Portable Air Conditioners: The ugly side of coolness

[petek]

I couldn't stand it any longer. This house only had 1 Mr. Slim a/c that cooled the living/dinin/kitchen/family rooms but the bedrooms upstairs had nothing. The weathers been up in the 90's and humid which put me down in the basement to sleep. Unfortunately all the bedrooms have sliding windows so I wasn't going to get away with a couple of $100 window a/c's and those vertical a/c's have almost disappeared and what there is costs a lot more than a horizontal. So I decided to buy two of these newer portable units, both 10000 BTU's. But just look at how UGLY they are.. makes me want to cry. They do work well though and the two of them keeps all of the upstairs 3 bedrooms and two bathrooms cool plus I think it takes some of the strain of Mr.Slim downstairs. The other downside to them is that even on low they are noisy. I can tolerate it but the other half doesn't like it. I don't care I was just sick of soaking wet pillows..

 

[red_october]

Agreed.

That is visually abhorent.
I still long for a Fedders with a "Weather Wheel", and my Coldspot still frustrates me with motor problems, but at least it's attractive!

 

[scott55405]

Well Pete I have to agree that comfort comes first. At first I was a little taken aback that you don't have central air since you said your area was humid, but now I see you have baseboard heat. My sister had that in her last house and she had to somehow have central air put in the attic and there were outlets in the ceiling.

Anyway, I'm glad you have a workable solution. What brand is yours? You can make the regular a/cs work with sliding windows as a number of people in my area have, but I'm not sure what all it entails.

It rarely gets too warm and humid here, but if it does again I will get one of these at the Home Depot. I don't want a regular window a/c since I'd use it so little I don't want to give up one of my windows the other 360 days of the year. This year, I've barely used a fan though much less worry about an a/c.

 

[petek]

On the plus side though it's tres simple to just pop out that frame holding the vents in the window and roll it out of sight when not needed. Takes 2 seconds since it's only the being held there by the window pressing it against the frame. Not very secure for a ground level window though.

A design "fault" too is the vent pipe that exhausts the hot air..it's the one on the right that goes over top... it gets very very warm, almost hot. So in effect it's adding back some of the heat it's supposed to be removing. Course the pictures on the box and promo material dont show them set up like this,, always beside a low window so the vent pipes aren't drawn out that much, almost invisible behind the units.

 

[petek]

Scott, if you do get one, make sure it has the two vents and the most BTU's,, I think the biggest is 12,000. The single vent models are cheaper but since they're exhausting the hot air they have to make up that air in the room by sucking in warm air from elsewhere, the two vent models don't do that since they have a fresh air intake, a closed loop so to speak.

 

[sudsmaster]

Petek,

Well at least you got the dual hose variety, which are far more efficient than the single hose type.

My home also has sliding windows, but I've been able to fit a common horizontal window A/C unit in them. It took a little metal work (not much) but it's working pretty well.

That said, the 5300 BTU Daewoo units I installed are also quite loud, mostly from the fan up front. But it's no worse than a floor standing fan on high. At least they are 10.7 EER and eligible for a $50 rebate from PG&E. The compressor itself seems relatively quiet from the inside.

The key is that the Daewoo units have screw mounting holes on the sides that allowed me to attach aluminum angle brackets to help hold the units to the edges of the windows. I have noticed that other units (such as from Sharp) may not have the same mounting holes.

If you like I'll post some photos of the installation.

 

[petek]

Forgot,, it's a Danby, made in China naturally. Most people here do have central a/c. One of my neighbors also with hot water heat had one like you describe put in the attic or something with vents to each room. That's on my list for future but this was the cheaper quick fix.

 

[scott55405]

Thanks Pete for the info! Sleep well in the cool air!

 

[foraloysius]

Welcome to portable airconditioning! Yes, you are lucky to get the double hose types, overhere they are very rare. Can you tell I am jealous? LOL! Ugly they are indeed, but it's better than to soak at night. The baseboard heat, is that electric?

 

[petek]

Louis, I'm sure you'll be seeing more soon as China cranks them out by the millions. The single hose models have been around a few years but still haven't been that common. I suppose because they're fairly expensive when you can get a small window a/c for as little as $100 and a big one for about $300. Now the prices are dropping and the two hose models are getting more and more. Most salespeople though don't even seem to be aware of the difference.. that's what I found when I was shopping around, they were all pretty clueless.

