I already have a window AC unit… It’s 5-6 years old, and even a brand new one wouldn’t help me in the situation I’m in… I like my room at about 50 degrees F, which was no problem a few weeks ago. I constantly have my vent closed off, and I only turn the furnace on in the morning, get it up to about 70, I turn it off for 24 hours, and use a space heater, since I’m always in the same spot.
When it was 50-60 degrees outside, the window AC won’t really do anything, because it’s not hot enough to exchange hot-to-cold.
Years ago, I remember this party store (now out of business) had a unit that didn’t need exhaust, but you did have to empty the tray on the bottom that would fill up with water. I went on Amazon, and kept finding “AIr conditioner/evaporative/etc”, and the reviews didn’t even mention keeping a small room cold/freezing. Most of the messages were how “I got dry fast”, or “The LED light is soothing” - light bothers me, and I foil my windows to avoid any light.
Any help, links, titles would be appreciated. I’m convinced part of my insomnia is due to the weather. I woke up at least 5 times in the middle of the night, but I set a record in December for going about 30 days of good sleep because it was freezing in the room. I wake up in the middle of every night to urinate, and a big problem is falling back asleep, but when its freezing, bundling up and some imagination made it pretty easy to fall back asleep for a few more hours.
That sounds like a dehumidifier unit rather than an air conditioner. A dehumidifier actually adds heat to the room, but the lower humidity may mean you feel more comfortable and the room might feel cooler since the air is drier. It can also help the central AC units be able to cool the room better since they don’t have to cool off all that water in the air. I’m not sure a dehumidifier would help all that much in your bedroom.
They do have bed air conditioners which may help. Some of them blow cool air under your sheets and others have a mattress pad with tubes that circulate cool water. Maybe something like that would help your sleep.
I don’t think a ventless ‘A/C’ get close to 50 degrees unless you chill the water. Also, consider the spike of humidity in your room. I’d go for a more powerful window unit.
Air conditioning–whether portable, window, or central–is typically not designed to cool the indoor air to less than about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. If I understand properly, it is a limitation of the refrigerant used in AC units. Obviously it’s possible to lower the temperature more than that, since refrigerators and freezers do it regularly. But they use different refrigerants. You’d have to essentially turn your bedroom into a walk-in cooler at a cost of several thousand dollars for the installation and I shudder to think what operating costs.
There could be a simpler solution. For example, freeze a lot of ice in your freezer during the day (or buy bags of ice at the store) and run a fan over it at night, over a drip pan. I’d start with a gallon or two of ice (7.5 or 15 pounds) and adjust the amount and fan speed as necessary. Note that the freezer running extra hard during the day will increase the temperature inside your home. That’s just how freezers work: they cool the freezer compartment but warm the ambient air.
Am I the only one confused? 50 degrees F is very unusually cold for ‘room temperature.’ Do you like the room to be 50 and then you use a space heater to have a warmer area?
Is the space heater to get your local area up to 50?
Buy a waterbed and don’t buy a heater or mattress pad. Your body heat will never be enough to warm up all that water and you will sleep cold every night.
It was probably colder than that a month ago, when it would hit -5 F.
I use the space heater so the furnace never turns on. As I said earlier, when I first wake up, I turn the heater from 60 to 70 for about an hour, since my little space heater isn’t enough, and I don’t want to wear it out, whereas the furnace can heat the place up real quickly.
I keep my bedroom door closed, covering the vents (knowing there will always be leakage), and I also have a huge bed sheet to separate my living room (where I have the space heater) to my kitchen, since I don’t care about the temperature there, especially since I spend a few seconds there getting food… I have a second bedroom, and I throw a bunch of clothes to avoid waste.
I appreciate all the suggestions, too, thanks so much.
This is basically how we built our own AC in college. Get a good sized Ice chest and use a hole saw to cut two 2" holes in the side about 2" from the bottom. Get some 2" pvc and silicone it into the holes then attach a 2" x 4" nipple and some dryer vent hose. Fill the ice chest with ice and put a box fan on top so that it blows down into the ice. Aim the vent hoses wherever you’d like cold air. We did it in the middle of summer and we could lower a room by 20 degrees for an entire afternoon which was much cheaper than running the ac.
Years ago I was in a “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” kind of mood. I lived that winter keeping my thermostat set at 50. I froze at night. I was sleeping in a three season sleeping bag, but getting up for a bathroom run was very uncomfortable.
Have you tried a weighted blanket? I used to sleep under three heavy blankets and would get overheated at night. My 16 lb cool blanket wraps around me like a tight hug and I don’t get overheated.
I had to look up what a “weighted blanket” meant, and still not sure, but I’ve had the same blanket for 22 years, and it’s comfortable and never overheats me. It’s one of those that work fine in winter and summer.
Yesterday, it didn’t get colder than 40 degrees, and I slept awfully… Today, the low is 60 (ahhhh!)
I found a Portable Floor Unit Air Conditioner, but will it be any different from a window AC unit? Yesterday’s low around here was in the 60 F range… I’ve been up since 3:30am, and this migraine is killing me… This unit is $200, which is a LOT of money, but it might save me in the long run.
Window AC units won’t help at all, because in order for the coils to be activated, it needs to be much hotter than 60 F… When it’s 80 degrees outside, there’s an exchange from hot to cold…Another problem I anticipate is remembering someone who had something that is basically exactly alike in a place of business, and it didn’t help one bit, and might have made things worse, but I remember reading the awful reviews, so it might just be the company or specific model?
That gizmo won’t get as cold as you like. It’s a basic evaporative cooler. There’s a tray on top where you can place ice, to lower the temp a little bit more. Emphasis on “little.”
The waterbed suggestion is magnificent. Folks that generate massive amounts of body heat often sleep directly on the mattress itself.
For immediate relief, look for a “Chillow.” It’s a pillow filled with gel. You can refrigerate it, then take it to bed with you at night.
Anything that does not have a vent to the outside will ultimately make your room warmer overall - as the mechanism that removes heat from the air has to send the heat somewhere. There is a net gain in heat. A window A/C unit cools the room by dumping the excess heat outside.
When your room is 60 degrees, do you bundle up so you’re not feeling that temperature directly? e.g. your face (and maybe hands / feet) are the only things feeling the cool? If so, the Chillow - and maybe a fan pointed at your feet - might well be your solution. I would worry that an investment in a waterbed might make you feel TOO cold because an uninsulated, unheated waterbed can really suck the heat out of you.
We used to have a waterbed, and it was fine year-round, but it had a substantial layer of padding between the mattress and our bodies. We were comfortable in it with the heat turned off in the summer, and in the winter it let us keep the room cool but turn the heat up in the waterbed.
I googled “Chillow” and there are several full-mattress cooling systems available, that would be less of a hassle than a waterbed. No clue how well they work and the two links I got seem to be different products from the same company: Option 1 and option 2. There’s a link on their page to a Consumer Reports article that mentions several other brands. One of those, the BedJet, wouldn’t meet your needs though interestingly, it mentions a heating function that is much like something they used when my husband was in recovery after surgery - basically blew warmed air under the blanket to warm him up.
I definitely bundle up. I turned my heat down to 45 F the last few days, so when I wake up, I’m strictly using the space heater, and maybe the furnace for about 10 minutes, since it is freezing. My fingertips were pretty cold, but I got enough sleep the last two nights.
I used to have a waterbed years ago… But moved out.
I just paid $165 on a window AC unit. I’m going to let the 3rd one rest; currently I had been using it only for the sound of the fan, pointing away from me, because I don’t like it blowing on me. I’ll even put my blankets to the side, so my bed is extra cold when I go to bed.