problem, and again my best wishes for her health. Gus.