 

[tolivac]

We have two of those machines at where I work still in boxes-don't know what they are going to use them for?probably emergency cooling of small manned areas?Or the satellite receive equipment room.Better to be ugly than sweating!They certainly won't replace the two 250 ton capacity chiller units we use here.Had to reset them after a bad storm last night!You REALLY sweat in here if those chillers aren't going-and their associated fans,pumps.

 

[red_october]

500 tons of cooling is a lot! What is it used for? Sounds like you work at a radio or TV station???

 

[tolivac]

Yes-I work at a shortwave radio station transmitter site-mid shift.All is quiet-hope it stays that way.Been fixing transmitters the past week.One chiller cools the front office area of the building-the other the operator transmitter areas.-the transmitter site control room-fronts of the transmitter halls,and the shift super office.In the Wash DC plant they had 6,000 tons of chiller capacity.Trane Monsters.Had to use one my mid shift there to cool the areas I worked in and equipment.Both in Wash DC and NC summer nights are still hot and humid!And oh yes the transmitters and other equipment put out heat -that will cook you as well.Also the Black Widow spiders LOVE the hot transmitter blower rooms.Sometimes snakes get in the place as well-they like the warm pump rooms.

 

[red_october]

Industrial chillers are great... when my dad was in the Air Force he worked with SAGE, a massive and mighty vacuum tube computer (the fastest one ever built, and the progenitor of most modern computing technologies including pointing devices, networks, (both LAN and WAN), and so forth). The building had no heat as the tubes could keep it warm in any weather, no matter where it was located (as there were many), but one of the floors of the blockhouse was entirely air conditioning, if I remember correctly! I have no idea how many tons it pulled but it was certainly quite a few.

 

[tolivac]

The site I work at was designed in the fifties and built in the early 60'ssome of the equipment is over 60years old-working antiques!The newest is about 18yrs old.funny-the newer ones have to be fixed more than the older transmitters.Other transmitters here are about 40yrs old-running them now.This building does have heat-two Cleaver Brooks boilers.With all the heat our transmitters put out theboilers wouldn't be needed when the transmitters are on.Other transmitter buildings I have worked in use the tranmsitter heat in the winter-in summer the heat was blown outside.

 

[foraloysius]

Pete,

We have some models overhere, but they are very very expensive. I can't believe there has to be a difference of several hundreds of euros for a few different pieces of plastic and an extra hose.

Most salespeople are indeed pretty clueless, I was in a store once to ask about the dual hose types and they didn't know what I was talking about. It appeared they had one in the store...

I'll wait for the cheaper Chinese ones, still a pity that we can't have the window airconditioners overhere.

 

[gansky1]

In my first townhouse, and the home I grew up in, we didn't have central a/c and had to use window units in sliding windows just like you have. We bought the window a/c and had a glass window made for the space above the unit at a glass company. It was a small aluminum frame with a rubber seal around the glass - much like a storm window. It worked perfectly as it was custom-sized to the opening and a snap to install. We used a small length of dowel or old broomstick cut and laid in the track of the slider to keep the window closed. All of this was still not the most attractive arrangement, but it worked and we stayed cool. Your new machine is also not attractive, but if installation is a snap then you're money and time ahead.

 

[veg-o-matic]

Pete, why don't you paint it turquaz and add a little fake woodgrain? Then it'll coordinate nicely with that Kenmore vac!

veg

 

[fa_f3_20]

Computers and air conditioning, or lack thereof

I worked for Gould back in the '80s. At the time they were making minicomputers out of ECL technology. It was the fastest digital logic technolgy avaialble at the time, but it was also a notorious power sucker (it does computations by switching current instead of voltage). The larger, fridge-sized PN9000 systems had something like twelve 400-amp power supplies. One of the Gould developing buildings in Ft. Lauderdale had a big lab that took up most of the first floor, and had about 75 minicomputers in it. One day the chiller went off line, and it took that room about ten minutes to reach 95F, before they could get everything shut off.

A Gould service tech told me about a system that he had worked on at the CIA building in Langley. They had a PN9000 and some smaller systems in a small computer room. Over one weekend, the air conditioning quit, and nobody knew it until Monday moring. The room temperature reached 120F! They had to replace the PN9000... it got so hot that solder melted in spots on some of the boards and components fell out.

 

[petek]

Veg, the Kenmore Powermate is blue.... My new Sunbeam Electric can-opener, which arrived today btw is TURQUOISE and even more faboo than one could ever have anticipated, it's FAB squared....I'll put a codicil in my will leaving it to you upon my demise

 

[veg-o-matic]

BOOHOOHOO!

It's even prettier than I thought! And would look SO good in my yellow kitchen!

By the way, uh, how's your health?

veg

 

[countryguy]

Hey Pete,
I have electric baseboard heat also and thus no ducts throughout the house but a couple of years ago I finally had had enough of sweltering at night and not getting any restless sleep. So I splurged and bought a split ductless A/C system. It is sort of like central air. There is the air compressor and fan outside just like central air and mounted on the wall inside at ceiling height is the unit to blow the air. It is about 4 feet wide by 18 inches high by 8 inches deep. The unit is almost silent so makes for good sleeping and it does a great job of cooling. I had mine installed in the master bedroom. I have a fan in the hallway that blows the air towards the living/dining areas. The unit helps keep the whole house cool. The unit is not cheap though, cost me about $3000 installed for the 12,000 BTU unit (they come in different sizes). They've had these units in the USA for years but only recently have come to Canada.

Gary

 

[petek]

Veg, my healths fine, thanks for asking LOL

Gary..we have one of those mini splits already. A Mr. Slim by Mitsubishi, the previous owners had it installed a couple of years ago so they told me. Not sure how many BTU but it does a great job, the whole main floor also the family/laundry room on the next level. The stairs in the pic lead up to the bedrooms where there was nothing and where all the heat gathered. Our heating is gas hot water baseboards not electric. The boiler is ancient original to the house being built in 1957. I had a plumber in over the winter to install an air bleed valve and check it out for me seeing as I knew nothing about them and also to show me how to check it etc myself, money well spent. He said it's quite possible it will outlive me. I really like it, keeps the house evenly toasty warm, is quiet, and we don't seem to have much of any dust like we did with the forced air furnaces we've always had.
Here's a pic of the Mr. Slim a/c

 

[alr2903]

just a suggestion Pete

Maybe a little platform the same size as the base of unit, maybe lift it up a foot or two and a pair of 48 inch long lined drapes, your window treatment is nice but some second hand thermal lined drapes might hook you right up,for summer time cooling season, and help with hiding those tubes, I realize your cooling season is short compared to the south, by the time you go through all i mentioned, you could probably just live with it. Looks like a nice a/c unit qvc had something similar on the other night. alr2903.

 

[foraloysius]

Pete,

Nice unit. You see those split airconditioners overhere more and more. They come with 1 to 4 units. I was wondering how they get rid of the moisture they get out of the air.

 

[midmer455]

Mini Split AC

Hello Everyone ..
Here's is a picture during the install of the Sanyo mini split system during the remodel of the kitchen (actually the entire house was remodeled). Power, refrigerant, and condensate drains are covered by the small plastic duct you see to the left of the unit. Painted to match the wall it is almost invisible. Excellent systems and the use of several units allows effective zoning. Use them to AC the entire house as there is no room for air handlers without giving up a lot of space. Use an Ultra boiler for the 4 zone HW heat. Not inexpensive systems but work very well with limited space for mechanical equipment.
Harry

 

[63getelevision]

Goodman

Here's a Goodman approximately 13,500 BTU mini split reverse cycle my mother had installed in 1998, it is under the dining area window (not a good place) because it was not possible to put it anywhere up higher in this house, for various reasons. I use a Wexford column fan and two table fans on the floor to spread the cool around. There is a window unit in each of the larger bedrooms, someone left the fan on in the back bedroom air conditioner, and due to my not being able to access it for several months, something died. It is a remanufactured Fedders, my old room has a working Whirlpool.

 

[exploder3211]

Curuious
What died? A plant or a cat or a person or? Am still tired.. May need to read later

 

[petek]

Eventually I hope to have another mini split with either multiple vents, one for each bedroom or a central, what they call "ceiling cassette" installed in the hallway up there. The ceiling cassette is basically the wall mount unit but squared and mounted flush into the ceiling. Not sure if this old house has enough space on the current electrical box to handle another one, so there's probably another expense getting that upgraded. Still in all, the longer you wait the cheaper these things become and the prices are already starting to drop dramatically from what they were a few years ago. Lot's of Chinese makers entering the market for them.

 

[countryguy]

The split A/C unit that I have is for A/C only but you can get them for both A/C and heating purposes. They also come in different BTU sizes - mine is one of the smaller ones. And finally you can get ones where there is one compressor outside but up to 4 units mounted inside so you could have them in different areas of the house.

Gary